A friend and colleague suggested to me a short time ago that I should consider writing a book about nuns – since the majority of nuns are now ageing, and in the fullness of time will depart this world. Had I but world enough and time, I would indeed embark on this endeavour. But because of…

Catholic hospitals must stand their ground on abortion, writes David Quinn   In the Dáil last week, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar confirmed that Catholic hospitals will have to perform abortions under the terms of the upcoming abortion law. Let that sink in for a moment. Very few countries require such a thing because they know abortion…

Ed
 Condon   The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops met last week in Florida for its annual spring session at which the bishops had serious discussion about a number of issues, among them immigration. On Wednesday, their discussion took an unexpected turn. Speaking on the topic of the Trump administration’s immigration and asylum policies and…

Our culture doesn’t give us easy permission to mourn. Its underlying ethos is that we move on quickly from loss and hurt, keep our griefs quiet, remain strong always and get on with life. But mourning is something that’s vital to our health, something we owe to ourselves. Without mourning our only choice is to…

The Notebook   June is Jubilee month for many priests. In communities all over Ireland, people in sacred ministry are being honoured this month, especially for Silver, Ruby, Golden and Diamond jubilees (25, 40, 50 and 60 years of priesthood). I went to one such celebration earlier in June. A special once-off Mass had been…

A retired nurse died last month in a small hospital in Deal, Kent and many local people paid tribute to her. She was Mrs Maureen Bane, aged 76, and she had been the team leader coping with the victims of the IRA attack on the Deal bandsman in September 1989. On the morning of September 22,…

If the Church tries to be too accommodating of cultural Catholicism, it starts to lack coherence, writes David Quinn   In Ireland, most people still seem content to call themselves ‘Catholic’. Census data for 2016 put the figure at 78%. The RTÉ exit poll on the day of the abortion referendum came up with a…

Anyone who has ever watched a fire knows that at a point the flames subside and disappear into smouldering coals which themselves eventually cool and turn into cold, grey ash. But there’s a moment in that process, before they cool off, that the coals can be stirred so as to make them burst into flame…