There is such a thing as a good death, a clean one, a death that, however sad, leaves behind a sense of peace. I have been witness to it many times. Sometimes this recognised explicitly when someone dies, sometimes unconsciously. It is known by its fruit. I remember sitting with a man dying of cancer…
Is the coronavirus ‘God’s judgement’ to punish humanity for the errors of its ways? Surely not, and Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick is quite right to describe such ideas as a form of blasphemy. Pope Francis had previously given the lead in dismissing any such notion that the virus is some kind of Old Testament…
The View There was a tragic case recently in Mullingar when the wrong body was given to a family for burial. It was spotted by a mortician when a name on a body bag matched that of someone whose remains had allegedly already been collected by a funeral director. Imagine the distress of the…
Some Christians will never sacrifice respectability to speak out against what is popular, writes David Quinn The Catholic bishops of Germany have admitted in a new document that they did not do enough to resist the Nazis during the war. The 23-page report says: “Inasmuch as the bishops did not oppose the war with…
Letter from Rome Pope Francis is attempting to hold the nation of Italy together by appealing for political unity at a time when political opposition are threatening to sabotage Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s plan for gradually easing coronavirus restrictions by issuing their own decrees. Yet at some point, when this is over, the Pope…
Anton de Wit The Netherlands recently announced a gradual relaxation of the ‘intelligent lockdown’. Elementary schools will be open again soon and outdoor sports are also allowed under certain conditions. Meanwhile, the Dutch Catholic community wonders: when will we be able to go to Mass again? In an opinion poll of the Dutch Catholic weekly…
John Updike, after recovering from a serious illness, wrote a poem he called, Fever. It ends this way: “but it is a truth long known that some secrets are hidden from health”. Deep down we already know this, but as a personal truth this is not something we appropriate in a classroom, from parents or…
Notebook We buried him today in Culmore 10, 15 people there, no more; for we are told that is the way to keep the deadly virus at bay. But it’s sad for sure and lonely too far removed from what we do, when parish stops to bow its head and mourn a neighbour who…
Historic memories of the Spanish flu of 1918-20 have been frequently invoked during the present pandemic – the novelist Emma O’Donoghue, who wrote Room, will be publishing a new novel in July based on the so-called Spanish flu. (Unfair to blame the Spanish for that pandemic: Spain’s press simply reported it, being free of wartime…
The View At the beginning of Lent we heard the words: “Memento homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris.” Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return. In the two months since then – has it really only been two months? – a tiny virus has brought the world to…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien
David Quinn
John L. Allen Jr.
Maria Steen