This week’s Lenten Reflection looks at Exodus and the Israelites in the desert to explore how the search for home sometimes leaves us discontented, regardless of how good our circumstances are.

The second week of our Lenten Reflections series is called The Risk of Leaving our Father’s Home and looks at the unreality of a housing system dedicated to profit, not shelter.

The first in our Lenten Reflections series, by social theologian Dr Kevin Hargaden invites us to ponder our own existential homelessness.

The introduction to our 2018 Lenten Reflections series, by Dr Kevin Hargaden asks that as we spiritually prepare ourselves for the celebration of Easter, we do not express our spirituality as a withdrawal from the complexities of our life into some imagined, hidden, private space where we can feel things are simple again.  

The ‘Republic of Opportunity’ that Leo Varadkar spoke about on the occasion of his election as Taoiseach is not evident for young people, says James Doorley, in the latest edition of Working Notes.   

Mental health is the number one health concern for young people in Ireland. This may be related to the intensity and vulnerability of youth, says Dr Tony Bates, of youth organisation Jigsaw, in our latest edition of Working Notes.   

In the latest edition of Working Notes, Catherine Devitt explores how the imminent global threats of climate change and environmental degradation will affect the future of Ireland’s young adults, and the importance of education and policy-making in helping to mitigate the worst effects.  

Trinity Centre for Urban and Regional Studies in association with The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice invites you to the symposium ‘Housing in Ireland: Philosophy, Policies and Results’.

Dr Kevin Hargaden explores the topic of media bias, and its hidden benefits. This article appeared originally in the November 2017 edition of The Sacred Heart Messenger.

‘A Prisoner in the Family’ is an article by Deputy Director of the JCFJ, Eoin Carroll, which appeared in the November 2017 issue of The Sacred Heart Messenger magazine.

On Prisoner Sunday (12th November), Eoin Carroll, Deputy Director of the JCFJ, delivered a homily at St Francis Xavier Church, Dublin, based on the parable of the ten virgins which emphasises the need for preparation in order to be able to make good decisions.  

The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice has welcomed strong calls from the Citizens’ Assembly for the government to increase political action on addressing climate change.

Rebuilding Ireland, the Government’s Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, relies far too heavily on market-based solutions to the problems facing Irish housing. Because of this, it will fail in its stated objective of developing an ‘affordable, stable and sustainable’ housing system.  

10th of October 2017 was Budget Day, and also World Homeless Day. It could have been the day the Irish Government committed to enshrining a right to housing in our Constitution, which would have had far-reaching implications for people experiencing homelessness.

Jesus said that you cannot serve two masters. You either hate the one and love the other, or are devoted to one and despise the other. Yet what role does faith have in an age when the one true master often appears to be the market economy?   

The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice recently made a submission to the Citizens’ Assembly on the topic “Making Ireland a Leader in Tackling Climate Change”.   

The only way to address the problems facing our societies is to understand them. This basic assumption guides an innovative new initiative from the European Jesuit provinces which seek to bring their networks of universities and social centres together to tackle the challenges that most press on European societies.  

The UN Committee Against Torture has published its concluding observations from the second periodic review of Ireland, which took place in July. The examination, by ten independent human rights experts, was to assess Ireland’s adherence to the United Nations ‘Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment’.

Peter McVerry responds in The Irish Times (11 August, 2017) to the assertion of An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar that “many, if not most” of the people on the housing list already have houses.

Peter McVerry SJ of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice was quoted in this weekend’s Irish Examiner (August 06, 2017) calling for urgent pressure to be put on the Government to solve the housing crisis.

The UN Committee against Torture (CAT) will examine Ireland this week about its progress and compliance with the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT). The second periodic review under the convention will take place this Thursday 27 and Friday 28 July, at United Nations headquarters in Geneva,… Read more »

Irish prisoners are locked up for on average seventeen hours a day, and this routine has not changed in thirty years. So said Eoin Carroll, Advocacy and Social Policy Research Officer in the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice.

The Grenfell Tower blaze in London tragically took the lives of almost a hundred people, and left many more without homes. As it becomes increasingly clear that this catastrophe is, at least in part, a consequence of years of austerity politics, Kevin Hargaden reflects on how it illuminates the problems with housing in Ireland.

Writing in The Irish Times Online Kevin Hargaden, Social Theology Officer in the Centre questions the fuss that is being made over Stephen Fry’s comments on blasphemy. Kevin argues that the fiasco has exposed the cultural gap between the concerns of real, actual religious people and the conversation about religion in Ireland.

The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice has called upon the Government to adhere to the legislative requirements of the Climate and Low Carbon Development Act (2015) when formalising the National Mitigation Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.