Toddlers are criminals. At least they would be if they were not below the age of criminal responsibility. If they were held to the same standards as the rest of us, the police would be overwhelmed with reports of toddler-related public disorder, affray, criminal damage, riot and assault. If charged with such crimes, most toddlers…
It is very cheering to hear that during last week’s great snow event so many people acted in a helpful and neighbourly way, and were particularly aware of looking out for the elderly. Yet this can be a delicate question – how to be kind to the elderly – and there is sometimes a fine…
The View As I have listened and watched the arguments for abortion in Ireland, north and south, I have been moved to wonder about all the women who have been unable to conceive a child, or whose babies died in the womb before they were born, and about those whose children were stillborn. How…
Christianity isn’t a ‘snowflake’ religion, writes David Quinn During the snow of last week, a number of dioceses around the country said churches should close and also advised Catholics that they were released from their obligation to attend Mass on Sunday if they felt it would be unsafe to travel to church. This got…
No community should botch its deaths. Last month a wonderful leader within the faith community in Canada died and it could profit us all to more fully receive his spirit. How do we do that? It can be helpful for us, I believe, to highlight those places where his life, his energy, and his leadership…
The Notebook It’s the million-dollar question: what do priests do all day? It’s a hard question to answer, because firstly priests vary, but also ministry situations differ. To give a definitive answer, you’d have to survey every priest in Ireland and feed the results into some massive computer to get an average for the…
It is no exaggeration to say that the Irish State is aggressively hostile to the rights of the unborn child. It is a level of hostility rare to find in any other Western country in recent times, including countries that have permitted abortion on widespread grounds for decades. In most countries abortion is introduced either…
Niamh Uí Bhriain On March 10, the rally to Save the Eight Amendment is expected to draw record numbers, but this will only happen if you make the effort to be there. This is our last chance before the referendum in May to show the Irish people, and the Government, that we must retain the Eighth Amendment and keep Ireland’s…
One of the most sensible interventions made in the current impasse of the North’s politics were comments made last week by Baroness Eileen Paisley. Eileen, widow of the late Ian, said that her husband and the late Martin McGuinness would never have got into this current “mess” in the first place. Widows defend the reputations…
Rome, in many ways, is a company town, dominated by two major industries – Italian political life and the national government, symbolised in the city’s Quirinal Palace (to Italians, simply the Quirinale), and the Papacy and the Catholic Church, iconically represented by St Peter’s Basilica. As a result, if you’re a devotee of either industry, meaning…
Mary Kenny
Nuala O’Loan
David Quinn
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
John L. Allen Jr.