Last week the Sunday Times reported that the Government may change the wording of the proposed abortion legislation. The Citizens’ Assembly and the Oireachtas Committee recommended that abortion be allowed where there is a “risk” to the life or health of the mother – including mental health. Now, there are rumours that the Government may…
The poet, Rumi, suggests that we live with a deep secret that sometimes we know, then not, and then know again. That’s a good description of faith. Faith isn’t something you nail down and possess once and for all. It goes this way: sometimes you walk on water and sometimes you sink like a stone.…
Fr Bernard Healy The Notebook Pope Francis has me worried! At a recent Public Audience he reminded preachers to prepare homilies well and told us that they “should not last more than 10 minutes, please”. Whatever conclusions my congregation might reach about how well-prepared my homilies are (I try, honestly!), long-windedness on a Sunday…
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…
Maria Steen
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Mary Kenny
Nuala O’Loan
David Quinn