The View Once upon a time 11 shocked and weary disciples gathered together to mourn the death of their leader, betrayed by the 12th disciple. There must have seemed to be no hope at all. Their leader had told them that he would return to them, but they knew he had died a shocking, terrible…

Rates of marriages and births decline as our social bond weakens, writes David Quinn. Ireland, or at least our opinion-formers, love declaring how much we have changed in recent decades and that it is almost all for the better. We are much more ‘tolerant’ now, they say, far more ‘compassionate’. We have legalised same-sex marriage.…

Expanding prison capacity is more a coping strategy than a solution to prison overcrowding, Jason Osborne hears. Prison overcrowding has been back in the news, with recent reports claiming that well over one hundred prisoners, both men and women, have been sleeping on mattresses in prisons due to a lack of suitable space. As well…

Letter from Rome Justin McLellan The flag of Vatican City, yellow and white with crossed keys under the papal tiara, is incorrect in many emojis, flying outside the United Nations and often even on Vatican buildings. Through confusion possibly caused by an erroneous Wikipedia entry, the Vatican flags waving outside its buildings and sold in…

While maintaining its stance against IVF, the Vatican issued a new document May 30 sounding an alarm about declining birth rates and touting alternatives to methods of artificial reproduction the Church sees as morally unacceptable. The text also reiterates the Church’s traditional opposition to contraception, despite speculation in some quarters that Pope Francis might be…

Notebook Another First Communion and Confirmation season has come to an end. I will again beat my lonely drum in the hope that we might begin a serious and honest conversation around what is happening with these sacramental encounters in every parish in Ireland. Earlier this year we had four Confirmation ceremonies in the two…

We spend so much of our active adult lives acquiring things: and then, in the senior years, we start to realise the need to discard so much of the stuff we have accumulated. Honestly, it’s taken me more than six months to clear out my Dublin flat (to move to a smaller abode). By the…

It is great news that every primary school in Greystones has signed up for a ban on smartphones. It is a significant gesture when everyone is wringing their hands about the impact of smartphones but few are doing anything about it. It is not enough, however. There need to be familial, local, national and international…

We need to help teenagers to recognise their own value and that of everyone else, writes Alexander O’Hara We are currently experiencing not only an environmental crisis which threatens the future existence of our species, but an anthropological crisis that threatens to reshape and redefine the very nature of what makes us human. With massive…

The government has listened to ideological campaigners instead of parents, writes David Quinn The new Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE) syllabus for Junior Cycle students aged 12 to 15 in the Republic has been published by Education Minister, Norma Foley, and it is a deeply ideological piece of work that will upset many parents.…