Lack of past practice suggests Pope won’t make profound change, writes David Quinn Pope Francis appears to have poured cold water for the time being on the idea of women deacons, or at least of something equivalent to the male deaconate. The Pope had established a commission in 2016 to examine the issue. It…
An obsession with autonomy is driving up Ireland’s abortion rate, writes David Quinn It was a classic case of ‘burying the lede’, that is to say, the real lead was not what the report highlighted. Instead the headline on the RTÉ website read: “Concerns raised about implementing new abortion laws.” The story was about…
One minority is consistently ignored in today’s Ireland, writes David Quinn Minorities today often receive preferential status. This is to compensate in many cases for a past in which minorities were often discriminated against or rendered invisible. The compensation takes many forms. One is protection from criticism, hence politically correct policing of the things…
Mothers and fathers are different and we shouldn’t be afraid to say so, writes David Quinn This is a very strange and contradictory Government. On the one hand it is preparing a new law that will allow a couple not to record themselves on a birth certificate as the mother and father of their…
The latest Tuam interim report invites a host of questions, writes David Quinn The latest interim report by the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes was issued last week. This new report is concerned mainly with finding out what happened to the dead infants and children in the various institutions under investigation.…
RTÉ documentary came from a strange place, writes David Quinn It is hard to know what the point of Rome v Republic was. The programme aired last week on RTÉ and was presented by former Justice Minister Michael McDowell. It repeated talking points about the Church and its relationship to Irish society and the…
A former Government minister’s take on Humanae Vitae is too simple, writes David Quinn Pope Benedict XVI once memorably spoke of a “dictatorship of relativism”. Just prior to becoming Pope in 2005 he said: “Today, having a clear Faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labelled as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, that…
If you think you owe your parents nothing, prepare to learn they were right all along, writes David Quinn Recently I came across the following tweet from a Jewish academic in Israel by the name of Yoram Hazony: “Honour your father and mother or learn about life the hard way.” I’ve never read a…
Archbishop Martin would have nothing to lose by speaking up, writes David Quinn In an address last week, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin criticised the “euphoria” that greeted the fall of communism in Europe some 30 years ago. He was quoting the recently deceased Belgian cardinal, Godfried Danneels. Archbishop Martin said Cardinal Danneels had been troubled…
Irish people must start having children in their 20s, writes David Quinn Almost half of women aged 18 to 24 would consider freezing their eggs according to a new survey from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in the UK. They would do so in order to ‘preserve their fertility’ in the hope…