Letter from Rome   A scandal’s impact can be measured multiple ways, with the most obvious being the toll it takes in terms of bad press, litigation and settlements, declining attendance or market share, as well as disillusionment and outrage among the rank and file. What’s often harder to assess is the opportunity cost – what…

Elise Harris   While many in conservative camps of the Church feared sweeping changes to the structure and function of the Synod of Bishops following the tumultuous 2014-2015 gatherings on the family, Pope Francis largely upheld the current process. Critics who have been frustrated at the current process, however, might also be disappointed that no…

“Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.” Abraham speaks these words to a soul in Hell in the famous parable of the Rich Man and…

The Notebook Fr Vincent Sherlock   For 21 years I have had the chance to spend a few weeks each year in a parish in the diocese of Rockville Centre, New York – two years in one and the past 19 in another. It seems strange perhaps to combine holidays with working in a parish…

Every now and again, a novel, a movie or a television programme becomes a major conversational theme, enjoying a wave of fashion and acclaim. Such a book is Sally Rooney’s Normal People – a contender for the prestigious Booker Prize, and the novel that is a “must-read” if you want to keep up with the…

Popes Benedict and Francis’ failure to impose sanctions on then-Cardinal McCarrick was understandable, writes Austen Ivereigh   Whatever your view of Archbishop Viganò now — a prophet raised up by God to purify the leadership of the Church, or a vengeful and mendacious official driven by ideology — the question of what Popes did or…

The View   Saturday night last saw a great turn out at the fourth annual pro-life dinner, Ceiliuradh Cois Life, organised by Senator Ronan Mullen and the Pro Life Campaign. Over 750 people gathered together for food and music and to hear former Taoiseach John Bruton speak. In some ways, it was a difficult gathering…

Francis is no bringer of ‘doctrinal apocalypse’, writes David Quinn   Pope Francis does not represent the doctrinal apocalypse as some conservatives seem to think. I say that as someone who is himself a conservative and therefore would be quick to ring the alarm bells if I thought a Pope was about to water down…

“Woe to chastity that is not practiced out of love, but woe to love that excludes chastity.” These are the words of Benoit Standaert, a Benedictine monk, and they can, I believe, be profitably read in our culture today where to the detriment of everyone, the sexually active and vowed celibates alike, sexuality and chastity…