The autumn issue of Studies is out and is entitled “Healing a broken church? Catholicism after the reports.” Contributors include Nuala O’Loan writing on “Transparency, accountability and the exercise of power in the Church of the future”; Gerry O’Hanlon, SJ, on “The Future of the Catholic Church – a view from Ireland” and David Quinn on “The Irish media and the Murphy Report”.

Editor Fergus O’Donoghue writes that there is a “need for profound change in attitude at the highest level of the Church, resulting in more than cosmetic changes. The Church is administered by a Curia badly in need of reform; some departments are headed by men who are narrow in outlook, advanced in age and incompetent. Too many Vatican officials have received all their formation in Rome and cannot understand the problems of the local churches. Fear needs to be replaced by participation and consent.”

Meanwhile, the September/October issue of History Ireland also contains articles on Catholicism with Maurice Curtis writing on militant lay Catholic organisations in Ireland in the first half of the 20th century in “Miraculous Meddlers: the Catholic Action movement”. Catholic action of an entirely different sort is the subject of Robert Doyle’s piece on “The pope’s Irish battalion, 1860” in which he marks the 150th anniversary of the war in which Irishmen fought – and died – for the Pope. Ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann, you suspect.