Perhaps the one traditional trait that is left to some of us is that we know how to endure, writes Pól Ó Muirí We have been here before. Writing in his diary in 1961, the poet Seán Ó Ríordáin notes: “An fliú sa chathair agus, de réir na dtuairiscí, ar fud na tíre.” Flu…
Christopher White The belief that Catholic social thought requires valuing human life and dignity over economic concerns during this coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis was the widespread consensus among Catholic leaders during a recent US online forum. The range of voices included a small business owner, healthcare professionals, a policy expert and a priest – all…
Caoimhe de Barra Today, as the world joins together to battle the coronavirus (Covid-19), we are reminded how connected we are. We are one human family who share God’s earth together. We have the same hopes. Today, we face the same fear. But this fear can be overcome by us acting together, in solidarity…
We don’t much like the word ‘disillusionment’. Normally we think of it as a negative, something pejorative, and not as something that does us a favour. And yet disillusionment is a positive, it means the dispelling of an illusion and illusions, unless we need one as a temporary tonic, are not good for us. They…
Notebook It’s all very ironic, isn’t it? For years, right-minded people, I among them, have condemned the way in which social media was taking over our society. And yet here we are, in a virtual lockdown, utterly impotent but for the same social media. I have been both a denouncer and one deserving of…
The View They do things differently in Russia. According to newspaper reports (Le Monde, March 4), President Vladimir Putin intends to introduce a reference to God into the Russian Constitution, similar to the preamble to Bunreacht na hÉireann. It will invoke ‘the memory of our ancestors who have transmitted to us ideals and faith…
The Lord provides us with the means to pass through the challenges that life provides, if we are willing to listen, writes David Quinn “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” These…
Faced with coronavirus, the question is not so much why but how can we respond as people of Faith writes Bairbre Cahill “Who do you say I am?” It is a question Jesus poses to the apostles in Mark 8:29 and which is being posed to us now too. I came across someone recently…
The virus has demonstrated that we still have the national capacity to come together and unite against a common threat, writes John McGuirk This column is usually about criticising politicians and identifying all the things wrong with the country. No doubt, it will be just that again in the future, but it’s been very…
For most of my lifetime, the material circumstances of our lives have steadily improved. The panic-buying of toilet paper – perhaps worse in Britain than in Ireland – illuminates just how spoiled, even decadent, we have become. In my childhood, back in the 1950s, it wasn’t unusual to enter a loo and find squares cut…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
David Quinn
Bairbre Cahill
Mary Kenny