One year ago, the #MeToo movement erupted across much of the Western world, starting in the United States. The Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was accused by a number of women of sexually assaulting and even raping them (charges he denies), and then other women came forward to say that they had also experienced sexual assault…
Virtually everyone taking part in the October 3-28 Synod of Bishops on young people has said that the presence of more than 30 young delegates inside the hall has altered the chemistry – it’s looser, more informal, more pumped-up, and above all, more raucous. The young people, participants say, let you know immediately which speeches…
Shusaku Endo, the Japanese author of the classic novel Silence (upon which Martin Scorsese based his movie) was a Catholic who didn’t always find his native land, Japan, sympathetic to his faith. He was misunderstood but kept his balance and good heart by placing a high value on levity. It was his way of integrating…
Everyone, it seemed, deplored Peter Casey’s rather unkind remarks about Travelling people being essentially a community which camps on other people’s land and has no genuine claim to a separate ‘ethnic identity’. Whether Travellers are a separate ethnic group is a matter of dispute. But it is certain that they are a disadvantaged group, and…
Fr vincent Sherlock In life we meet joy and sorrow. Recently I shared sorrow with a family whose baby died in his fourth day. I walked into the hospital and the father came to meet me. I was amazed at the strength of character displayed. He asked me if I’d baptise their son. “Have you…
Recent days have seen some bizarre reports in Irish media about a campaign group which shut down last year following complaints to the State’s ethics watchdog that it was being illegally bankrolled to the tune of over €400,000. Irish electoral law bars organisations engaged in political campaigning from receiving over €2,500 from any one donor…
If present trends continue, the name “Mary” could soon become almost extinct. We’re told that Ethel, Sheila, Garrett and Herbert are already “extinct” Christian names because they are no longer recorded in the top 100 names given to babies. Just over 100 ago, according to Ancestry.ie, more than 11,000 girls in Ireland were baptised or…
Fr Conor McDonough One of the consequences of the Brexit negotiations and the possibility of a ‘hard border’ between the North and the Republic of Ireland is the resurgence of the idea that Ireland and Britain, or, more narrowly, England, are eternally in opposition, with the latter typically dominating. This opposition is a major element…
Recently I attended a symposium where the keynote speaker was a man exactly my age. Since we had both lived through the same cultural and religious changes in our lives, I resonated with much of what he said and with how he felt about things. And in his assessment of both the state of affairs…
Yes, we are all very concerned about climate change, as the UN (and Mary Robinson) directs us. But what is each of us going to do about it? One practical suggestion is that we should stop buying cheap clothes – and then throwing them away, since cheap attire, by definition, isn’t designed to endure. A…
David Quinn
John L. Allen Jr.
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Mary Kenny
Greg Daly