We no longer understand melancholy. Today we lump all forms of melancholy together into one indiscriminate bundle and call it ‘depression’. While a lot of good is being done by psychiatrists, psychologists and the medical profession in terms of treating depression, something important is being lost at the same time. Melancholy is much more than…
Notebook Last weekend I found myself celebrating Mass in an almost empty church again. Our parish is part of the Kildare/Laois/Offaly two-week lockdown so we had no choice but to close our church doors for public worship. The Gospel passage of the frightened disciples in the little boat battered by the unexpected storm seemed very…
It is none of my business whether Catholic friends and neighbours attend weekly Mass or not. After all, I spent formative years in France where I was told by a Catholic father of seven children that he only attended Mass occasionally, saying: “Je suis Catholique, mais je ne suis pas fanatique!” This French paterfamilias evidently…
The View As I sit to write, the news of John Hume’s death has just broken. There is one word that comes to mind when I think of John: courage. With Pat, his wonderful wife, at his side, ever encouraging, ever supporting, he marched through dangerous, hostile, challenging, territory to bring us peace here in…
We now find ourselves in a situation where the Faith that is still practiced by a huge number of Irish people finds itself under constant criticism while everything new is celebrated, writes David Quinn It is almost two years since the visit of Pope Francis to Ireland. The contrast with the visit of St Pope…
Jason Osborne Scotland’s proposed legislation makes it a crime to stir up hatred against any of the protected groups, which include race, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and transgender identity. A societal dichotomy is rearing its head once again as a result, between those who argue that criminalising ‘hate crime’ is necessary to secure the…
Letter from Rome More than a decade ago, I coined the phrase ‘Marian cool’ to characterise Pope Benedict XVI’s attitude toward Mary. While the German pontiff developed a stronger attachment to Mary later in life than he had as a young theologian, when he feared Marian devotion was a distraction from the centrality of Christ,…
Recently in a radio interview, I was asked this question: “If you were on your deathbed, what would you want to leave behind as your parting words?” The question momentarily took me aback. What would I want to leave behind as my last words? Not having time for much reflection, I settled on this. I…
Notebook One of the nicer aspects of life in lockdown – for me at least – was having a bit more time to read. I got around to reading some long-shelved books about St Dominic, for example, and I fell in love all over again with the founder of our Order. What struck me most…
One of the social effects of the Covid pandemic and subsequent lockdown is that it has, for the moment, somewhat quietened the voices of the euthanasia lobby. We have heard a little less, over the course of this worrying year, about ‘the right to die’. When the death toll internationally is announced and measured daily,…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Mary Kenny
Nuala O’Loan
David Quinn
John L. Allen Jr.