An immediate scaling up of aid is now the only hope to avoid starvation for hundreds of thousands of people, writes Liam Fitzpatrick Forty-eight seconds. In the time it takes to brew a cup of coffee, one person in the Horn of Africa is likely dying of hunger in one of the most severe humanitarian…
Category: Comment & Analysis
Intentional or not, Pope offers valuable conclave tip on abuse baggage
Even before Pope Francis stages his latest consistory on August 27, inducting 20 new members into the Catholic Church’s most exclusive club, the event has managed to make news – in this case, not so much for the new cardinals who’ll be there, but the one erstwhile cardinal-designate who won’t. This past Thursday, the bishops’…
War and Vatican II – Pope shares insights
Pope Francis gave the editors of 10 Jesuit magazines a glimpse into how he makes decisions, background on one of his more controversial comments about the war in Ukraine and insight into what he sees as the refusal of some bishops to accept the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. Meeting in May with the…
Suicide and our misunderstandings
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…
New appointment an enormous shock for parishioners
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 conservative Catholic who was the first advocate of same-sex marriage…
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…
Synod must be rooted in prayer
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…
Discerning what God wants of the Church in Ireland today
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 problem with Michael D.
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…
Who exactly is being moved by the Spirit in the synodal process?
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…


John L. Allen Jr.

Fr Ronald Rolheiser

Mary Kenny


David Quinn
