On 11 October 1962, the Second Vatican Council opened, and a year later, Sacrosanctum concilium changed the Church’s liturgy. It was expected by most of the bishops that it would ratify a series of documents prepared by the curia covering a raft of issues – but in essence, this was seen as an exercise in Read more
The word synodality has been around a year or so now and people are still asking what it really means — for them, of course. The last time the church said it was going to make changes was in 1965. Fifty-eight years ago. In the meantime, all the changes to be seen were basically meaningless Read more
There is probably no pope in all of history — certainly not in the last 400 some years — who served so briefly as Bishop of Rome and yet had such an immense impact on the Catholic Church as John XXIII. [That’s leaving aside Sixtus V. He’s the hard-nosed pope who, in just five years Read more
Variously described as a maverick, a “kick-arse dude in a robe” and an “anti-Catholic lowlife”, the Catholic priest Father Bob Maguire became the darling of the people – and the media – for his community work and his often acerbic statements delivered with humour, irreverence and hyperbole. Maguire, who has died aged 88, defiantly and Read more
Catholic traditionalists attached to the Old Latin Mass have their rosaries beads in a knot again over Pope Francis’ latest move to strictly curtail use of the Tridentine Rite, the complex and heavily rubricised ritual that pre-dated the liturgical reform mandated by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). The pope, on February 20, ordered the Dicastery Read more
One could easily lose count of how many books have been published — or about to be published posthumously by Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI. And there are the books by those bishops and cardinals who refer to the late pope and former doctrinal chief in support of their views on the issues at the center of Read more
The image of “the pilgrim People of God” used at the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) was intended to be a biblically-rich vision to replace the vision of the Church as an “unequal hierarchical society” (societas inaequalis hierarchica). Yet few organizations have such hierarchically clear levels. The clue is in the name: the Church claims to Read more
James Joyce once described Kingstown Pier as a “disappointed bridge”. Now known as Dun Laoghaire, it is also where most passenger ships arrive at and leave from Dublin both then and now. The idea of the Kingstown Pier as a disappointed bridge, unable to go all the way across the Irish Sea, says much about Read more
These days, Catholic intellectuals open the op-ed pages of the New York Times with the same dread they once had for the threatening, unsigned editorials of the official newspaper of the Vatican, L’Osservatore Romano. Except that we’re not talking about condemnations emanating from the pope. Instead, the condemnations found in world beacon of the liberal Read more
The most substantive change in the last sixty years has been the renewal of the Sacred Liturgy and its sacramental rites adapted to our languages and cultures. We have two great gifts from the Council: first, the treasury of the Sunday and weekday lectionaries so that God’s Word will fill our days and minds; and Read more