The View There has not been much publicity for the current government consultation on abortion in Northern Ireland. It closes at 11.45pm on December 16. Responses to the consultation should inform the new proposals for the provision of abortion in the North. Readers will know that law was passed in Westminster last July requiring the…
Róise McGagh The Galway Cathedral Christmas Eve Mass will be broadcast live at 11pm. It will be available to view on RTÉ and other channels across Europe on December 24. “Our Christmas Eve Mass is always a very busy session at Galway Cathedral,” said Fr Martin Whelan, curate at Galway Cathedral. “It is incredible to…
There is a scene in iconic film The Quiet Man when John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara go on a date. This being 1950s Ireland (in the imagination of the movie’s director, John Ford), they must take a chaperone along with them in the shape of Barry Fitzgerald to ensure all the proprieties are observed and…
Children who believe in God are much more likely to be tolerant of other religions than those who are atheist, while the vast majority of teens believe religious education is “beneficial” according to a major Irish study. A book launched this week, Religion and Education, The Voices Of Young People in Ireland, found that after…
Fr Andrew McMahon The opportunity to honour Gay Byrne’s impressive life’s work was exploited to impose a revisionist narrative of 20th Century Ireland, writes Fr Andrew McMahon In a column in the Sunday Press almost 40 years ago author and critic Desmond Fennell spoke of “the Manichaean notion of the Dublin liberals that our society…
The December 3 announcement by the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, that the Vatican has decided to postpone the beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen has led to a grassroots effort to have Masses said all over the world to pray his beatification will go forward. “We decided to respond in the most positive and prayerful way…
The Australian government has decided to revisit its religious discrimination legislation after key religious groups – including the Archdiocese of Sydney – said they would withdraw their support. “We made a commitment to Australians to address this issue at the last election, and we are keeping faith with that commitment in a calm and considered…
A parish priest has reiterated calls this week for soldiers who killed victims in the Ballymurphy Massacre to admit what happened, and to “search their conscience”. The final oral submissions of the inquest into the deaths of 10 civilians over three days of violence in Ballymurphy, August 1971, took place in a Belfast court on…
A return to 50:50 recruitment of Catholics and Protestants into the Police Service of the Northern Ireland (PSNI) is needed to halt expected decline in Catholic officers, according to the Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin. Following a meeting of Church leaders with Chief Constable Simon Byrne of the PSNI, the archbishop said that while he…
For the vitality of our parishes we need the courage, wisdom and right judgement to forge a new path, writes Bairbre Cahill I may as well lay my cards on the table from the outset – I would take sacramental preparation out of Catholic schools. That may seem drastic, so why am I suggesting it? At…
Nuala O’Loan
David Quinn
Chai Brady
Bairbre Cahill