John Lavenburg A US-government commission tasked with monitoring religious freedom abroad has recommended the State Department designate five new countries as “Countries of Particular Concern (CPCs)” because of their engagement in, or toleration of, “particularly severe” religious freedom violations, including against Christians. In its 2023 report released on May 1, the United States Commission on…

We have a name! (Or, Habemus nomen as the cardinal who announces a new pope might put it). At last, our family of parishes has a name of its very own. Since last September, when I took up my new West Cork coastal appointment, our pastoral unit has had the somewhat unwieldy title of “The…

The legendary French feminist Simone de Beauvoir has been removed from a list of female candidates to be honoured in sculpture at Trinity College Dublin’s Old Library. When it emerged that De Beauvoir, who died in 1986, was accused of grooming young female students as lovers – whom she apparently passed on to her veteran…

In barrister Marie O’Shea’s independent review of the abortion legislation, abortion is taken as an unqualified good. Therefore, anything standing in the way has to be removed. The three-day waiting period is framed as dispensable. And yet the review acknowledges elsewhere in a section on consent, that “there are risks that women may regret their…

Parents will have to fight back if gender ideology is imposed on schools, writes David Quinn A major review into how Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) is taught in the country’s schools has been underway for some time now with demands that it be brought ‘up to date’. This is often code for ditching from…

Kieran O’Sullivan died on Saturday 16, April 2023. He was the local undertaker in Rathdowney, Co. Laois. Dear Kieran, I write this letter to you just two weeks after you have gone to the Father’s house where no doubt you have had a wonderful reunion with your parents Michael and Mai. Mind you, I presume…

Health experts have, in the past, had ambiguous approaches to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) – once called “venereal disease”, (after Venus, Roman love goddess). Some thought prevention could be assisted by shame and stigma, discouraging people from risking infection by promiscuous relationships. And undoubtedly some preachers portrayed “VD” as a punishment for sexual sins. Yet…

Earlier this month, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said that 8,500 women had availed of abortion services in Ireland in 2022. He sounded pretty pleased about the numbers, even though, if he is correct, it would represent an enormous jump in the number of babies being killed by abortion. In fact, it would represent a…

In their young lives, adolescents are far more likely to have suffered the worst kind of sexual assault than much older women who have seen far more of life, writes David Quinn There is a widespread idea that as Ireland becomes more liberal, it is almost becoming a kinder, gentler place. The evidence in favour…

Edwardo Campos Lima Members of indigenous groups were the largest number of people murdered in land disputes in Brazil in 2022. According to the Bishops’ Conference’s Land Pastoral Commission (CPT), which releases a report on rural conflicts every year, 47 people were killed last year as a result of such disputes – and 18 of…