Michael O’Sullivan SJ delivered one of the papers at the second European Conference on the Academic Study of Spirituality, which took place last week in London. His paper – “Gender, Narrative and Authentic Spirituality” – was centred on a case study concerning a 12-year-old victim of incest by a 15-year-old brother. Michael teased out the consequences of such a trauma ...

Richard O’Dwyer SJ writes from Sudan to share the shock of Irish people at the kidnapping in Darfur of GOAL worker Sharon Commins and her Ugandan colleague. The people of Darfur have suffered terribly over the last number of years. The work of agencies like GOAL is vital to provide them with basic food and care. The motive of the kidnappers ...

Gerry Clarke SJ, coordinator of programmes for the Jesuit Refugee Service, Goma, recalls moments before the North of Ireland peace process when he thought the Northern conflict would go on forever.  The bombings and assassinations were reported daily, operations against the “terrorists” were intensified and the public turned to the sports pages in boredom.  It feels very much the same in North Kivu, ...

Rob Kearney, who left Clongowes in 2004, played brilliantly for the British & Irish Lions in South Africa this summer. He came on as a replacement in the first test, and gave such an outstanding display that he was picked for the remaining two test matches. In the second test he scored the Lions’ opening try, and then showed remarkable composure under the high ...

Fr General recently expressed strong interest in setting up a studio in the Curia for video-conferencing. An excellent studio already exists in the Bellarmino in Rome, and on 30 July, the  in-coming Rector of the Bellarmino, Irish Jesuit Michael Paul Gallagher, is showing the potential of this approach at a seminar for Catholic educationalists. 600 of them will be gathered in Wellington, ...

An Ignatian-inspired MAGiS Africa programme for young adults will be held in Nairobi, Kenya in August 2009.  Between 200 – 300 young people from Europe and Eastern Africa are expected to converge on Nairobi for the 3-week programme of action and reflection. Sr. Stephanie O’Brien, a Loreto Sister from Co. Cavan will co-ordinate the event, with a group of young adults ...

Carndonagh’s imposing parish church was en fete for the last weekend in July. The parish’s new priest, Cathal Doherty SJ, was welcomed by a banner stretched across the gates. Bunting and papal flags were in evidence all around the town’s Diamond. Bonfires greeted Cathal on his arrival at his native parish, and the welcome continued as crowds gathered, offering their congratulations. The ...

The full four-week schema of the Spiritual Exercises was given, it seems, to as many as 7,500 people during St Ignatius’s own lifetime,  1,500 of whom were women. Of the 6,000 men, only 1,000 were in religious life at the time or became so afterwards. And the Exercises has been in huge demand ever since. Although the text itself has been ...