A pro-life activist has said “no law will stop us defending” unborn babies at a ‘Life-Chain’ rally in Belfast over the weekend. Bernie Smyth, director of Precious Life, said that abortion is “barbaric”, and its effects will prove detrimental throughout society. Ms Smyth was speaking ahead of a minute’s silence for the 8,490 babies aborted…
Politicians and a pro-life campaigner have decried the recent enactment of the Safe Access Zones legislation, a law that prohibits conduct ‘aimed at impeding access or influencing decisions’ 100 metres from an entrance or exit to a premises that provides abortion, as being “authoritarian”, “draconian” and represents “a bad day for civil rights in Ireland”. Speaking…
With a General Election coming up, various issues will come to the front of the public mind and one of them is bound to be immigration. It has been arguably the main topic of debate in the country for the last year or so and therefore it is fitting that the bishops have produced a…
The archbishop of Paris spoke out last week against the firing of a Catholic school administrator who was accused of violating French laws prohibiting religious expression in educational settings. “We must be able to proclaim the Gospel in Catholic schools,” Archbishop Laurent Ulrich stated in an interview with Radio Notre Dame, OSV News reported. “It must…
I found that being in Ireland taught me a lot about what it means to be in search of our heavenly home says, Maura Collins Soon before I left California this August to live in Ireland for a couple of months, a woman in my Catholic community texted me an told me that she’d pray…
The Italian Senate of the Republic last week passed a bill making it possible to prosecute surrogacy sought even outside Italy, with violators potentially facing both prison time and a fine as high as €1 million. Surrogacy has been illegal in Italy since 2004. The prohibition is contained within the country’s Law 40, which regulates medically…
The saying goes that nature abhors a vacuum. Bad money drives out good. These idioms are not to be dismissed in any walk of life. The evidence of this is clear when it comes to the changes being seen in the school curricula on SPHE. We are seeing it in our healthcare systems. We are…
Letter of the week Dear Editor, Unfortunately, none of us escapes death. It waits for us around the corner, and can appear suddenly, very unwelcome. You can’t dodge or jump over it. You are going to die. How does it happen? I have followed several people at the end of life, as part of my…
Responding to criticism that he failed to show up for a discussion on Friday for members of the Synod of Bishops that was to include the question of female deacons, the Vatican’s doctrinal czar insisted Monday that Pope Francis has made it clear that now is not the time to resolve that issue, but that…
As a Lutheran priest, Dietrich Bonhoeffer would frequently offer this advice to a couple when he presided at their wedding, “Today you are in love and believe your love will sustain your marriage, but it can’t. Let your marriage sustain your love.” Wise words, but what exactly do they mean? Why can’t love sustain a…
Chai Brady
Brandon Scott
David Quinn
Fr Ronald Rolheiser