Parishes lament the absence of young people, but most are happy and do not want to be disturbed, writes Gerard Gallagher W hen Pope Francis published Evangelii Gaudium, Laudato Si’ and Amoris Laetitia there was an excessive amount of praise. It has been striking how much quieter the reception of Christus Vivit – his document…
Letter from Rome After 20 years of restoration work and millions in funding from benefactors worldwide, the unveiling of the Pontifical Sanctuary of the Holy Stairs in Rome was supposed to be a grand, celebratory moment slated for this spring, in time for Holy Week and Easter. The public was going to be able to…
According to an Armenian archbishop, Turkey is perpetrating a “third genocide” against the oldest Christian nation in the world. He claims Turkey is using Azerbaijan to attack the Christian community in Nagorno-Karabakh, a majority-Armenian region of Azerbaijan that has been a de facto independent state since the 1990’s. Recent fighting in the region has seen its churches…
Looking at our world today, what frightens and unsettles me more than the threat of the Covid-19 virus, more than the growing inequality between the rich and the poor, more than the dangers of climate change, and even more than the bitter hatred that now separates us from each other, is our loss of any…
Notebook I was in your house the day they brought you home. I watched your two-year-old sister and wondered what was going through her mind. I saw your mother, glad to be home but tired too, having carried you so lovingly, through those long months of waiting, and now sharing you with a world that,…
One of the most mendacious aspects of the Dying with Dignity bill, it seems to me, is calling it ‘dying with dignity’. It is an assisted suicide measure, and if truth meant anything in the public realm, that is what it should be called. ‘Dying with dignity’ is a propaganda phrase which deliberately implies that…
The View Last week the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference published a message to the Faithful entitled ‘Do not lose heart’. A day later it was reported that the four Catholic archbishops of Ireland had requested a meeting with the Taoiseach to address the current restrictions that prevent the celebration of public masses. The news gave…
Nothing has had a more formative influence upon Ireland and Europe than Christianity, writes David Quinn State-run secondary schools are set to end a policy of Christian-only symbols on their walls, put the celebrations of other religions on a par with Christian celebrations such as Christmas, and end compulsory attendance at school Masses. The news…
Medicine traditionally recognises that human life is a basic good, and that patients come to doctors for healing and the restoration of health, writes Fr Seán MacGiollarnáth O. Carm. In 1997, John Rawls, Ronald Dworkin and other philosophers submitted a brief to the US Supreme Court which called for assisted suicide. Paul Weithman, their colleague,…
It is just over a month since People before Profit TD Gino Kenny launched and sponsored the Dying with Dignity Bill, continuing the efforts of former TD John Halligan to see assisted suicide legalised in Ireland. The bill is entitled ‘An Act to make provision for assistance in achieving a dignified and peaceful end of…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Mary Kenny
Maria Steen
David Quinn