The View   There are billboards for Hozier’s new album, Wasteland, Baby!, all over the place. In a Guardian Question and Answer session the singer (Andrew Hozier-Byrne) revealed that he has Seamus Heaney’s last words tattooed on his arm. Seamus Heaney had texted ‘noli timere’ which means, “do not be afraid”, to his wife, Marie,…

Good and evil are things we actively choose, writes David Quinn   Fr Pat Collins wants us to confront a very uncomfortable thought: evil is real. In the West, we often like to pretend that evil does not exist, or if it does, can be reduced to psychological categories. In his new book, Freedom from…

Letter from Rome Elise Harris   This year’s Roman celebration of International Women’s Day happened to fall in a moment when Pope Francis has been drawing some fire over women’s issues, in part for using allegedly sexist language during a recent sex abuse summit and also for a perceived lack of progress on his repeated…

Whatever else Pope Francis’ decision on Monday, March 4 to open the archives from the pontificate of Pius XII in 2020 may mean, there’s one preliminary conclusion that seems take-it-to-the-bank, no-doubt-about-it, slam-dunk certain. Here it is: opening the archives will not – indeed, by definition, cannot – settle the historical controversy about Pius XII and…

The Notebook Fr Vincent Sherlock   I listened to ‘The Deer’s Cry’ in the house before Mass.  It is a favourite of mine and I thought that I might play it at Holy Communion time if there was no choir. There was no choir, so I left the phone on the altar, moved the microphone…

Many educationalists are very much opposed to the decision to drop history and geography from the junior curriculum. On history, many a wise philosopher has said that we cannot know where we are going until we know where we came from. “Those who do not learn from the past,” said George Santayana, “are doomed to…

Barring Christian taxpayers’ taxes from being spent on Christian institutions attacks civil society, writes David Quinn   Will Catholic hospitals soon be prevented from putting religious symbols such as crosses on public display? That appeared to be the suggestion of a report commissioned by the Government. The Government asked Catherine Day, former secretary general of…

The View Martin Mansergh   We live in a world where moral authority often seems to be scarce or diminished, and largely unheeded. One or two issues can dominate and distract attention from others. While practical considerations are always important, the ethical dimension has also to be weighed in the balance. It is paradoxical that…