The Church is concerned by a rise in eurosceptics, writes David Quinn For decades after World War II, the politics of Europe was characterised by great stability. Elections were almost always won by one of two political power blocs, either a centre-right Christian Democrat-style party, or a centre-left Social Democrat one. This has broken down.…
Emotion v Reason In this scenario a person with a touching personal story, but pushing an agenda, is pitted against a person on the other side who has just rational arguments. The latter person is on a hiding to nothing, coming across as heartless, insensitive and is put in a position where they are unable…
Michelle O’Neill’s election as First Minister in the restored power-sharing administration in Stormont is rightly hailed as an historic moment. We don’t need to rehearse the history of partition or the creation of Northern Ireland to know that those who crafted that state, never wanted or expected it to turn out this way. Ms O’Neill…
Scottish politicians are indulging in paternalistic overreach, writes Ian Dunn John Knox has been in the grave for four centuries, but his spirit still lingers in Scotland. As in Ireland, Scotland’s politicians like the idea of a progressive secular state that has left behind its religious roots – but the readiness with which Scotland’s politicians…
Letter from Rome Though it’s likely apocryphal, the story goes that during British rule of India, colonial officials became concerned about poisonous cobras in the city of Delhi and decided to offer a bounty for every dead snake. Enterprising locals, naturally, began to breed cobras in order to collect the reward. When the British discovered…
Jonathan Luxmoore Priests and lay Catholics from Belarus said they still hope their Church’s situation will improve, despite the continued arrests of clergy and new religious restrictions that are imminent. “Priests are being targeted on various pretexts, and many Catholics feel pressured and harassed,” explained Fr Dzmitry Prystupa, from Baranavichy in Belarus’ southern Diocese of…
Notebook A few weeks ago, priests were the subject of a highly-publicised TV programme, entitled: The Last Priests in Ireland. It wasn’t exactly the way I thought we might see ourselves presented or our ministry described. Last is a dangerous place to be! It puts on additional pressure and is tinged with sadness and despair.…
The Catholic Difference Within 24 hours last month, three mainstream Catholic websites ran stories describing Pope Francis’s meeting with the members and consultors of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the following headlines: Pope Francis defends blessings of couples in ‘irregular situations,’ including same-sex unions (America Media, January 26); Pope defends document…
For some time now, we’ve been told that Ireland is becoming ever more secular, and thus, faith symbols must be removed from public spaces. Mother Mary Aikenhead may have founded Irish nursing, but her portrait no longer graces the hospitals she established. And yet, surprisingly, we now have a new public holiday – this weekend…
A ‘No, No’ on the two referendum proposals would be an appropriate response. My Seanad colleague Michael McDowell was right to refer to this choice of polling day as a ‘gimmick’. It might otherwise be harmless were it not that, in order to secure the vote for this date, the Government rushed, and effectively subverted, the normal…
David Quinn
Brendan O’Regan
Ian Dunn
John L. Allen Jr.
George Weigel
Mary Kenny
Senator Ronan Mullen