Today’s Fine Gael would have no place for its 1970s Taoiseach, writes David Quinn Liam Cosgrave is the first Taoiseach I can remember. My father, a newspaper man like his father before him and his son now, was thrilled. My father was Fine Gael through and through and Cosgrave’s was the first Fine Gael-led…
Thirty years ago, the American Educator, Allan Bloom, wrote a book entitled The Closing of the American Mind. This was his thesis: in our secularised world today our language is becoming ever-more empirical, one-dimensional and devoid of depth and this is closing our minds by stripping us of the deeper meanings inside our own experience.…
Editor’s Comment The number of people coming forward to discern a vocation to the priesthood and religious life in Ireland is stubbornly low. There is some evidence that when vocation-promotion is prioritised, interest increases. A few years ago, after the Church hosted a ‘Year of Vocations’, Irish dioceses saw the largest number of ordinations in…
Bishop Phonsie Cullinan of Waterford and Lismore has made a graceful apology for his remarks criticising the HPV vaccine. His overall points had been that the vaccine against cervical cancer might not be completely safe: and it might also have the effect of encouraging promiscuity among young girls. He has subsequently called his remarks “an…
Aid to the Church in Need is one of the most important organisations working in the Church today because one of the needs it meets is particularly keen, namely saving the Christians of the Middle East from extinction. This is a forgotten story. Most times it is one that is never even told, not by…
It is not hard to guess why the Vatican’s communications supremo, Monsignor Dario Viganò, thought it was a good idea for Pope Francis to have 12 meetings with a French atheist sociologist over much of 2016. The Catholic Church’s commentariat can be an echo chamber, and Francis needs to reach out beyond its walls. Dominique…
Cindy Wooden Politics as service to the common good and the need to create spaces where citizens and migrants can meet and overcome fear were topics Pope Francis repeatedly returned to. Arriving in Bologna at mid-morning this week, Pope Francis went directly to the “Regional Hub”, a government-run processing centre for migrants, refugees and…
As a theologian, priest, and preacher, I often get asked: “Why isn’t the Church preaching more fear of God anymore? Why aren’t we preaching more about the dangers of going to hell? Why aren’t we preaching more about God’s anger and hellfire?” It’s not hard to answer that. We aren’t preaching a lot about fear…
I grew up in Co. Armagh – one of nine children: eight boys and a girl, which as anyone can imagine placed serious financial pressure on my parents growing up. This was especially true as I come from a working-class background and grew up on a council estate marked by all challenges you would expect…
Fr Vincent Sherlock I’d not like to be in Dublin these days and especially not after the full time whistle blew on the ‘Third Sunday of September’, dealing yet another blow to Mayo’s dream of glory – a dream that, I’m convinced, will come true. Though a regular enough visitor, I’d not claim to know…
David Quinn
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny
Austen Ivereigh
Colm Fitzpatrick