The American family is in trouble: according to a report carried out by Cornell University (by sociologist Karl Pillemer) more than a quarter of Americans are estranged from a close family member. He says the figure could be higher because people can be ashamed to admit their isolation from family connections. Estrangement The most common…
The View I missed the movie, Eighth Grade, when it was in cinemas but saw it recently on Netflix. In the US, being in eighth grade is roughly equivalent to second year, a particularly difficult age. Hormones kick in and friendships become complicated. Painful Social media has made being a teenager even more difficult. The protagonist,…
Churches must seek to reduce social distancing requirement so that public worship can return to normal as soon as possible, writes David Quinn Public worship was permitted again in Ireland in May. Nowhere else in Europe had stopped people from gathering together for religious worship for so long. But now, as we face into August,…
Letter from Rome Though it hardly made a dent in the weekend’s news cycle given Pope Francis’s bombshell crackdown on the Latin Mass, Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu announced his latest lawsuit Saturday, in this case suing an Italian newspaper called La Verità for defamation over a report regarding movements of money in Becciu’s home diocese in Sardinia.…
Celebrating the first Church-sponsored day of grandparents, Pope Francis said Sunday that he’s fearful of a society that treats individuals as part of a nameless crowd. Grandparents who were in St Peter’s Square for his weekly Angelus prayer agreed, acknowledging that they too fear being forgotten. Grandparents and the Elderly “How do we see our…
I wrote my doctoral thesis on the value of various philosophical arguments that try to prove the existence of God. Can there be such a proof? Brilliant philosophers, from Anselm, through Aquinas, through Descartes, through contemporary intellectuals like Charles Hartshorne, submit that the existence of God can be proven through rational argument. Except, a lot depends…
Notebook The Pope’s recent document, clamping down on the Tridentine Mass, has made difficult reading for some Catholics. The document issued by his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI authorising that Mass (which Pope Francis has now overridden), also made difficult reading for another band of Catholics. Pontifex The key thing to remember, however, is that neither…
It fascinates me that whenever there is a street demonstration in Ireland against the alleged influence of nuns – as there has been in connection with the proposed National Maternity Hospital adjacent to St Vincent’s – protesters come out with the catchphrase, often painted on banners: “Get your Rosaries/Off our ovaries.” This snappy campaign cry…
The View Niamh Uí Bhriain Last week, Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín read an astonishing document into the Dáil record. He had received a document, under freedom of information, in regard to a shocking decision made about the movement of older, vulnerable people from hospitals to nursing homes at the outset of the Covid-19 crisis. Some background is…
A much greater threat to the unity of the Church is what is going on in the likes of Germany, writes David Quinn Personally, I do not attend the Latin Mass. I have been to three or four in my adult life, and one of them was a funeral. The others I attended mainly out…
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien
David Quinn
John L. Allen Jr.
Fr Ronald Rolheiser