Pontifical council consider challenges for women Violence against women, cultural pressures regarding women’s physical appearance, attitudes that subjugate women or that ignore male-female differences and the growing alienation of women from the Church in some parts of the World are themes the Pontifical Council for Culture is set to explore. The council has chosen to discuss the theme, ‘Women’s Cultures:…
Courtney McGrail
Lights for consecrated life
Religious carry candles in procession at the start of a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis to mark the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, February 2. The Mass in St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican also marked the World Day for Consecrated Life.
With power comes corruption
Dear Editor, Your editorial (“One Church but a very different Catholicism”, IC 08/01/2015) was an important event. To read in a Catholic paper that “History proves that, when the Church lusts after political and secular power, the Gospel is soon relegated”, is to pinpoint the dilemma upon whose horns the Church has been impaled ever…
Confusion between Mass and Communion
Dear Editor, In answer to Fr Ignatius Candon’s letter ‘Communion should be available to all’ (IC 15/01/2015), it has been brought to my attention that in certain priestless parishes in Germany and Switzerland, when a priest has turned up to celebrate Mass, he has been told, ‘No thank you, Father, we have our communion service’.…
Lack of solemnity in church
Dear Editor, I share with Helena Swords the feeling of offense at seeing our Catholic churches being increasingly used as concert halls with tickets being bought and sold at the door (Letters 01/01/2015). “My house will be called a house of prayer,” Jesus declared (Mt 21:13) and “Stop turning my Father’s house into a market,”…
Life’s Little Things
Like many others across the country, I was horrified at the sentence received by Patrick O’Brien for the years of abuse and torment of his daughter Fiona to which he pleaded guilty. This week the Court of Appeal agreed with most right-minded citizens when it ruled that the sentence – 12 years in prison with…
The Great Hunger as genocide
Strokestown and the Great Irish Famine by Ciarán Reilly (Four Courts Press, €17.50)
Boko Haram support sighted in anti-Catholic demonstrations
Some of the demonstrators at protests that turned into violent attacks on Catholic institutions in Niger were carrying signs supporting Boko Haram, the terrorist Islamist group based mainly in northeast Nigeria, local sources say. Niger’s bishops have suspended all Church-run activities, including schools and health centres, in the aftermath of the attacks by demonstrators protesting…
Pro-life is the new normal, says Boston’s Cardinal O’Malley at March for Life
Young people “are the most pro-life segment of the American people” according to Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley. Citing a Gallup poll that “declared pro-life is the new normal”, the cardinal said: “Congratulations, young people – you’re normal”. The cardinal was speaking to a crowd of 11,000 at the vigil Mass for the United States’ annual…
Newspaper cannot use the name ‘Allah’ for God
Malaysia’s Federal Court has ruled the Catholic Church cannot use the Arabic “Allah” as a substitute for “God” in the Malay edition of its newsweekly Herald. The ruling brings to an end an eight-year legal dispute which began when Murphy Pakiam, then Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, filed a lawsuit in response to then Home Minister…