The Notebook Donal McMahon In all fine old cities there are the obligatory sights of the guidebooks and tour buses but also the little discoveries that you make for yourself. The first are always well worth the visit but it’s the second unpredictable ones that often linger just as much or even more in…
Simon Caldwell The professional body for doctors in the U.K. has dropped its traditional opposition to assisted suicide, despite a poll that found a majority of its members remain opposed to the practice. The Royal College of Physicians has declared it has adopted a policy of neutrality, although a majority of doctors said they…
Pope Francis has made it more than obvious that he does not like people kissing his ring. The viral video of him yanking his right hand away from a string of about 17 people coming up to him one-by-one during a trip to Loreto, Italy, on March 25, caught many people by surprise because of…
Pope Francis has expressed his grief for the loss of life caused by the sinking of a ferry in the Tigris River near the Iraqi city of Mosul. In a telegramme signed on his behalf by Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Pope said he is deeply saddened to learn of the accident and expressed his prayerful…
Only faith can speak in the darkness of immense tragedy, Archbishop Eamon Martin has told the requiem Mass of Morgan Bernard this morning (Friday). Morgan (17), Lauren Bullock (17) and Connor Currie (16) died outside a St Patrick’s Day event at the Greenvale Hotel in Cookstown following a crush. The tragedy, Archbishop Eamon told mourners, remind us…
Jonathan Luxmoore A close aide to St John Paul II has vigorously defended the late Pope’s handling of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and denied accusations that he ignored the problem during his 27-year pontificate. “Emerging opinions that John Paul II was sluggish in guiding the Church’s response to sexual abuse of minors by…
A pro-life group in Dublin’s Trinity College has criticised the visit of former Planned Parenthood Federation President, Cecile Richards, after she was invited to the university to receive an award for her pro-choice activism. Ms Richards was invited by the Philosophical Society to speak on campus and receive their Gold Medal of Honorary Patronage on…
Christians have faith in a God who wants to and is able to transform the world, conquering evil with good, Pope Francis said. That is why “it makes sense to obey and abandon oneself” to God and his will, even during life’s most difficult moments, the Pope said yesterday during his general audience in St…
Under new plans being considered, men training to be priests would spend most of their time working in parishes rather than in the traditional seminary environment. It would see seminarians living in parishes with more time involved in active pastoral work alongside priests and lay pastoral workers and would, according to one bishop, give them…
The View We celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation on Monday next. Reflecting on this seminal moment in the history of Salvation got me thinking about Mary’s role in it as a young girl, and how different a view modern society and feminism promotes. Today’s feminist empowerment classes surely would utterly reject Mary’s submission…
Greg Daly
Maria Steen