Warnings that worshippers at the closing Mass for the World Meeting of Families run a risk of contracting infectious diseases have been overstated, a leading doctor has said. Dr Jack Lambert, consultant in infectious diseases in Dublin’s Mater Hospital, told RTÉ Radio it was “very unlikely” that pilgrims to the August 26 Mass in the…
A campaign to get The Irish Catholic columnist Maria Steen to throw her hat into the ring and run for President is gaining momentum online. While the petition calling for the respected commentator to run for president has reached over 1,250 signatures, the flattering gesture may fall flat according to trusted sources. The page entitled…
Back in the 1960s, Clive James, novelist, memoirist, poet, TV performer and critic and all-round hilarious Australian lad, memorably said: “Of course I’m in favour of the [contraceptive] pill. It puts more crumpet on the market.” Clive didn’t say “I’m in favour of the contraceptive pill because it could help maternal health”…or “…because it empowers…
The View During St John Paul’s pontificate, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) was amended regarding the death penalty. Capital punishment was hedged about with so many conditions that the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity were considered to be “very rare, if not practically non-existent”. In…
Matthew Carlson explores the rise and recession of Belfast’s Poor Clares Nuns are often portrayed in popular media as frail, silent and hidden away from the rest of the world, but the profound story of one religious order in Ireland has flipped that paradigm on its head. The Poor Clares in Belfast were a…
“Please just make it stop!” tweeted Health Minister Simon Harris on Sunday last in connection with a report on a conference on Humanae Vitae at the weekend. “Increasing access to & availability of contraception is and will remain public health policy. Religion plays an important role for many on an individual basis – but it…
The Pope’s’ decreeing capital punishment ‘inadmissible’ follows in papal footsteps, writes Greg Daly There’s change and there’s change. To listen to some of the more feverish reactions to news last week of Pope Francis’ decision to change the Church’s teaching on the death penalty, one might think that change means one thing and one…
The Government seems determined to bar religion from public life, writes David Quinn We live in truly extraordinary times. A conference on Humanae Vitae is addressed by a bishop and there is an immediate negative response on social media from no less a figure than our Health Minister, Simon Harris, who tweets, “Please just…
Colm Fitzpatrick talks to international comedian Tim Vine about God, laughter and his new Irish tour It’s not often that comedy and religion appear together in the same sentence in an Irish context – usually musings of Father Ted or the sketches of the late Dave Allen take that prize – but a famous…
The principles of Humanae Vitae, Blessed Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical on the regulation of birth, have been “ignored for too long”, Elphin’s Bishop Kevin Doran has said, with the Church needing to present them “in a fresh way, in contemporary language and in an appropriate context”. Opening a Nazareth Family Institute-organised conference in Dublin to…
Greg Daly
Chai Brady
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien
David Quinn
Colm Fitzpatrick