Plans to give away the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group may need Vatican approval, writes Greg Daly According to the Religious Sisters of Charity, their planned cessation of involvement in the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group has been in the works for two years. For all that their plan has been widely praised as a noble, elegant…

Society has to decide what the governing ethos of its hospitals should be, writes David Quinn News that the Sisters of Charity are ending their involvement with the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group (SVHG), and therefore with the three hospitals that come under the group, is very sad. In retrospect, the sisters should never have let…

Muted reactions to statements from Cardinal Gerhard Müller are highly revealing, writes John L. Allen Jr. There’s an old philosophical head-scratcher about whether, if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a noise? In similar fashion, one might ask if an alleged Vatican heavyweight makes…

“I go on ahead to prepare a place for you!” Jesus speaks those words to his disciples on the eve of his death as he sits at table with them and senses their sadness as they grapple with his dying, his going away. His words are meant to console them and give them the assurance…

Roger Childs During the nine years I have been in my present role as Genre Head of RTÉ Religious Programmes, the continued broadcasting of Angelus chimes on RTÉ Radio One and RTÉ One television, has been debated a number of times in a number of different settings, from the letters pages of newspapers, to local and national…

“There has never been a greater need for mutual understanding and cooperation”, writes Michael Kelly Sadly we’re becoming all-too-used to that sinking feeling of waking up in the morning to turn on the radio to news of yet another terrorist atrocity in towns and cities that are known to us. That feeling is all-the-more heart-wrenching…

“With abortion legislation, he did not permit deputies to vote according to their consciences”, writes Mary Kenny Europe is this year marking the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s famous first protest, in 1517, which became in effect, the beginning of what is sometimes called the Protestant Revolution, and sometimes the Reformation. The Catholic Church has,…

We are challenged to build an economy that is designed to serve people, says President Michael D. Higgins At the Vatican, I had the great honour of meeting with a man who exemplifies in the most striking and moving of manners the extraordinary importance of the spiritual as a powerful wellspring of global ethics, coupled…

It is easier for politicians to attack the Church and go along with the secular agenda, writes David Quinn What are Catholics to make of Enda Kenny’s time as Taoiseach? This is a very broad question because the answer doesn’t depend solely on his attitude towards the ‘institutional Church’ or to some of the big…

When Friedrich Nietzsche declared that “God is dead” he added a question: What kind of a sponge does it take to wipe away a whole horizon? I often ask that question because just in my own lifetime there has been an unprecedented decline in the number of people who go to church regularly and, more…