Cindy Wooden Although dogged for years by rumours of sexual impropriety, Theodore McCarrick was able to rise up the Catholic hierarchical structure based on personal contacts, protestations of his innocence and a lack of Church officials reporting and investigating accusations, according to the Vatican summary of its report released on Tuesday. In choosing then-Archbishop McCarrick…
Letter from America Carol Zimmermann The nation’s political divide was never going to be solved by the final tally of presidential votes or when the political signs came down. And the talk of moving forward and finding healing, or at least turning down the vitriol, can seem an unsurmountable task for a nation still reeling…
God is erotically charged and the world is achingly amorous, hence they caress each other in mutual attraction and filiation. So, in reality, the law of gravity and the gifts of the Holy Spirit have one and the same aim” Jewish philosopher Martin Buber made that assertion, and while it seems to perfectly echo the…
Notebook I spent my first 12 years in parish ministry as a curate, seven years in a suburban parish, then five in the commuter belt. They say a curate is “a mouse training to be a rat” (!); sometimes I wonder just how scarily effective that training was. You look at the photo adorning this…
There has been no evidence that Church gatherings are contributing to the spread of Covid-19 infection, writes Archbishop Eamon Martin It is only seldom, and on very important matters, that the four Catholic archbishops – of Armagh, Dublin, Tuam and Cashel & Emly – choose to seek a meeting with the Taoiseach. Given the strength of…
November is the month of the dead: traditionally in Ireland, the month of the Holy Souls. Elsewhere, all over Europe, ceremonies to mourn and remember the dead are held. Each November, as an Irish person resident in England (though, when Covid regulations permit, regularly in Ireland) I am faced with the same dilemma: do I…
The View In 1838, the Under-Secretary at Dublin Castle Thomas Drummond delivered a magisterial rebuke to the landlords of the Tipperary Grand Jury agitating for greater security (including my great-great grandfather), by reminding them: “Property has its duties as well as its rights.” Today, public discourse generally tends to highlight people’s rights more than their…
The authorities believe that Mass is less important than going to a gym or hairdresser and this has to be rejected, writes David Quinn In Derry, you can still go to Mass if you want, but across the border in Letterkenny you cannot. How can this be? The answer is that the North’s Executive and…
Junno Arocho Esteves Corruption is an “ancient evil” that continues to plague the Catholic Church in different ways, Pope Francis said. In an interview with the Italian news agency Adnkronos, published October 30, the Pope discussed his thoughts on several issues, including the nature of corruption given recent allegations of financial malfeasance involving the Vatican.…
In his book The Second Mountain, David Brooks suggests that a key to sustaining fidelity in any vocation is to build a structure of behavior for those moments when love falters. He’s right. Anybody who has made a commitment to be faithful for the long haul inside a marriage, a friendship, a faith community or…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Archbishop Eamon Martin
Mary Kenny
David Quinn