Category: Theology

With the rise of Far-Right violence, the question of social integration has become a key conversation. But if you want to see integration in action, the first place to go is not a political press conference or a strategic document. Go for a walk on a Sunday morning through Dublin’s north-east inner-city instead. You might hear Yoruba hymns floating out of a converted office block, incense drifting from a Romanian Orthodox service, and gospel choruses in Mandarin echoing from among a row of residential buildings. Step inside any of these communities and you will find the real architecture of integration – ordinary Dubliners mixing with those newly arrived to our shores, building community quietly and transformatively.

Pope Leo XIV gave the first insight to what direction his papacy would take early last month when he published his first official teaching – Dilexi Te – (“I have loved you”). This document had been begun by his predecessor, Francis, and he gladly took it up, made it own, and has issued it as… Read more »

There are many ways of making the connection between environmentalism and Jesus. An important one, I believe, is his humility.

Introduction New research by the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice and ACET Ireland has identified almost fifty faith-based communities in the north-east inner-city of Dublin. A key aim of the research was to analyse the role of faith-based communities in fostering the integration of migrants, refugees, and immigrants in the north-east inner-city, and how… Read more »

Last January, the Irish Times published an opinion piece by myself and Imam Samsudeen MecSheain: ‘Freedom of religion an empty formula unless places to worship available.’ It drew attention to a new and unfamiliar reality. People who have recently moved to Ireland do something, which we historically did when we were an emigrant people. They… Read more »

Every August and September, the housing shortage shows up on campus. First year students move across the country without certainty about where they will sleep. Returning students juggle long commutes, term-time sublets, and rising rents. Parents bounce desperate messages into WhatsApp groups looking for leads. This is now a familiar seasonal pattern, yet it points… Read more »

If you do a search for the word ‘local’ in Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ letter on the care of our common home, you will discover that the document is peppered with references to all sorts of local concerns, actors and solutions.

As we accelerate towards climate chaos, more and more people are looking to ramp off the globalist superhighway and make their way through life more slowly and simply on winding localist trails.

Next week, I will be presenting at a gathering of theologians, ethicists, and social scientists in Salzburg, Austria. The event, organised by the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Social Concerns, and its focus is democracy. Or more precisely, democracy under threat. For many years now, Catholic Social Teaching (CST) has affirmed democracy as the… Read more »

A Presbyterian Appreciation of Pope Francis Sometimes people ask me how I ended up directing a Jesuit social research centre, as a Presbyterian theologian. At this stage, the polite answer rolls out of my mouth with barely any thinking required.  But if I was to tell the truth, I would have to say that it… Read more »