Letter from Rome In response to a burgeoning controversy last week over the Vatican’s novel protest of a draft anti-homophobia law in Italy, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State, said June 24 the goal of the move wasn’t to interfere with Italy’s internal politics but rather to head off a potential problem. Instead…

While the Vatican is embroiled in its own battle against gender politics in Italy, the Cuban bishops are facing a similar dilemma, and have issued a statement criticising a resolution that would make so-called “gender ideology” part of school curricula. The bishops argue that the resolution is unscientific in that it denies basic biological differences…

Notebook Recently I visited the three schools of our parish to celebrate first penance with the boys and girls preparing for First Holy Communion. It is noteworthy that the number of children involved between the three schools is fourteen. I say this, as a slight aside, because when we hear of numbers, restrictions and NPHET…

The World Health Organisation has been issuing advice to women: do not drink any alcohol during your childbearing years. Because most women, from adolescence to menopause, are likely to become mothers, and boozing mothers can produce infants with the distressing Foetal Alcohol Syndrome. I wonder if I had been given such advice, when I was…

Larry Donnelly A few years ago now, I wrote in this newspaper about my determination to bring my young son, Larry Óg, to Mass with me every week. My resolve remains strong and, though he does sometimes protest, my namesake typically attends on Sundays with his parents at St Patrick’s Church here in Wicklow Town. Of…

The reality is that without fresh funding the work of safeguarding in the Church will fall behind, writes Michael Kelly “Hearts and minds have been changed, but there is no room for complacency” – that was the upbeat yet cautious assessment of the head of the independent body monitoring safeguarding in the Church this week.…

Fr Ger Nash tells Ruadhán Jones about the hopes and challenges of his new position Becoming a bishop is a daunting prospect, whatever your age or experience. Fr Ger Nash, who celebrates 30 years as a priest this year, knows this well, having been diocesan secretary of Killaloe for the last 13 years. Asked if…

Irish bishops ignoring the issue of Holy Communion for pro-abortion politicians would be a failure of leadership, writes David Quinn In 1998, the Catholic bishops of Ireland, England and Wales issued a now mostly forgotten document called One Bread One Body. Its main subject matter was inter-communion, that is, whether or not non-Catholic Christians could…

Only if spiritual communion with God were a bad thing would infant Baptism be a bad thing, writes Dr Gaven Kerr Former president Mary McAleese has again taken aim at the issue of infant Baptism. In a recent address, she indicated that she believed that the practice of infant Baptism within the Church is problematic…