Notebook Pope Francis said recently: “I know that many of you go to confession before Easter… Many will say to me: ‘But Father… I can’t leave the house and I want to make my peace with the Lord. I want him to embrace me… How can I do that unless I find a priest?’ “If…
Following the appalling murder of Sarah Everard, kidnapped at London’s Clapham Common, a tsunami of protest has arisen in Britain about violence against women. An extraordinary number of women have said that they do not feel safe in the streets – or sometimes at home – because of the threat of male violence. The First…
The View Little boys growing up today experience a different world from that in which our sons grew up. I remember teaching them to be polite, to open doors for people, to offer their seats to those who might need them etc. Now they tell me that some women interpret such basic courtesy as some…
We need to be wary of factions who will try to manipulate the planned meeting for their own purposes, writes David Quinn The bishops have announced that they are to hold a national synod of the Church within the next five years. It will be a meeting of priests, religious and laypeople to discuss the…
Letter from Rome Pope Francis’s recent trip to Iraq will undoubtably have a lasting impact on the country in ways that only time will tell. In the immediate aftermath, a few significant developments can already be seen. According to some observers, even before the historic March 5-8 trip took place, the first-ever papal visit to…
John Lavenburg Flor Molina crossed the US-Mexico border with her trafficker in 2002. At the time, she was under the impression the trip would last six months, provide housing, and enough money to return to Mexico to open a sewing shop and provide for her three children. Instead, she found herself working 18-plus hours a…
One of Dorothy Day’s favourite saints was Therese of Lisieux, Therese Martin, the saint we call ‘the Little Flower’. At first glance, this might look like a strange affinity. Dorothy Day was the ultimate activist for justice, protesting in the streets, being arrested, going to prison, and starting a community and a newspaper, the Catholic…
Notebook What hope is there for the young people of Ireland? Just over 40 years ago, when Pope St John Paul II addressed young Irish people in Galway, he was speaking to people supported and nourished by a Catholic culture: “You come from Catholic families; you go regularly and meet Christ in Holy Communion on…
According to some royal sources, the root of Prince Harry’s bitter feelings towards his family lie in a very old, even biblical, scenario: that is, when brothers fall out because one feels the other is favoured over the other. That was the basis of the Hebrew Bible’s first account of homicide: when Cain slew Abel,…
The View Pope Francis is sometimes controversial but never boring. As John L. Allen of Crux Now put it, the pontiff’s current trip to Iraq is perhaps his most emblematic trip – if only because his stubborn streak ensured that it happened. He ignored worries about super spreader Covid-19 events and security issues in order…
Mary Kenny
Nuala O’Loan
David Quinn
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Breda O'Brien