The View Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has published an essay commenting on the sex abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church for some time. The former Pope broke his usual silence in order, in his own words, “to contribute one or two remarks to assist in this difficult hour”. At the heart of…
Category: Comment & Analysis
Ending abuse means ‘changing hearts, not just decrees’
Letter from Rome Inés San Martín Acting as the interim replacement for a cardinal subpoenaed by civil prosecutors for alleged sex abuse cover-ups, and facing questions about his own record in responding to abuse charges, the new man in Santiago, Chile, says he’s got only one “pastoral proposal”, and it’s expressed in his motto…
Many focused on what Washington’s new archbishop will say about race
Rhina Guidos Whether it was deliberate or by accident, the Archdiocese of Washington announced on the 51st anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. the selection of its new leader, set to become its first black archbishop. Various news stories noted the date and a reporter asked Archbishop Wilton Gregory…
And all manner of being shall be well…
We are all, I suspect, familiar with the famous expression from Julian of Norwich, now an axiom in our language. She once famously wrote: “In the end all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of being shall be well.” To which Oscar Wilde is reported to have added: “And if…
The day love conquered fear and darkness
The Notebook Fr Vincent Sherlock It must have been a strange day. Early morning finds women on their way to the tomb. The Friday rush did not allow time for the decencies around burial to be observed and, in haste, Jesus was laid to rest. The stone was rolled into place and people moved…
Bienvenue à la Francophonie!
Ireland joined the French Commonwealth – the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie – at the end of last year and its presence is now being more widely noted. The OIF gathers together the 88 countries in the world (including 27 ‘observer’ nations) which are French-speaking and Ireland has been welcomed as one of the observer…
Housing and aftercare scarcity, defunct policy failing ‘at risk’ children
Young people leaving care face a mountain of obstacles, with homelessness being one of the most acute. Although it is true there are challenges for any child in becoming independent, the life experience of many exiting the State’s charge lead to highly complex cases. In the context of Ireland’s housing crisis there are now over…
Rethinking our relationship with the animal kingdom
The View In recent times, there has been a media frenzy about Tiger Roll, the brave little horse that won the Aintree Grand National for the second time. But the fact that a horse died at the Grand National, the Willie Mullins-trained Up For Review, has received far less coverage. The horse was seen…
Wishing for a Church built on sand…
A former Government minister’s take on Humanae Vitae is too simple, writes David Quinn Pope Benedict XVI once memorably spoke of a “dictatorship of relativism”. Just prior to becoming Pope in 2005 he said: “Today, having a clear Faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labelled as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, that…
Pope’s team may need to explain new reluctance on ‘zero tolerance’
Letter from Rome Last Tuesday made official a transition that’s been quietly underway for a while in terms of the Vatican’s response to the clerical sexual abuse scandals: Pope Francis and his aides are rethinking, if not the substance of a ‘zero tolerance’ policy, at least the rhetoric of it, becoming increasingly unwilling to…

Maria Steen


Fr Ronald Rolheiser

Mary Kenny
Chai Brady
Breda O'Brien
David Quinn
John L. Allen Jr.