The Vatican response to the arrest of Cardinal Joseph Zen should concern us all, writes David Quinn In February 1949, the head of the Catholic Church in Hungary, Cardinal József Mindszenty, was sentenced to life in prison by the country’s communist government, one that had been put into power by Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union’s communist dictator.…
No organisation in history has made a more systematic or bigger contribution to healthcare worldwide than the Catholic Church, writes David Quinn In the row about the future of the National Maternity Hospital (NMH), Catholic healthcare has been unfairly demonised. The spectre has been raised that the Church will somehow exercise influence over the new…
The institution on which the family is based is in trouble and no-one cares, writes David Quinn Marriage in Ireland is changing rapidly. Fewer marry at all. We marry later. We are more likely to break up, and same-sex couples as well as opposite sex couples can legally wed. There are far more civil ceremonies…
The term ‘far-right’ obscures more than it reveals writes David Quinn Politics has probably become confusing for a lot of people. I follow politics obsessively, and I find it hard to keep track of the rise of new parties across Europe. The breakdown of the traditional left/right divide has made it more difficult to work…
The Church in Germany’s synodal pathway is the biggest threat to Church unity since the Reformation, writes David Quinn The Catholic Church in Germany has embarked on what it calls a ‘synodal pathway’ to re-examine teachings and practices of the Church in light of the abuse scandals. But the path it appears to wish to…
It is time to step up and embrace the call to prophetic witness, writes David Quinn A strange thing has happened since the abortion referendum of 2018, namely the Church in Ireland has almost completely stopped talking about the issue. Church leaders rarely preach about marriage and the family either, or more accurately, about why…
Catholics must support a swift peaceful resolution in Ukraine to avoid further catastrophe, writes David Quinn It still seems hard to believe that a major war is taking place again on European soil. It is not the first since the Second World War, of course. Long-running conflicts took place when Yugoslavia broke up in the…
Whether the review of abortion legislation is window-dressing or serious remains to be seen writes David Quinn The operation of Ireland’s abortion law is under review. It was introduced in January 2019, following the referendum of the previous year. In the first two years of its operation, the law resulted in the loss of more…
We are called to be more energised Christians with a stronger pastoral and missionary sense, writes David Quinn Most parishes are now holding meetings, or gatherings, to consider the future of the Church ahead of a Synod in Rome next year. In its own words, the purpose of that synod is “not to produce documents,…
The Church is asked to sell its land for housing, then blocked from doing so, writes David Quinn The Catholic Church is often asked to sell or donate some of its lands to help address the housing shortage. But now in Dublin it is being blocked in certain instances from doing exactly that. It is…