Dear Editor, The Irish Catholic has noted the Government’s intention to pay tribute to Daniel O’Connell in 2029, an intention without reference to his achievement of Catholic Emancipation in 1829.
It’s best to leave the State to do its own thing. It believes it can celebrate O’Connell as an accomplished human rights activist while it itself fails the litmus test of human dignity and human rights in presiding over 10,000 abortions performed annually nationwide. Catholic Emancipation presents a problem for a State increasingly committed to a national politics stripped of religion and religiously grounded argument.
Furthermore, the Catholic faith is, to paraphrase Fr Richard John Neuhaus, “the stranger who resists the continued attempts [of the State] to assimilate it to the nation’s own self-realisation.” This “stranger” operated in the pre-Emancipation era and must now again. A lived Catholic faith in Ireland will need other emancipations in the future.
Catholic leaders and laity should celebrate O’Connell’s achievement but have more to gain from reflection on the period pre-1829. What is it about lived Catholic faith that it can survive at length for an emancipation of the 1829 type, despite existing under the cosh for generations? Successive generations of Catholics had people numerous enough to engage with Christ and respond to Christ and his grace despite human weakness. He did not ask them to preserve the Church but to pursue faithfulness to Him.
Today, in the context of persistent efforts to marginalise the diminished practising Catholic community the Mass rocks are in churches now, and the same graces are available. The same Christ is asking for the same faithfulness. He will build the Church.
Yours etc,
Neil Bray
Cappamore, Co. Limerick
We need fresh thinking
Dear Editor, as our priests decline in number we must look for solutions. Pray to the Lord of the Heaven to send labourers into His vineyard, but we must help personally too. Let’s start by noting that the days when young men joined seminaries is gone, but we can help.
Any man up to say 75, can serve as a priest if suitable. I can hear someone say, “But I’m working already, Monday to Friday.” You could offer yourself and serve as a priest Saturday or Sunday, or both!
We need fresh thinking!
Yours etc,
Alex Reid
Donegal Town
People’s concerns about abortion should be heard
Dear Editor, Sinead Boland asks “is the subject of abortion regarded as done and dusted?” (The Irish Catholic, July 17, 2025). Indeed, it is, and I heard that confirmed recently in a comment on a radio programme which simply stated that “the people voted for it and it is now law”. This is why it is vital that we ensure that silence does not prevail on this issue. That is the aim of those promoting abortion and the reason there is no debate or discussion allowed.
It is notable that no reference to the promise by the Government that abortion, if it were legalised would be rare, is allowed to be mentioned. In fact, to date no discussion has even taken place on the 3 Year Review promised at the time of the referendum. Indeed, the Government has blatantly refused to meet anyone who has qualms about the Review or is alarmed and outraged at the huge increase in abortion since it was legalised.
It is totally unacceptable that people’s genuine concerns about this issue are allowed to be ignored while no option other than abortion is offered to those with crises pregnancies. How can this situation continue to be tolerated? It does not say much for our claim to be a compassionate society and, while outrage is rightly being expressed about the slaughter of the innocents in Gaza, why has the same not been displayed regarding abortion?
Yours etc,
Mary Stewart
Ardeskin, Donegal Town
Innovation could keep the Church alive
Dear Editor, in view of the declining numbers availing of the Sacraments, such as First Holy Communion and Confirmation. I would suggest that Women Deacons be introduced in a recognised Ministry in the Church. There may be a hesitancy in ordaining women as deacons as evident in the ongoing debate of the Synodal process, but there is no reason why they could not become Deaconesses.
This role would greatly enhance – in helping the children and their parents along with the already great input of teachers in preparing for the Sacraments. There needs to be an increased co-ordination and a visible presence between the Church and school. The Priests also make a tremendous effort in Sacramental preparation. We need to be more innovative, so the Church remains alive and active for generations to come.
Yours etc,
Noreen Shields
Downpatrick, Co Down
Mass immigration concerns are ‘not racists’
Dear Editor, with one of the three accused of the alleged sexual assault last month in Ballymena having absconded back to Romania, it’s time we reevaluate the whole issue of illegal immigration and whether or not illegal immigration is actually benefiting us in any way perceivable or otherwise. Illegal immigration includes those arriving without documentation.
According to the UK Government sources, this amounts to tens of thousands each year. We don’t know their past. We don’t know what age they really are. Therefore, many will have criminal records, and many adult migrants will be placed in schools.
From experience we know that many are placed in vulnerable communities and therefore the Ballymena incident was a tragedy waiting to happen. What other outcomes are there going to be? The solution is to send them back.
This is the illegal immigration I’m talking about. Let’s be clear about that. Legal immigration into the UK can be on a points system, based on health, age, English language proficiency, academic and vocational qualifications, criminal record, and suitability for the UK’s workforce and shortages of labour thereof. We need to stop the labelling of all those concerned about mass immigration as ‘racists’ when incidents like what happened in Ballymena show their concerns were and are justified.
All those calling for unbridled and ‘All welcome’ style immigration also need to be called out for the lunacy of this approach. The geo-political reasons for allowing mass immigration will be made clear most likely when it’s too late and the consequences are irreversible, but it won’t have been done in anyone’s name as such matters have been absent from the ballot box – with those vulnerable communities absent from any consent procedures.
Yours etc,
Louis Shawcross
Royal Hillsborough, Co. Down
The PPC members election should be restored
Dear Editor, In the article ‘Conversation in the Spirit: Meath Diocese strengthens synodal practice’ (The Irish Catholic, July 17, 2025), Fr Declan Hurley describes the Meath Diocese hosting four training sessions to introduce Parish Pastoral Council members to the practice of “Conversation in the Spirit – a core methodology of the Church’s synodal journey”.
As members of Parish Pastoral Councils (PPCs) are solely appointed by the parish priest, this could leave the laity in the pews without a say and nobody listening to them as their line of communication has been cut off.
When the first Parish Pastoral Councils were appointed, every parishioner could put their name forward and the whole parish then selected the PPC members by a parish-wide ballot.
In the spirit of the Synodality process, the selection of PPC members by election should be restored.
Yours etc,
Daithi O’Muirneachain
Dublin 9
The anti-Catholic rhetoric of the Tuam case
Dear Editor, to think, for one instance, that the current government and their ideological bedfellows from other parties would even consider commemorating the freedom given to Catholics to stand for elections, worship openly, etc, is naivety of the highest magnitude!
They have no love for the faith and no doubt are preparing for the current excavation at the children’s Home in Tuam to peddle further the lies of dumped remains in cesspits. They only want to continue the myth of croppies lying down, covered with the essential dosage of anti-Catholic rhetoric and bias, since it is, in essence, the new reality!
Yours etc,
Fr John McCallion, CC
Coalisland, Co. Tyrone