It’s great to be here and to have this opportunity to come together today to mark the end of this very special 400th anniversary year for the King James Bible. I know there are some who will question why I am giving this speech. And if they happen to know that I’m setting out my…
Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has used his World Day of Peace message to appeal for a “mature” debate about the role of faith in society and warned against crude caricatures of religion. He also said that society must acknowledge that despite the scandals, the Church’s overall contribution to Ireland has been positive. Speaking at Mass…
While many egregious past failings are highlighted the audits reveal real and substantial progress, writes David Quinn Awaiting the release last week of the audits of child protection practice in six dioceses, the big question was whether they would reveal failings on the scale of Cloyne diocese. That is, would they reveal failings that put…
A Co. Down-based priest who stood aside following allegations of abuse has been restored to full priestly ministry after police said the allegations were unfounded. One can’t even begin to imagine how devastating it must be for a priest (or indeed anyone) to be the subject of a false allegation. Making the announcement about Castlewellan…
This week the National Archives made available to the general public the new releases of confidential State records and files from 1981 and earlier. In a preview of the documents, The Irish Catholic gleaned from the thousands of files some items of special interest to our readers. The following pages carry some of what…
Churches unite to defend faith schools Michael Kelly The main Christian churches are united in their determination to resist any moves by the Government that would dilute the ethos of faith-based schools. The Irish Catholic has learned that Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Methodist leaders are standing firm with Catholic leaders in their resolve to…
Ricky Santorum is the Republican candidate who came within eight votes of beating Mitt Romney in the Iowa caucus that is the first step in the race to be the Republican’s presidential candidate this year. Santorum is very strongly pro-life and pro-family and for this reason is being thoroughly demonised by his enemies and…
The unseemly and seemly unstoppable rush to zeroism At the weekend I spoke in Rimini at a gathering of nearly 6,000 students from Catholic universities all over Italy. Aged between late-teens and (a few) mid-twenties, they were members of the Catholic movement Comunione e Liberazione, which was founded in 1954, following an intuition by Fr…
Pope Benedict XVI is expected to announce that he is shortly to appoint new cardinals. But will Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin be among them? When Dr Martin – a career Vatican diplomat – was despatched from Rome in 2003 to take over from Cardinal Desmond Connell everyone though it was only a matter of time…
Archbishop John Charles McQuaid is entitled to the presumption of innocence, writes David Quinn Few figures in recent Irish history are more discredited than Archbishop John Charles McQuaid. In a certain narrow way, he was a very effective and energetic bishop in that he worked tirelessly to develop a diocese that served all the Catholics…