Occasional Scribbles

The Vatican has appointed Greg Burke from Fox News to its press office. Fox News is owned by Murdoch Corp, which has been found to have be...

The piece below is a letter from the Dominicans in Paraguay about current political developments in the country. International newspapers ...

Pope Benedict in his address to the pilgrms at Croke Park used the word 'mystery' when referring to the child sex abuse scandal in t...

This column appears in this week's Independent News and Media Irish regional newspapers. By Michael Commane Legionaries of Christ...

The piece below is the 'Thinking Anew' column in today's Irish Times. My father was 95 when he died. He was swimming in the se...

 Bruno Cadoré  Below is a letter from the Master of the Dominican Order, Bruno Cadoré, to Dominicans around the world. This med...

Surely today's Gospel reading is some sort of 'Beware' notice concerning people who, prance about in clerical gear. Jesus said...

Gdansk, Lviv, Poznan ..... This Friday the Germans will play the Greeks in 'Danzig'. On Saturday German television told its vi...

On June 17 1953 there were popular uprisings across the former GDR. Magdeburg, Halle, Görlitz, Leipzig. In Leipzig the crowds tried to disma...

Anyyone who reads today's Irish Times' report on the Vatican investigation into the Irish College in Rome will realise that the inst...

The second last post on this blog quotes an Australian archbishop who spoke at the International Eucharist Congress in Dublin yesterday. ...

Why is RTE going out of its way to mispronounce the German word 'Bundestag'? It is pronounced as it looks. There is no 'h'...

IEC Dublin 2012 Archbishop Emeritus of Perth in Western Australia James Hickey said yesterday at the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin:  ...

Fr Ted creator had insight. Channel 4 is currently showing a Fr Ted series. The similarities between the show and the 'real thing...

All week the Irish Times has carried a series on the Catholic Church in Ireland. In one report it quoted an Irish Times/IpsosMRBI survey t...

At a press conference today a German assistant trainer used the word 'Stahlhelm' when referring to tomorrow's game in 'Lembe...

The Irish Dominicans elected today Gregory Carroll as provincial. The 64-year-old is from Naas in Co. Kildare. The term is for four years.

There is something 'ironic' about everything to do with the German team playing in this month's Euro2012 in Poland and Ukraine. ...

The Irish Dominicans are due to elect a new provinical tomorrow. The term lasts four years. Every four years a 'chapter' convenes ...

The letter below appears in today's INM Kerryman newspaper. It is unfortunate that William Crean did not read the piece with a keener ...

Paintings can delight the eye The column below appears in this week's INM Irish regional newspapers. By Michael Commane I cannot...

The German football team arrived in 'Danzig' today - on the birthday of Lukas Podolski, who playes for Germany and speaks Polish.

On May 27, 1942 Reinhard Heyrich was killed by Czech freedom fighters. Heydrich, the hangman from Halle, was one of Hiter's top murder...

Die Linke, the German Left Party, have elected 34-year-old Katja Kipping as their new leader at their party conference in Göttingen today.

Camelot has won the Epsom Derby. The first time a father son team has been triumphant in the blue riband classic. Nineteen-year-old Joseph...

The late John O'Gorman was a Dominican. He died of a heart attack in 2002. John taught mathematics in Newbridge Collge before going on t...

How can 'closeness to Jesus' be linked to priestly ordination? The old line 'custom and practice' is worth calling to mind...

There is a story in today's Irish Independent about leaks at the Vatican. "It's open warfare, with everyone against everyone ...

  What's the big fuss in the EU keeping tabs on us?  This column appears in thsi week's INM regional new...

Comments have been posted to this blog today. So far they have not been published. Is it possible for those who have posted the comments to ...

In the last 24 hours two readers of this blog wrote comments for publication. One comment was on the most recent post and the other commen...