Sr Helen Prejean has campaigned tirelessly for the abolition of the death penalty. She talks to Seán Murphy about the wrongful execution of innocents in the US.
Frederic Ozanam is known especially as the founder of the Society of St Vincent de Paul, an international voluntary Christian organisation noted for helping the poor. John Murray PP tells his story.
Pope John Paul II spoke of the brothers Sts Cyril and Methodius as ideal examples of the true missionary spirit – faithful to the traditions that formed them and yet endeavouring to understand the peoples to whom they were sent. Fr John Murray PP explains.
Archbishop of Dublin during the takeover of Ireland by the Normans and King Henry II, his efforts in the peace process and his frustration with King Henry probably caused his early death. Highly honoured at Eu in Normandy, France, where he died. Kevin Doran, parish priest of Glendalough, tells his [...]
This is a book about Opus Dei by an insider that is accessible to outsiders. Scott Hahn was a Presbyterian biblical theologian who met some members of Opus Dei and was attracted by their life and example to investigate further, eventually joining the group himself. This is his personal story. [...]
Louis Power gives an interesting outline drawing from myths, legends, historical and biblical sources about what happened to the 12 apostles after Pentecost.
Luigi Scrosoppi was an Oratorian priest, who with his brother ran an orphanage in Udine at a time when there was a strong anti-religious wind sweeping over Italy. Working and keeping his good humour through adversity, he became famous for miracles of healing after his death.
Arrupe would say: “See with the eyes of Christ, go wherever the need is greatest, serve the faith and promote justice as best you can, and you will find God!” Yet opposition to his vision, to his interpretation of the Ignatian charism, came from some Jesuits in Spain but also [...]
Joe Aston, fisherman and sailor, tells what inspires him to be a believer.
Edith Stein was canonised on October 11th 1998. She was a Jew who studied philosophy and then became an atheist, but through the example of the deep faith of a Protestant widow and her own reading of St Teresa of Avila, she became a Carmelite nun. At Auschwitz she was [...]
Mark Patrick Hederman OSB uses biography, art and liturgy as starting points for some creative writing. When we experience the world symbolically, he says, we find that the energy of God takes over as the operating fuel in our personalities.
We include here a short note on the steps on the road to canonisation.
Peter Higgins was a Dominican priest living at Naas, Co Kildare, who tried to protect English Protestants from attacks from Irish Catholics during the Rebellion of 1641. Arrested himself, he was put to death despite the protest of a Protestant minister whom he had saved.
Fr Brian Grogan SJ tells us about the life and times of Fr Pedro Arrupe SJ.
Tony Bolger tells a story about his father-in-law that encouraged his faith.
Hugo’s life was shattered, and was slipping quickly out of control. Then Providence – and some caring friends – intervened. The names and details have been changed in this true story.
Ambrose Tinsely, OSB edits this review of memories of Sr Eucharia Keane RSM
Cardinal François Nguyen Van Thuan died from cancer in September, 2002. In 1975 he was named coadjutor archbishop of Ho Chi Min (Saigon). Just three months later he was imprisoned by the communist government. He spent thirteen years in prisons of the regime, nine of them in solitary confinement. In his [...]
Alfred Delp was born in Mannheim, Germany, in 1907 and joined the Jesuits in 1926. After his ordination he worked as a journalist. During the war he became involved with a group envisioning a Germany free of Hitler….
Although she lived on for twenty-six years, Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity had an extraordinary sense of the three persons of the Trinity dwelling within her. John Murray PP tells her story.
James Cullen from New Ross, Co Wexford, was a secular priest in the diocese of Ferns before he joined the Jesuits. Founder of the Messenger he later devoted his enormous energies to working for the Pioneer League. Thomas J. Morrissey SJ tells his story.
Rob Clarke was born in 1956 in Wellington, New Zealand, the third eldest in a family of nine children. From an early age, I felt occasional stirrings towards God, but as I grew older, my life became filled by many competing interests – girls, alcohol, sport – and Mass ceased to [...]
Mattie sent us this story about his recovery for alcohol addiction and his love of the Rosary.
Dympna M. McMahon tells us how a casual encounter with a man on the bus changed her outlook.
On 24 March 1980, Archbishop Romero was assassinated while celebrating Mass. He was the most high-profile victim of El Salvador’s civil war between powerful landowners and the dispossessed. This tribute is by Haydee Rodriguez, who moved to the US from Guatemala in her early teens. While studying philosophy at Loyola [...]
Borther Roger founded an ecumenical monastic community at Taizé and initiated a spiritual movement of young people working for peace.
Charles de Foucauld spent his life searching for a way to be a brother to people of all religions – especially Muslims, Jews and Christians. He wanted to found a brotherhood dedicated to this, but is was only in 1933 that the Little Brothers of Jesus were set up on [...]
Frère Roger of Taizé was a unique inspiration in ecumenical action and in interacting with the youth of the world. Fr John Murray PP gives his impression of the man and his achievement.
Dr. Stephen J. Costello, philosopher, describes himself as a seeker, searching for God within the Catholic tradition. He explains his optic
‘When I hold the Host in my hands, it is really He who is holding me and all of us, challenging the terrorists and keeping us united in His boundless love.’ These words of Fr Ragheed Ganni were spoken as his testimony at the Italian Eucharistic Congress at Bari. The [...]
