Margaret Atwood once wrote that sometimes a thing needs to be said, and said, and said again, until it doesn’t need to be said anymore. That’s why I write a column annually on suicide, mostly saying the same things over and over again. The hope is that, like a note put into a bottle and…
Notebook I’m on the move. After a ten-year sojourn in Newcestown and Farnivane, I’ll be calling in the movers shortly. Objection is futile at this stage: how fortunate was I to spend ten years here. I am not the only Cork and Ross priest to be moved this year. Some think that almost all will have…
The idea of same-sex marriage was only seriously suggested in the 1990s, and one of the earliest advocates for this cause was the Catholic conservative journalist and writer Andrew Sullivan. At first, the gay community was divided about same-sex marriage – and some are still opposed to it” Mr Sullivan, who is from an Irish…
Shannon Campbell The View We hear views we disagree with all the time, but do we really listen to them? How do we approach difficult conversations in a way that ensures everyone feels fully heard? These are questions my peers and I have been wrestling with over recent months as we’ve been expressing our views…
This phase of the synod process has provoked diverse and sometimes contradictory suggestions, but also shown that many people still care for the Church, writes Bishop Brendan Leahy One thing is clear: The Church does not stand still. The Spirit pushes us forward. Pope Francis comments on the expression sometimes heard reflecting a hesitancy about…
The response of President Higgins to the massacre of Nigerian Catholics was tone-deaf in the extreme, writes David Quinn At least President Michael D. Higgins thought to mention the recent brutal attack on Mass-goers in southwestern Nigeria that left 40 dead and 87 injured. I’m not aware of any of our other political leaders doing…
The views of a section of the Church, even if it is the view of many, is not the sense of the Faithful, writes Dr John Murray Last week’s edition of The Irish Catholic reports that the Dublin synodal report “says that ‘many were moved by the Spirit’ to call for the consideration of female…
Judith Sudilovsky After 10 years of systematic work, the Old City of Jerusalem is more accessible to the disabled and the elderly. The pandemic-related shutdown allowed for completion of work of the last, most sensitive mile of the historic stone alleyways of the Via Dolorosa – the Way of the Cross. It took years for…
According to one of the Catholic Church’s foremost experts on clerical sexual abuse prevention, by ignoring the voice of the victims “we are excluding the voice of Jesus who speaks to us through them”. German Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, President of the Institute of Anthropology-Interdisciplinary Studies on Protection and Human Dignity (IADC) of the Pontifical…
There are still people everywhere who believe there’s no longer any issue regarding the status of women. Widespread is the belief that today, at least in democratic countries, women enjoy full equality with men. As well, for many, feminism is a bad word, politically charged, representing a radical liberal ideology whose agenda is at odds…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Mary Kenny
David Quinn