I can hear it now! A question in a table quiz, 50 years from now: “Which animal is associated with both the first horse since Red Rum to win back to back Grand Nationals and the greatest comeback in golfing history on two consecutive weekends during April 2019?” As I watched Tiger Woods’ extraordinary victory…
Pope Emeritus Benedict has met with some criticism and mockery on social media for writing, in a Bavarian journal, that the sexual revolution of the 1960s was one of the causes of the clerical abuse scandals – ushering in a general ‘collapse’ in morality. I lived through this period of the 1960s – in the…
RTÉ documentary came from a strange place, writes David Quinn It is hard to know what the point of Rome v Republic was. The programme aired last week on RTÉ and was presented by former Justice Minister Michael McDowell. It repeated talking points about the Church and its relationship to Irish society and the…
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…
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…
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…
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 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…
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…
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…
Mary Kenny
David Quinn
Maria Steen
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Chai Brady