Irish Jesuits

Irish Jesuit theologian Gerry O’Hanlon SJ, attended the Irish National Synodal Assembly in Gormanston, on Saturday 17 October 2026. In this interview with Pat Coyle of Irish Jesuit Communications he says that media coverage missed crucial context concerning the vote to establish a national office for women. Excluded from plenary sessions and shown only final vote totals, journalists, he says, thro...

The Vatican and the Women Deacons is the title of Dr Phyllis Zagano's recent book, which explores the historical role of women in the early Church and the possibility, if not necessity of restoring the women's diaconate in the Catholic Church. Dr Zagano highlights the counter cultural role of women in Jesus' mission including their participation in key events of his life including his death and re...

Pat Coyle speaks with Dr Ciara Murphy of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice about the theme of the 2026 Season of Creation, Living Water, which runs from 1 September to 4 October 2026. The discussion looks at some of the key water-related challenges facing communities around the world, including water pollution, drought, flooding, climate change, and unequal access to clean and safe water. Ci...

Dr Declan Hayes is a former finance lecturer who has been raising money for and awareness of those suffering in Syria and the Middle East. He has just recently returned from the West Bank, where he stayed in Jerusalem and Taybeh. In this interview with Pat Coyle of Irish Jesuit Communications, he describes the plight of the local inhabitants there. And he asks that people, especially young student...

Una Allen is co-ordinator of 'Towards Peace', a service funded by the Catholic Church in Ireland, for survivors of abuse by church members. Its sister organisation, 'Towards Healing' is a counselling service for such survivors. But as Una Allen explains in this interview with Pat Coyle of Irish Jesuit Communications, 'Towards Peace' offers a spiritual accompaniment service, free of charge, to help...

In this podcast, Irish Jesuit Bernard McGuckian SJ talks to Pat Coyle about his journey in creating a four-part documentary for EWTN entitled The Kingship of Christ, which explores the meanings and origins of the term 'kingship' in Sacred Scripture. During his research, Fr. McGuckian discovered Martha de Noya, a 19th-century French Catholic woman. She firmly believed that God had given her a speci...

Robert W. McChesney SJ is author of the award-winning book The Soul Also Keeps the Score: A Trauma‑Informed Companion to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola ». In it, he reframes Ignatian spirituality through contemporary understandings of trauma and pastoral care - areas he has worked in for over 30 years. On a recent visit to Ireland, he spoke with Pat Coyle of Irish Jesuit Communi...

Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical, 'Magnifica Humanitas' ('Magnificent Humanity'), addresses the ethical and social challenges posed by artificial intelligence, placing human dignity at the centre of technological progress. In this interview with Pat Coyle of Irish Jesuit Communications, Jesuit theologian Dr Gerry O'Hanlon gives a detailed summary of the encyclical.

Jürgen Habermas (see photo), one of Germany’s most influential contemporary philosophers, died earlier this year at the age of 96. Habermas was widely regarded as one of the most influential philosophers and public intellectuals of the post-war era. He was known especially for his theories of communicative action and deliberative democracy, in which he championed rational dialogue as the foundatio...

Caroline Sanga IJI by Irish Jesuits

There has been widespread interest in the 1926 census for Ireland's 26 counties, which was recently released online, free of charge, by the National Archives of Ireland. Damien Burke, archivist for the Irish Jesuit Province, is one of many perusing the website. In this interview with Pat Coyle of Irish Jesuit Communication, he explains the interest in the topic and discusses what happened to the c...

In this interview with Pat Coyle, Fr. Donal Godfrey, an Irish Jesuit serving as chaplain at the University of San Francisco reflects on the recent remarks of Pope Leo XIV and the response to them from Donald Trump and his administration. He shares what it is like to live and minister in the United States at present amid numerous rising conflicts, most recently the war with Iran, controversial poli...

In this second part of an extended interview with Pat Coyle of Irish Jesuit Communications, Dr Phyllis Zagano, Professor of Religion at Hofstra University in New York, continues her exposition of the long‑standing question of women in the diaconate, arguing that the issue is less about doctrine than about history, theology, and culture.

Fr. Allan Ggita is a Jesuit priest serving as the Director of Development for the Jesuits of Eastern Africa Province (EAP). He's in Ireland at the invitation of Irish Jesuits International, speaking to Jesuit students and colleagues about his work supporting vulnerable communities in South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya. In this interview with Pat Coyle of Irish Jesuit Communications, he talks about b...

Eric Clayton is an author, retreat giver and Deputy Director of Communications for the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the USA. He was in Ireland recently giving workshops and retreats in both the Manresa Spirituality Centre Dublin, and the Jesuit Spirituality Centre in Belfast. Whilst here, he spoke with Pat Coyle about his children’s book, Our Mother Too: Mary Embraces the World. The book introd...

'Not Christian, not Catholic, and horrifying.' So says Dr Phyllis Zagano, Professor of Religion at Hofstra University in New York, commenting on the Vatican's second commission on the diaconate, which recently published a letter revealing a 50/50 split within the commission on whether women could 'image Christ'. Listen above to part one of an extended interview with Pat Coyle of Irish Jesuit Commu...

James Hanvey SJ's interpretation of the 'mission to creation' in St Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises involves a profound integration of theology, spirituality, and cosmology. In this interview with Pat Coyle of Irish Jesuit Communications, Dr Hanvey explains how St Ignatius’ vision for us extends far beyond personal sanctification or interior conversion; it is a call for participation in God’s dynami...

Theologian Dr James Hanvey SJ explains the origin, history and development of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius in this first of a two-part interview with Pat Coyle of Irish Jesuit Communications. The Spiritual Exercises were devised and written by Ignatius in the 16th century, but as James Hanvey says, they can be implemented in a variety of innovative ways suited to today's world.

Theologian Dr James Hanvey SJ explains the origin, history and development of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius in this first of a two-part interview with Pat Coyle of Irish Jesuit Communications. The Spiritual Exercises were devised and written by Ignatius in the 16th century, but as James Hanvey says, they can be implemented in a variety of innovative ways suited to today's world.

Cesare Sposetti SJ, from the Jesuit social justice journal Aggiornamento Sociali in Milan, was one of the guest speakers at a recent conference hosted by the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice in Manresa. Jesuits and colleagues from various works in the Irish Jesuit Province attended. Fr Sposetti guided those gathered through a reflection on the relationship between justice work and Ignatian spir...

In this interview above with Pat Coyle of Irish Jesuit Communications, Soline Humbert, author of 'A Divine Calling: One Woman’s Lifelong Battle for Equality in the Catholic Church', tells the story of her vocation, and shares about the power and pain of a divine calling that will never go away, but at present, cannot be fulfilled. She also speaks about her faith, and her hope that times are changi...

In this second part of her interview with American Jesuit theologian Bart Geger, Pat Coyle explores with him the 'discernment of spirits'. St Ignatius talks of the good spirit and the bad spirit, and learning to recognise which is which. Bart Geger explains what Ignatius has to say on the topic, along with the much earlier Church Fathers. He also relates this discernment process with coming to kno...

In the interview above with Pat Coyle of Irish Jesuit Communications, filmmaker and former Crescent College Limerick student Éamon Little, speaks about his acclaimed new documentary Born That Way. It tells the story of Patrick Lydon, who set up, lived and worked in Camphill communities for people with disabilities that have operated in Ireland for 50 years.

Irish Jesuit theologian Gerry O'Hanlon SJ was one of the participants at the National Pre-Synodal meeting of the Catholic Church in Ireland on October 18, 2025, at the Kilkenny Convention Centre. Over two hundred lay people, priests and bishops from across Ireland attended. The meeting, it was hoped, would be a further step in the Irish synodal process and an important precursor to the full Nation...

Clongowes Wood College past pupil, Jack Kavanagh, who was paralysed after suffering an injury when he dived into shallow water, was the keynote speaker at a recent gathering of Jesuit school students. Jack spoke about the initial despair he felt after the accident. "For some time I asked ‘why me’ but then I asked ‘why not me’". He now has his own business, and gives talks all over the world on mot...