It fascinates me that whenever there is a street demonstration in Ireland against the alleged influence of nuns – as there has been in connection with the proposed National Maternity Hospital adjacent to St Vincent’s – protesters come out with the catchphrase, often painted on banners: “Get your Rosaries/Off our ovaries.” This snappy campaign cry…
The View Niamh Uí Bhriain Last week, Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín read an astonishing document into the Dáil record. He had received a document, under freedom of information, in regard to a shocking decision made about the movement of older, vulnerable people from hospitals to nursing homes at the outset of the Covid-19 crisis. Some background is…
A much greater threat to the unity of the Church is what is going on in the likes of Germany, writes David Quinn Personally, I do not attend the Latin Mass. I have been to three or four in my adult life, and one of them was a funeral. The others I attended mainly out…
Letter from Rome What impact it may have on the course of justice in a Vatican tribunal remains to be seen, but one point is becoming steadily clearer about the case of Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who’s been indicted along with nine other defendants for various forms of financial crime and corruption and who’s set…
Pope Francis’s decision to restrict celebration of the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass, effectively rolling back wider permission granted under Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, is being met by predictably mixed reaction from Catholics around the globe, with some praising the move as prophetic and others calling it a stain on Francis’s legacy. Speaking to Crux, liturgy…
“Some things need to be said and said and said again until they don’t need to be said anymore.” Margaret Atwood wrote that. I quote it here because each year I write a column on suicide and mostly say the same thing each time because certain things need to be said repeatedly about suicide until…
Notebook “Why did you become a priest?” Brendan lives not too far from Washington DC and is the middle of three children. I baptised him a short few years ago and each week with his parents and sisters, he joins the parish of Kilmovee for Sunday Mass via webcam. This led him, on one occasion…
Dear Editor, Relating to Bishop Tom Deenihan’s comments [IC 01/07/2021] that the Government has directed the Catholic Church to cancel First Holy Communions and Confirmations, I have said it before and I will say it again the Catholic Church’s religious practices and those that attend them are of no interest and therefore not a voting…
I’m not sure I could give a coherent description of the protocols of association football, were I quizzed on the subject: the ‘off-side’ rule has been explained to me many times, but I still don’t quite grasp it. It was lovely to see the euphoric delight expressed by the Italian fans in celebration” And yet,…
The View The late Fr Denis Faul acknowledged that the one luxury he permitted himself was a television subscription that permitted him to access French and German channels. As a country, we can afford even less today to rely exclusively on the Anglo-sphere for our information. Happily, it was possible to order from a French…
Mary Kenny
David Quinn
John L. Allen Jr.
Fr Ronald Rolheiser