Dear Editor, I write as we mark Coeliac Awareness Week. Five years on from diagnosis, I could recount several episodes where I have returned from Mass exasperated and wondering how more complicated sharing in Holy Communion can get. Many queries and letters later, I am perplexed as to why there cannot be agreement and clarity…
Courtney McGrail
Swedish law on prostitution informed by radical feminism
Dear Editor, In her article on Amnesty International’s stance on prostitution (IC 05/05/2016) Breda O’Brien mentions the Swedish prostitution law of 1999 which has been copied in certain other jurisdictions including our own. The key features of the Swedish law are, first, that it criminalises the purchase of sex but, second, it effectively liberalises its sale…
Meath WYD pilgrims get ready to join Pope
Bishop Michael Smith will lead a group of over 50 young people from the Diocese of Meath to the World Youth Day gathering in Krakow next July. Some of the participants took part in a preparation day in Mullingar on Sunday, organised by Fr Kevin Heery (Navan) and Fr Robert McGivney (Mullingar).
Electricity can help end violence in Nigeria
Electricity could go a long way to stemming violence often attributed to religion, Nigerian’s bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto has said. Violence in Nigeria is attributed to religious conflicts, the bishop said, but “more often it is just a battle for survival and a battle over resources”. Without electricity, he argued, many people cannot…
Trump v Clinton matchup has Catholic leaders scrambling
Michael O’Loughlin With the general election matchup coming into focus, some Catholic leaders in the US find themselves scrambling to figure out what to make of a race between one candidate whose views on immigration clash with decades of Catholic pro-immigration work, and another who supports same-sex marriage and expanded access to abortion and contraception. Whereas…
Bible passages can support both sides of deacon argument
Dear Editor, In Kieron Wood’s letter (IC 28/04/2016), he plucks a line from the Bible (Timothy 2.12) to support his argument against women deacons. St Paul, a great orator of his time can only (I think) be read in context with the times, customs and practices he lived in and also the unfortunate standing/treatment of females and…
Sabina Higgins’ comments on abortion wholly inappropriate
Dear Editor, I am utterly appalled at Sabina Higgins’ public comments that lack of access to abortion in Ireland in situations where the unborn child has a life limiting condition is an outrage against women, the world and nature. Mrs Higgins’ intervention is completely inappropriate and an abuse of the fact that the public elected…
Call for British Catholics to vote to remain in the EU
The former archbishop of Westminster has called on British Catholics to vote to remain in the EU in the upcoming ‘Brexit’ referendrum. Pointing out that the Church has always been broadly supportive of the European Union, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor noted how recent Popes have challenged the union to renew itself by returning to its…
Vatican Roundup
No ban on female prime ministers for the Vatican There is no reason why a woman could not become the Vatican’s “Prime Minister”, the current holder of that position has said at a press conference. “A woman could become Secretary of State, in the sense that the role of the Secretary of State is evidently not bound to the sacraments or the priesthood,”…
Dancing for prayer
School children from Our Lady of Vietnam Church in Silver Spring, Maryland, perform a liturgical dance for the call to prayer during the US’s 14th annual Asian and Pacifi c Island Catholics Marian Pilgrimage at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC. Photo: CNS