The View During St John Paul’s pontificate, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) was amended regarding the death penalty. Capital punishment was hedged about with so many conditions that the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity were considered to be “very rare, if not practically non-existent”. In…
“Please just make it stop!” tweeted Health Minister Simon Harris on Sunday last in connection with a report on a conference on Humanae Vitae at the weekend. “Increasing access to & availability of contraception is and will remain public health policy. Religion plays an important role for many on an individual basis – but it…
The Pope’s’ decreeing capital punishment ‘inadmissible’ follows in papal footsteps, writes Greg Daly There’s change and there’s change. To listen to some of the more feverish reactions to news last week of Pope Francis’ decision to change the Church’s teaching on the death penalty, one might think that change means one thing and one…
The Government seems determined to bar religion from public life, writes David Quinn We live in truly extraordinary times. A conference on Humanae Vitae is addressed by a bishop and there is an immediate negative response on social media from no less a figure than our Health Minister, Simon Harris, who tweets, “Please just…
Paul Jeffrey A US physician who has won accolades for his service in a war-torn corner of Sudan said he has just done what any missionary is called to do. “I’m a lay missionary. We’re supposed to show the face of Christ to people, but how can you do that if you take off when…
Davis Clark asks whether Scotland is still haunted by anti- Catholicism The recent assault of a Catholic priest during an Orange parade has lent an extra bite to an age-old debate about the historical treatment of Catholics in Scotland. The assault, along with a report released this year by the Scottish government which found…
Letter from Britain A new report on sexual abuse committed by staff of international aid agencies could provide a blueprint for the Church in dealing with the aftermath of the accusations surrounding once-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former Archbishop of Washington, and other high-ranking clerics that have come to light in 2018. The British Parliamentary International…
Some of my favorite authors are agnostics, men and women who face life honestly and courageously without Faith in a personal God. They’re stoics mostly, persons who have made peace with the fact that God may not exist and that perhaps death ends everything for us. I see this, for example, in the late James…
The Notebook Fr Conor McDonough Archbishop Diarmuid Martin recently spoke with candour about the Church’s outreach to young people, describing it as “an area where I have failed”. If he has, he’s certainly not alone in the Irish Church. Young people today will not adopt the faith by osmosis, but need clear arguments, joyful…
The Netflix drama series The Crown, drawing, sometimes semi-fictitiously, on the private lives of the British royal family has been so successful that the BBC now plans to launch its own particular royal drama along similar lines. This new drama will be about the lives and loves of Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth’s sister, who died…
Breda O'Brien
Greg Daly
David Quinn
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Mary Kenny