Category: Comment & Analysis

Inflation affects all walks of life

It’s the question priests most hate to hear: “How much is a Mass, Father?” Most priests have a standard explanation for reply, about Mass being a pearl of great price, an event of inestimable value, that the Mass can’t be bought or sold (and that attempts to trade in religious things have gotten the Church…

God’s command to kill the Canaanites

In his autobiography, Eric Clapton, the famed rock and blues artist, shares very candidly about his long struggle with an addiction to alcohol. At one point in his life, he admitted his addiction and entered a rehab clinic, but he didn’t take his problem as seriously as was warranted. Returning to England after his stint…

What ‘spiritual not religious’ really means

It’s fairly fashionable now for people to describe themselves as “spiritual not religious”, but what does it mean when they say that? It certainly signifies an aversion to being called ‘religious’. To be ‘religious’ has connotations of being a ‘Holy Joe’, or of being ‘dogmatic’, or being regimented and of being unwilling to think for…

Why Kate deserves honour

If proof were needed that all the world loves a baby, the announcement that Kate and William are expecting their third provides full evidence. Globally, the third baby for the Cambridges has been front-page news. And significantly, although Kate is only “a few weeks” pregnant, the media is already treating the royal infant as a…

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Looking forward: education for the future

Fr William Dailey CSC and Jonathan Tiernan The parable of the talents, wherein the opportunity to take risks and invest in the gifts we have received is contrasted with the fearful failure to bury the treasure and hope for the best, speaks powerfully to the Church at all times, but perhaps particularly when we consider…

The Brexit recklessness goes on

One hundred years ago, many opinion-leaders, including a number of Catholic and (mainly southern) Church of Ireland bishops, who, unusually for that time, issued a joint statement on the subject, regarded partition as unthinkable. Yet it happened, and took a hard form for the rest of the 20th Century. Then the peace process combined with…

Celibacy not to blame for child abuse crisis

A huge inquiry into child abuse at the hands of various institutions, both Church and secular, has been underway in Australia for some time now. It is taking place under the auspices of a body called the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Despite the fact that it is investigating a range…