Francis is willing to risk confusion for the sake of inclusion, writes Michael Kelly The Pope’s backing for legislation for civil unions for gay couples is a big deal. It’s also a significant shift away from the policy of his immediate predecessors who warned Catholics that opposing such unions was an obligation. It’s important to…
Letter from Rome Almost 75 years ago, Arnold Toynbee described what historians are trying to find as they scour the past in his book Civilization on Trial: “The things that make good headlines are on the surface of the stream of life, and they distract us from the slower, impalpable, imponderable movements that work below the…
After almost a year of civil unrest, interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, Chileans overwhelmingly approved a bid to scrap the constitution written under the mandate of General Augusto Pinochet, a dictator who ruled the country until 1990. The Chilean conference of Catholic bishops called the referendum, where almost 80% of those who cast a vote…
What’s right and what’s wrong? We fight a lot over moral issues, often with a self-assured righteousness. And mostly we fall into that same self-righteousness whenever we argue about sin. What constitutes a sin and what makes for a serious sin? Different Christian denominations and different schools of thought within them lean on various kinds…
Notebook At the very end of Pope Francis’ recent encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, a name appears, perhaps unfamiliar to many Catholics here in Ireland: Blessed Charles de Foucauld [pictured]. The Pope describes this desert-hermit as “the universal brother”, who had surrendered himself entirely to God in order to become “a brother to ever human being”. But…
On the occasion of his retirement in 2018 as organist of Christ Church Cathedral Waterford, Dean Maria Jansson described Eric Sweeney as “a man of deep faith for whom music is his language with God”. Eric Sweeney’s final service coincided with the ordination to the Church of Ireland priesthood of former leader of the Green…
The Argentine Pontiff has in the past supported the inclusion of gay couples in civil unions, but saying as Pope puts him at odds with the hitherto official Vatican line writes Michael Kelly Pope Francis is making the headlines with reports that he has used an interview for a new documentary film to offer his support for…
I am a firm supporter of freedom of speech and of expression. Debate is essential. Even when a saintly person is being considered for canonisation there is the tradition of ‘the devil’s advocate’ – to give a hearing to the adversarial view. Ideas have to be tested. Even wrong ideas deserve an airing because we can…
The View Amy Coney Barrett’s life should be a role model for feminists. She has a marriage where her husband, Jesse, does more of the cooking and cleaning than she does. She manages to balance a busy household of seven children, including two adopted from Haiti, with working outside the home. She is the first…
The stigmatising of unmarried mothers and their babies was wrong, but we should know that it was not confined to Ireland or Catholicism, writes David Quinn On October 30, the long-awaited report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation will be delivered to the Government. Ahead of the delivery and publication of the…
Michael Kelly
John L. Allen Jr.
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien
David Quinn