‘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.
The Scriptures and the Christian tradition have a direct relevance for how to think about economic issues. So argues the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, Social Theology Officer, Kevin Hargaden, in the latest edition of the magazine Reality.
The Centre welcomes the Dáil’s decision to support the Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill. The Bill will bring about legislation requiring Ireland’s National Strategic Investment Fund to withdraw over €8 billion worth of taxpayers money from fossil fuel companies, and ban any future investments in the fossil fuel industry.
In February 2016, the Jesuit Secretariat for Social Justice and Ecology and for Higher Education in Rome published a Special Report on Justice in the Global Economy. The Report was compiled by an international group of Jesuits and lay colleagues in the fields of social science and economics, philosophy and theology. This issue of Working… Read more »
The latest report from the Central Statistics Office shows that half of young adults in prison re-offend within three years upon release. Clearly, a different approach is needed. Community programmes allow those who have caused harm to ‘pay back’ for the hurt caused, to make reparation.
Wednesday October 5th marked the ratification of the Paris Agreement on climate change. Undoubtedly, this is a welcomed milestone in international efforts to curb dangerous climate change levels; however without committed, ambitious and tangible efforts at a national level, the goals of the agreement will not be achieved. In response to the ratification, the Stop… Read more »
The Centre has criticised the Government’s position towards tackling climate change, following the European Commission’s recent publication of its 2030 targets for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, for each Member State. Ireland received significant concessions, reducing its 2030 targets significantly, in comparison to the targets of other EU Member States. While some have described the… Read more »
The Centre has called on the Government to end ‘severe confinement’ for young adults in prison. Out of fear for their own safety, 100+ young adults (aged 18–24) are spending up to 23 hours a day in their cell. Our latest report, Developing Inside: Transforming Prison for Young Adults recommends that Youth Justice, under the Department of… Read more »
Liberals have argued that the Apostolic Exhortation by Pope Francis, The Joy of Love, is disappointingly traditionalist.Traditionalists, ironically, are disturbed that it is too innovative. In an article in the June Furrow JCFJ staff member Gerry O’Hanlon outlines why he thinks that, by reading between the lines, the traditionalists are closer to the truth, but… Read more »
Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice to jointly host seminar on Laudato Si’on June 8th On June 8th, the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice and Trόcaire, in association with the Loyola Institute (Trinity College Dublin) will host a seminar event titled ‘Caring for our Common Home; Towards an Integrated Perspective on Society and the Environment’.… Read more »
Working Notes is a journal published by the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice. The journal focuses on social, economic and theological analysis of Irish society. It has been produced since 1987.
