“For many Irish people, being Catholic no longer means to them what it meant in 1979”, writes Michael Kelly
Category: Comment & Analysis
It’s not Cuba, but Venezuela, that is Michael D’s Achilles heel…
“…not to re-examine an original analysis of a situation is to perpetuate it”, writes Mary Kenny
A very bad start to the Citizens’ Assembly discussions on abortion
The latest sitting was far from neutral, writes David Quinn
Worrying about the end of the world…
People are forever predicting the end of the world. In Christian circles this is generally connected with speculation around the promise Jesus made at his ascension, namely, that he would be coming back, and soon, to bring history to its culmination and establish God’s eternal kingdom. There have been speculations about the end of the…
Cultivating a sense of alienation
John Reid In a blistering editorial comment this week, the Irish Independent criticised the Catholic Church (which has patronage over about 90% of primary schools in the Republic) for its response to the current Government’s draft programme on education about religious beliefs and ethics, even suggesting that a failure to dilute or scrap the ethos…
Death is a sad reality that Christians face with hope
“Death is part of life, an entry to life eternal”, writes Michael Kelly
The pastoral influence on president-elect Trump
“We should empty our minds of fears, hates, insecurities, regrets”, writes Mary Kenny
Safe public water has to be paid for in some way
“Making enough plastic to satisfy the US water market takes 17 million barrels of oil”, writes Breda O’Brien
The perils of waking the dead
A 14-year old girl in the UK, dying of cancer, was awarded by court the right to have her body frozen after her death, so-called ‘cryogenic freezing’. The girl, who has since died, wants the possibility of being raised from the dead if science ever allows this, even if that is still hundreds of years…
The dangers in being a warrior prophet
A prophet makes a vow of love, not of alienation. Daniel Berrigan wrote those words and they need to be highlighted today when a lot of very sincere, committed, religious people self-define as cultural warriors, as prophets at war with secular culture. This is the stance of many seminarians, clergy, bishops, and whole denominations of…

Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny
David Quinn
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Courtney McGrail
Breda O'Brien