Dear Editor, The Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference must be congratulated on their excellent pastoral statement on the ‘Meaning of Marriage’. However, it is a pity the illustrations used were of the stereotyped family so beloved of the advertising industry: a handsome guy with a beautiful wife, but not more than two children, preferably one boy…

Dear Editor, In the autumn 1944, the Western allies had the deluded idea that the Wehrmacht was beaten and that it was only a force of old men and children. What shocked them with their defeat at Arnhem in September 1944, and the Ardennes attack two months later, was the transformation of a supposedly defeated enemy into…

Dear Editor, Without doubt the two most powerful prayers of the Catholic faith are the Angelus and the Rosary. Both are of very long standing and recited all around the world, so what could possibly be missing from them? The exact same thing that had been missing from the Eucharistic prayers of the Mass, i.e.…

Dear Editor, It is a pity that your initial coverage (IC 13/11/2014) of Archbishop Michael Neary’s homily to the Association of Papal Knights did not make it past the first half of the sermon, else Deirdre Uí Ghoibín (Letters, IC 04/12/2014) might have been saved from her uncharitable assessment. The archbishop’s homily was remarkable for…

Dear Editor, I wonder if any readers are bothered by the latest trend of using Catholic churches as concert halls featuring various artists. Is this not side-lining the Divine Presence and replacing it with a singer, who receives the sole focus of the attention of the congregation present? It seems to be a very popular…