British faith leaders – at the time of writing – were still awaiting the decision as to whether all faiths will be included in the Coronation oath of King Charles III on May 6; or if the Church of England will retain its exclusive control over the ceremony. Charles said, back in 1994, that he…

The Church needs defenders who will acknowledge its sins while pointing out its many accomplishments, writes David Quinn It is gloves off time now for the critics of the Catholic Church in Ireland. They have gone from rightly attacking the leadership of the Church over their appalling failure to stop clerical sex abuse until the…

Good Friday at 25 The View There has been much coverage in the last weeks of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. I have not wanted to watch much of it. My abiding memory of the signing of the agreement is that it induced in me a sense of great sorrow and distress…

Notebook Last Monday, April 10, marked the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday agreement. This agreement finally brought peace to Northern Ireland after decades of violence and conflict. I was always deeply struck by the timing of when this historic peace agreement was reached – on the day the prince of peace…

We cannot predict the future of humankind, but nevertheless, experts in various fields continue to do so. In recent weeks, the experts at the investment banking empire Goldman Sachs have been telling us that Artificial Intelligence – the rise and rise of robots engineered by computerised science – will erase about 300 million jobs in…

Things we do every year are familiar, comforting and sometimes, numbing. Lent, Holy Week and Easter are supposed to remind us of the central, astonishing truth of Christianity – God loved us so much that he died for us. Even more astonishing, he then ended the dominion of death by rising. This ought to be…

There are many sources of meaning and purpose, but without doubt religion is the pre-eminent one, writes David Quinn A new report from the United Nations (UN) reckons that people living in Ireland are the 14th happiest on the planet. The Finns are ranked at number one. The results are to be found in the…

A danger in any synodal pathway is that the process can be dominated by a vocal minority, writes Rev. Stephen Neill Like many of my colleagues I have been watching with some interest the evolution of the ‘synodal pathway’ in the Catholic Church in Ireland and indeed worldwide. It was thus disappointing to see reported…