Lay theologian and lecturer at the Marino Institute of Education, Tony Hanna, explores the thorny problem of authority in the Church. He says himself: “The book is offered to all men and women who exercise, endure, rail against, submit to or grapple with authority. It is offered humbly and with [...]
D. Vincent Twomey SVD sees Mission Sunday as an opportunity to reflect on the question “Why mission?” and to think about what our response we can make.
Jesus walked lightly, as a pilgrim, on the land he lived in. Celine Mangan OP draws some lesson from Jesus way of life to how we can care for the earth.
Patrick D. writes: ‘But I say this to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’ (Mt. 5:44). I find this demand of Our Blessed Lord very, very hard to follow. I am tired of people walking over me. The more civil and subservient I am to [...]
Dervilla writes: Dear Father, I’m writing to you in despair. My daughter died suddenly and unprepared about a year ago. She hadn’t been to confessions for years although in the period before her sudden death she visited churches and lit candles most days. The priest assured me that she had [...]
Dr Michael Punch of the School of Sociology UCD analyses how as a society we got to where we are and how we might do something better.
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.
Edmond Grace SJ sheds some light on the questions about death from a grieving spouse.
Edmond Grace SJ sheds some light on the issue of forgiveness to a hurt and traumatised person.
My daughter’s school has decreed that the first Holy Communion group this year are to receive communion in their normal clothes with the family at Mass on any Sunday. We expected the usual white first Communion dress for our daughter. I remember my first communion day as such a happy [...]
In a thoughtful and provocative new book, Fr D. Vincent Twomey SVD assesses Irish Catholicism in past centuries and in our own time.
David Gaffney SJ proposes many ways in which we can de-clutter our own lives and assist people in need at no extra cost to ourselves.
Veneration of the Blessed Mother has been a central characteristic of the Catholic tradition. Noted theologian Lawrence Cunningham sketches out some fundamental elements for a renewed, contemporary Marian devotion.
In the course of one year, Anne O’Leary and her husband John suffered two miscarriages. Anne describes their terrible pain and tells why they are determined to keep on trying for a baby brother or sister for their son James.
There will be a judgment, but it will be merciful, says John Garvey, an Orthodox parish priest in New York and a columnist for Commonweal.
Pléann Peter McVerry an ceangal a chaithfidh a bheith ann idir an creideamh agus cearta na mbocht.
To launch the Dublin Diocesan Prayer Initiative, million selling Catholic composer John Michael Talbot led prayer through music events for over 2,000 people in Drumcondra, Bray and UCD in early November. Here he talks to Link-up about his background, his ‘search for the Church’ and the source of his music.
An interview with Liam Lawton, composer and performer of sacred and liturgical music, about music as a part of the symbolic language of worship.
When Irish Christians are captured and enslaved by a British chieftain, Coroticus, also a Christian, Patrick asserts the full power of his episcopacy to condemn this heinous act.
Michael Brundell O.Carm. takes note of Karl Rahner’s vision of the Church of tomorrow, a Church of sinners, shaken perhaps by the storms of history and of internal conflict, but still united in love of each other and love of the Church itself.
James McPolin SJ looks at the Exodus account of the liberation of the people of Israel and reads it as an expression of God’s will that all his people would be able to worship him freely, without suffering oppression or injustice.
James Mackey and Enda McDonagh edit this collection of essays to commemorate the 75th birthday of Garret Fitzgerald. The essays are on contemporary issues relating to church and state in Ireland, and the authors include Geraldine Smyth, Patrick Hannon and Dermot Lane.
Carmel Wynne warns that the problem of teenage drinking is exacerbated by the bad example of adults and by peer pressure, and she insists that this matter should be taken very seriously.
Mary Gaffney recalls the life of Msgr. Hugh O’Flaherty, the Irish priest who became known as the ‘Vatican Pimpernel’ for his remarkable work in saving thousands of Jews and Allied soldiers from the hands of the Nazis.
Sean O’Conaill draws attention to Christ’s stress on the importance of the individual, but he warns that this is radically different from present-day individualism. Instead, it is an invitation to join Christ on his “downward journey”.
Bill Long remembers spending Christmas with his friend Thomas Merton at the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemane, Kentucky.
The transcript of a 3R Productions Radio programme recounting the Pope’s visit to Ireland in September 1979.
Nurturing Children’s Religious Imagination is aimed at primary school teachers, parents and others as they set about responding to the challenges of religious education in the twenty-first century It is edited by Raymond Topley and Gareth Byrne.
Pat Connor explains how SVD and SSpS missionaries are working through VIVAT International to help the UN develop solutions to the world’s problems.
The murder in 1980 of one of the contemporary Church’s most prophetic and courageous champions of peace, justice and the rights of the poor is recalled by Dermot Keogh.
