The Methodists pioneered the great temperance movements of the Victorian era – and were so successful at overcoming addiction to alcohol, especially among poor people who were being ruined by penny gin – that their campaigns have had many imitators since. Even the Pioneers learned from the Methodists (and from the great Fr Mathew). So…
Category: Comment & Analysis
Francis wants to shake the Church out of complacency
Michael Kelly examines the Pope’s ‘roadmap to reform’, Evangelii Gaudium
The Pope’s reform agenda
The Pontiff’s new exhortation is a powerful display of practicality, writes Cathal Barry
Tradition and Sacred Scripture
Cathal Barry reflects what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says about the relationship between Tradition and the Sacred Scriptures
Church has replaced England as our bogeyman
When it comes to the Catholic Church, many Irish people need to grow up, writes David Quinn
The opportunity for the Church
I'm back in Australia after two months in Europe, including Ireland. I find it difficult to overestimate the rate and depth of change I witnessed and the collapse of a phase of the Church's life that is currently underway. Throughout the world, but particularly in Ireland, the sense of the end of an era that…
Searching for a word filled with reality
The right word makes the Word become flesh, writes Fr Ronald Rolheiser
The Pope, Medjugorje and messages from heaven
The issue of Medjugorje can be a divisive one within the Church, writes Michael Kelly
The transmission of Revelation
Cathal Barry explains that Church Tradition is preserved by the bishops as successors to the apostles
Shatter’s attack on the family
A forthcoming law will be the most far-reaching attack on the family, writes David Quinn

Mary Kenny
Michael Kelly
Cathal Barry
David Quinn