Huston Smith, the renowned commentator on world religions, submits that you should not judge a religion by its worst expressions, but by its best, its saints. That’s also true in terms of judging the merits of vowed, consecrated celibacy. It should be judged by its best, not perverse, examples, as is true too for the…
Category: Comment & Analysis
Francis’ walk from balcony to gable wall
The Notebook I remember the night Pope Francis walked out on the balcony overlooking St Peter’s. My heart sank. He looked old to me and a little lost in his new clothes. I don’t know what I expected but somewhere, in the back of my mind, I had an image of a younger man…
Josepha – she certainly got more ‘brand recognition’
From her own point of view, Josepha Madigan’s decision to lead prayers in Mount Merrion church recently – in the absence of a priest – was a bold career move which has brought benefits. She will have realised this when she saw comments on social media, and letters to the papers from people saying they…
Making law to save as many lives as possible
The View Although the battle to save the Eighth Amendment was lost, there is still work to do which could result in the saving of many babies’ lives. As I write this article, the draft legislation which will decriminalise abortion in some circumstances has not yet been published. When it is published, there will have…
The real cost of discipleship
An inauthentic Church peddles ‘cheap grace’, writes David Quinn In any given society and cultural moment, Christianity faces certain temptations. In part of Eastern Europe, for example, Christianity is coming to be identified again with national identity. This happened in the run-up to World War I and World War II, with disastrous consequences. In…
Mapping out a lost ministry
Is a Vatican commission set to oblige Pope Francis to restore the female diaconate, asks Greg Daly It seemed somehow appropriate that hardly had Minister Josepha Madigan sought to frame her impromptu leading of an ad hoc Communion service as a story about women being denied a role in the Church’s ministry that the…
Lay people can’t be laid back
Colm Fitzpatrick examines if lay-led services are the future of Irish Catholicism In light of a prominent politician taking the lead at a Saturday night Eucharistic service after the parish priest failed to show up to offer Mass, questions have been raised as to what parishioners should do in such situations, and how they…
Climate in Islamic nation requires restraint, says Pakistan’s new cardinal
International Analysis Letter from Rome For all those concerned with a rising tide of anti-Christian persecution around the world, certain things about the nation of Pakistan may seem blindingly obvious: that Shahbaz Bhatti, for instance, should be declared a martyr and saint, and that a death sentence for Asia Bibi should elicit outrage and…
Pope backs bishops demanding democracy in Nicaragua
International Analysis Inés San Martín If ever there’s doubt about where the Church stands on an issue, having the Pope and the majority of a local Catholic hierarchy speaking in unison pretty much resolves it. This is presently the case for Nicaragua, where, once again, Church-backed anti-government protests have ended in bloodshed. “Renewing my…
Real Miracles
Ralph Waldo Emerson calls the stars in the night sky “envoys of beauty, lighting the universe with their astonishing smile” and submits that if they appeared for a single night only every thousand years, we’d be on our knees in worship and would cherish the memory for the rest of our lives. But since they…