One of the exciting developments within the Church during the past fifteen years is an explosion of new apologetics. I want to share with you the meaning of apologetics and a little about how it functions or can function today particularly in our work of...
WYD through the eyes of a new priest Is World Youth Day really worth the effort? Is WYD anything more than a glorified Catholic road show? Is it just a passing fad – a short- term pastoral bandaid – or does it really have an enduring role in the New Evangelisation of...
Is this the future? At the time in which I received the invitation to this Conference I was holding meetings with the priests of the Archdiocese of Dublin about the challenges that they face and their priorities in ministry today. During the debate one priest, half...
In 2002 I had a book published called Giving Sorrow Words, I wrote it because two women told me their stories about abortion within a week of each other. They were really suffering, still in shock. They had no idea abortion could do that to you. I wondered how many...
Believing in history I’d like to start with a proposition. Here it is: To be a Christian is to believe in history. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, I can tell you what I don’t mean. I don’t mean the “history of progress”, which has been the guiding faith in the West...
Living the mystery I have titled today’s talk, “The Priest as Evangelical Witness,” and in doing so am picking up on a point made the last time I addressed the ACCC (see, “Practice what you teach,” The Priest, November 2002 and “Believe what you read”, The Priest, May...
As an avid map-reader and navigator, I like to know where I am, so I can work out where to go next. This practical habit developed at the age of eleven, while steering dazed parents and a grizzling younger brother around post-War London, where we spent six months....