Dear Editor, The coverage of the US presidential election by most of the Irish media outlets is so partisan as to make their claims to be fair and balanced in their reporting sound rather hollow. This is a serious issue, regardless of one’s party loyalty. The media’s involvement and influence in the modern democratic process…
A Catholic prelate in South Sudan has urged the international community not to forget the ongoing conflict in that nation. Warning that one immediate result of ignoring South Sudan now will be an increase in “the tide of refugees reaching Europe’s shores”, Bishop Barani Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of Tombura- Yambio called on world powers to…
Christians in Iraq have marked the second anniversary of the emergence of so-called Islamic State (ISIS) with prayers for peace and a return to the land they were forced to flee. Led by Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako, Christians recalled the “Mosul tragedy (June 10-17, 2014) and Nineveh Plain catastrophe (August 6/7, 2014)” and prayed…
French authorities have moved to close down 20 mosques among a range of measures aimed at tackling radicalisation of Muslims. In the wake of a series of brutal attacks in France in recent weeks, including the savage murder of Fr Jacques Hamel in Normandy, the country’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazenueve announced that 20 mosques known…
Pope stresses forgiveness during private Assisi Pilgrimage Pope Francis made ‘forgiveness’ the theme of his private pilgrimage to Assisi on August 4. Having prayed in silence at the Porziuncola chapel where St Francis founded the Franciscan order in the 13th Century, his papal namesake delivered an address at the Basilica of St Mary in which he stressed that “too many people…
Cardinal Orani Tempesta of Rio de Janeiro holds the Olympic flame on August 5 as Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes and former Brazilian volleyball player Isabel Barroso look on in front of the Christ the Redeemer statue. Photo: CNS
Dear Editor, Some weeks ago in an item entitled ‘Back to the future?’ (IC 14/07/2016) you touched on the subject of a growing desire on the part of some Catholics for a return to the Tridentine Mass. It seems to me that this ‘restorationist’ movement in the Church is based primarily on the belief that…
Dear Editor, Professor Patricia Casey often speaks wisely on many subjects. However, I have to challenge her on her views regarding the ghettoisation of ethnic minorities (IC 27/7/2016) with special mention of the Polish Community in St Audoen’s church. When I first came to Ireland in 1963 there were about 50 Polish people in the…
Dear Editor, I thoroughly agree with the sentiments expressed by Donal O’Driscoll in his letter ‘Clarify meaning of Eighth Amendment’ (IC 28/07/2016). I have listened to many of the abortion debates, and have felt totally frustrated by the ‘niceness’ and ‘politeness’ of the pro-life people. This is used and seized upon with great effect by…
Dear Editor, Prof. Patricia Casey (IC 28/7/16) makes an important point about ghettoisation. Immigrant chaplaincies were set up after the publication of the Apostolic Constitution of Pope Pius XII in 1952. Their purpose was and still is to enable immigrants to integrate into the political, social, economic and cultural networks of life in their new…
Courtney McGrail
Paul Keenan