True compassion helps someone carry their burden until the time hopefully comes when it doesn’t feel like a burden anymore, writes David Quinn A friend who is good at number-crunching tells me that 37% of weekly Mass-goers voted for abortion on May 25. He gleaned that figure from exit poll data. It is a horrifying…
Ireland is facing the most momentous vote in its history, writes David Quinn These are the closing days of a referendum debate on the most momentous vote ever to face the Irish people; do we believe that unborn members of the human family have a right to life or not? It is not at…
The referendum is in reality about abortion on demand, writes David Quinn This abortion referendum is not primarily about the hard cases such as rape and ‘fatal foetal abnormality’. Under the planned law, the vast majority of abortions will take place on the healthy babies or healthy women. That is what we are really…
Far from being a fallacy, the ‘slippery slope’ is all too often all too real, writes David Quinn I sometimes wonder what it would take to persuade liberals that the ‘slippery slope’ is a reality. I’ve come across various articles lately claiming it is a myth and that whenever traditionalists claim a certain dire consequence…
Maintaining a religious ethos in a secular culture is a serious challenge, writes David Quinn If the Fine Gael party were run by people who do not believe in Fine Gael policy, would it still be Fine Gael? Most people would say the answer to this question is No. Likewise, with the Catholic Church.…
Politicians are forcing their views on the Church, writes David Quinn Liberalism is an extremely aggressive and domineering ideology. In the name of ‘tolerance’ and ‘inclusion’, it intimidates opponents into submission by denouncing them as ‘bigots’ and ‘haters’. Like Christianity when it was politically and socially very powerful, liberalism will brook no rivals. It…
Lots of small, kind gestures make saints, writes David Quinn A few weeks ago during a chat with a renowned Italian journalist, the Pope seemed to call the existence of Hell into doubt, or so it was reported. The journalist, Eugenio Scalfari (94), is founder of the traditionally anti-clerical newspaper, La Repubblica. Pope Francis…
Speaking one’s mind can be both controversial and compelling, writes David Quinn Recently I came across for the first time an interpretation of why the Jews spent 40 years in the desert before finally arriving at the Promised Land. It was to “purify them” of the slave mentality. I then found this is a…
Every society has treated ‘unwanted’ children as a problem, writes David Quinn As with the Magdalene homes, mother and baby homes have developed a strong attachment in the public mind with both Ireland and Catholicism. That is to say, these institutions seem peculiar to Irish Catholicism. This linkage in the public mind is likely…
Our Lord’s maleness was not an accident, writes David Quinn The debate over whether or not women in the Catholic Church can be priests is one for Catholics, first and foremost. That ought to go without saying. Many of those chipping in on the issue over the last couple of weeks don’t believe in…