Sean Walsh

Many Catholics are overwhelmed, shocked, appalled, traumatized by the sex abuse crisis that is tainting their Church. And so am I. But what can we do? Above all, we must express our compassion and empathy for the victims, whose suffering is much greater than ours. This crisis demands that we transform the Church, which is made up of us all....

The weekend we took off for a break, leaving her in charge… Butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth and her promising she’d lock up, switch on the alarm, share with Ciara in Carsons until we got back? Sure we were hardly gone – treading Friday afternoon traffic – when she was on the phone, ringing round, spreading the word: Jenny’s...

There was this shrine, as I recall. Oh, well known it was, locally… We walked the three miles, there and back. Out the country. ‘Summer’s day… Me still in short trousers, ‘boots that needed mending. Six miles in all. A killer…   ‘Knelt for the Rosary. Nudging, gawking around, stifling a giggle… Every bead a penance… ‘Grass trodden underfoot by...

May 1980. A phone call from Tom Walsh, my nephew, to say my mother was poorly and would I like to share the journey with him to Ennis to visit her. Oh yes, of course! He planned to leave Balbriggan, his domicile north of Dublin, on the morrow and would pick me up in Dublin at a specified time and...

Back row, centre aisle.   A tangible stillness in an almost empty Church… Elders moving slowly – genuflecting, kneeling, standing – making their way to Calvary, treading their very own, plaster statued, Via Dolorosa…   Re-living the Greatest Story Ever Told in reparation for their own sins and the sins of the whole world.     Jesus is condemned… the...