I think that quite a lot of sincere and good Catholics will feel minded to vote ‘Yes’ to the same-sex marriage referendum coming up on May 22. People want to be kind. People want to be respectful of others and of the nature of others. There are old Irish sayings which underline these sensibilities. Long…

When we consider Pope Francis’ remarks about it being rather selfish not to have children, we have to see it in the context of Italy today. Italy’s low birth rate is catastrophic. The famously child-loving Italians currently have their lowest rate of births since 1870, with just 8.5 babies born for every 1,000 of the…

My husband was very unwell a few weeks ago – not eating, sleeping all the time. I thought perhaps he was moving towards the departure lounge of life. He’s an Anglican and we had spoken, in the past, about ‘end of life’ situations. His views were the same as mine. You don’t kill people off;…

It must have been some eight years ago since Stephen Fry, accompanied by his then-young boyfriend, a hair stylist, very kindly drove me from Oxfordshire to London on a late summer afternoon. We had been attending a barbecue party given by the late Mel Smith, the actor and comedian, and Mr Fry and his companion…

What is informally called the Pope’s ‘rabbit’ speech – when he remarked that families don’t have to “breed like rabbits” – scarcely needed underlining in most European countries today. Far from “breeding like rabbits”, the European fertility rate is catastrophically low. And even in Ireland, where fertility has traditionally been high – and even valued…

The structure of the Church mirrors the world

‘be aware of the contemporary contradictions which surround this whole subject of ‘liberty of speech’, writes Mary Kenny

“Even though the official Catholic Church disapproved of rebellion, it was a profoundly Catholic event”

Treasuring past Christmases for their ‘uncomplicated simplicity’