Category: Dealing with the Past

Journey Towards Healing: Should Northern Ireland Recover the Biblical Practice of Lament?

image Last week’s conference at the Europa Hotel in Belfast, Journey Towards Healing: Trauma and Spirituality – an International Dialogue, has stimulated debate about a variety of issues that faith leaders and health professionals might fruitfully address together in post-conflict transitions. … Read more...

Do Acknowledgement & Apology have a Role to Play in Northern Ireland?: New Post on Slugger O’Toole

image I have a new post on Slugger O’Toole called, ‘Journey Towards Healing: Do Acknowledgement and Apology have a Role to Play in Northern Ireland?’ It’s the second in a series of posts about the conference, ‘Journey Towards Healing: Trauma and … Read more...

Are the churches in Northern Ireland Uninterested in Post-Violence Reconstruction?: New Post on Slugger O’Toole

imageI have a new post on the Slugger O’Toole blog, titled ‘The Churches in Northern Ireland are Uninterested in Post-Violence Reconstruction – Prof. John Brewer.’ The post is based on Brewer’s keynote address at this week’s conference, ‘Journey Towards Healing: … Read more...

Listening Process in Down and Connor: New Post on Slugger O’Toole

imageI have a new post called ‘Listening Process in Down and Connor: What are People in the Irish Catholic Church Saying’ on the Slugger O’Toole blog. It describes my experience at last night’s ‘listening session’ at Clonard Monastery in … Read more...

Is Irish Catholicism an Irrelevant Minority Culture? New Post on Slugger O’Toole

image I have a new post called, ‘Is Irish Catholicism and Irrelevant Minority Culture? Archbishop Diarmuid Martin’s Cambridge Speech,’ on the Slugger O’Toole blog. … Read more...

The Irish Catholic Church’s Liturgy of Lament and Repentance: Restoring Hope?

image On Sunday in Dublin’s St Mary’s Pro Cathedral, representatives of the Irish Catholic Church finally put the full symbolic resources of their faith into a special liturgy of lament and repentance for victims and survivors of clerical sexual abuse.

Reports … Read more...

Is Egypt Possible in Zimbabwe?: Guest Post by Fr Michael Bennett

image The seemingly successful and relatively peaceful people’s revolution in Egypt has prompted commentators to ask if these events could spark similar movements elsewhere.

That’s a question that has been articulated in what remains of Zimbabwe’s independent media, as illustrated in … Read more...

New Post on Slugger O’Toole: How is Northern Ireland Dealing with the Present?

image I have a new post on the Slugger O’Toole blog, called ‘Dealing with the Present?: Is Northern Ireland Addressing the Needs of Victims and Survivors?’

(Image, the four original victims commissioners)… Read more...

Is the Irish Catholic Church Starting to Listen? New Post on Slugger O’Toole

image I’ve written a new post on the Slugger O’Toole blog, titled: ‘Is the Irish Catholic Church Starting to Listen?’

(Image: Bishop Noel Treanor at the Commissioning Service for the lay facilitator of the Diocese of Down and Connor’s ‘Listening … Read more...

Fr Brian D’Arcy on Terry Wogan: Rebuilding Ireland’s Shattered Faith?

image The recent two-part BBC series, Terry Wogan’s Ireland, chronicled Wogan’s return to this island to explore his Irish roots. Christianity featured prominently in the series, including a visit to the school where Wogan had Catholicism hammered into him (it … Read more...