Galway City Council has voted to abandon its practice of opening its monthly meeting with a prayer. The vote to scrap the prayer in favour of a moment of silent reflection was tied at seven votes each until the council’s deputy chairperson, Fine Gael’s Pearce Flannery, used his casting vote to back the motion to…
Welcoming the election of Emmanuel Macron as president of France, the head of the French bishops’ conference has said he hoped elections next month to the National Assembly will not place the country “in an ungovernable situation”. Elected last weekend with 66.1% of votes in the second-round presidential ballot, former economy minister and head of…
The Vatican is investigating the decision by a group of Belgian psychiatric care centres run by a religious order to allow doctors to perform euthanasia of “nonterminal” mentally ill patients on their premises. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, is personally examining the situation, according to Bro. Rene Stockman, superior general of the Brothers…
The American Health Care Act the US House of Representatives passed by a four-vote margin has “major defects” according to the chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Social Development. Venice, Florida’s Bishop Frank Dewane said it was “deeply disappointing that the voices of those who will be most severely impacted were…
Dear Editor, Your use of the word “cowardice” in your Editor’s Comment (IC 27/04/2017) in relation to the Church and the increased likelihood of a referendum on abortion in 2018, certainly struck a chord with me. It came during a week when Pope Francis had mentioned to us the case of a young mother in…
Joyce Meyer Joyce Meyer shares actionable advice and encouragement on how to start enjoying the life God created for us “I’m just having a bad day.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people mutter those words (or muttered them myself). Traffic is backed up, you spill your coffee before you even get…
Gillian Doherty Gillian Doherty reports from a retreat for Transition Year students The hills were alive with the sound of music, prayer, and praise in the Knockmealdown Mountains, Co. Waterford last week, as more than 350 Transition Year students from across Munster gathered for the Mount Melleray Youth Day 2017. The event was organised by…
Felix M. Larkin The Easter Proclamation 1916, a comparative analysis by Liam de Paor (Four Courts Press, €14.95pb) The words “Easter Proclamation” in the title of this book are singularly ill-judged. They evoke the sacred Easter Proclamation, the Exsultet, sung at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night and so they reinforce the identification of…
Dear Editor, Greg Daly’s article on the so-called ‘Citizens’ Assembly’ – ‘Unrepresentative advice from an unrepresentative body’ (IC 27/04/2017) – is illustrated by a picture of the gathered group of citizens and a sheet showing the result of one of the ballots conducted by the assembly. The ballot, considering the question of whether abortion should…
Felix M. Larkin Ireland: The Autobiography – One hundred years in the life of the nation, told by its people ed. by John Bowman (Penguin Ireland, €25/£20) Shakespeare’s stage Irishman in Henry V, Captain Macmorris, famously asks “What ish my nation?” He answers his own question with these words: “Ish a villain, and a bastard,…