Greg Daly wonders why the ethics watchdog has sanctioned just one pro-abortion group That an organisation calling itself the Abortion Rights Campaign (ARC) should ever have denied that it was engaged in political activities seems, on the face of it, absurd, and it is hardly surprising that it was ultimately forced to face this reality.…
Greg Daly meets a Tearfund ‘early responder’ on the frontline of crises in the Philippines Originally from Manila, 37-year-old Dandin Espina had always thought he’d be a minister in his Church, the Pentecostal Church of God, but God, he says, had other plans. “I was in seminary,” he says. “I had thought I’d be a pastor, but…
Staff reporter Renua Ireland has announced it is now officially a pro-life political party, with members expected to take a pledge to support a pro-life position. Renua chairman, Michael O’Dowd told The Irish Catholic that a pro-life stance has now become one of the party’s “core principals”. “When the party was founded many people believed…
While documentation regarding an alleged miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Oscar Romero is being studied at the Vatican, there is no date scheduled for his canonisation, the archbishop of San Salvador, El Salvador, said. “I must say, in all sincerity, that there is no date. And we understand it well because it involves…
“A new type of Church – more lay-led – will have to emerge”, writes Michael Kelly Archbishop Eamon Martin recently said that priests and bishops need to get used to “letting go” of the central role in parish communities if faith is to be re-energised. In many ways, it’s not an issue of choice: declining…
The voice of faith or religion is not simply for the privacy of our homes and churches, writes Archbishop Eamon Martin We do not enter the public square simply to win arguments through the clever use of reasoning and debate. When we speak, we draw upon both reason and faith and upon an integral vision…
A Single Headstrong Heart by Kevin Myers (Lilliput Press, € 20.00) On the cover of this affecting, beautifully-written memoir is a photograph of young Kevin Myers, a parrot on his shoulder; beside him, smiling cautiously, is his father Willie, who was a GP. They were on their way to the Cup Final at Wembley when…
Sr Patricia Speight shares her faith journey with Mags Gargan One of the iconic images from Pope Francis’ trip to Kenya in 2015 was of an overjoyed Irish Franciscan Missionary Sister for Africa taking his picture from the crowd. Belfast-born Sr Patricia Speight found herself appearing in newspapers across the globe, but it was not…
Lent is flying by and Easter is getting closer and closer. Next weekend is Palm Sunday, the last Sunday of Lent. Throughout Lent, Easter Sunday is the main day we look forward to, but Palm Sunday is just as exciting as it marks the start of Holy Week. Palm Sunday commemorates Christ’s entry into Jerusalem…
One of the country’s large general hospitals recently made a small but very significant change. It renamed all of its wards. Previously the wards had saints’ names: ‘St Michael’s Ward’, ‘St Brigid’s Ward’, etc. Such names were commonplace in many hospitals around Ireland and I suppose the practice of naming wards – and indeed whole…
Greg Daly
Michael Kelly
Archbishop Eamon Martin
Mags Gargan
Erin Fox