Pope cannot offer carte blanche for priests to dissent, writes David Quinn It has now been confirmed that Enda Kenny did indeed intervene with Pope Francis when he visited him recently on behalf of a number of priests disciplined by the Vatican, including Fr Tony Flannery. This raises an obvious question: why did the Taoiseach…

The French novelist and essayist, Leon Bloy, once made this comment about God’s power in our world: “God seems to have condemned himself until the end of time not to exercise any immediate right of a master over a servant or a king over a subject. We can do what we want. He will defend…

“Governments and great political movements have tried to take away the sins of the world and have often ended up becoming more corrupt and destructive themselves”, writes Fr Martin Delaney A recent Sunday gospel proclaimed the familiar words: “Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.” With those…

The fate of  was all too inevitable. Immediately after the priest went missing from his home in the state of Coahuila on January 3, authorities of his Diocese of Saltillo issued appeals for the security forces to do all in finding him and for his captors to release him unharmed. But this is Mexico. Thus,…

Early Christian monks believed in something they called acedia. More colloquially, they called it, the noonday devil, a name that essentially describes the concept. Acedia, for them, was different from ordinary depression in that it didn’t draw you into the dark, chaotic areas of your mind and heart, to have you diseased before your own…

“Francis has changed much in the workings of the Holy See, and the traditional bishops’ visits are not immune from this”, writes Michael Kelly At the Vatican press office on Friday morning, dozens of journalists waited patiently for the script of what Pope Francis would say to the Irish bishops present for their ad limina…

“The law depends on evidence of what is said and what is done: the law cannot deal with the secret signals of the heart and the eyes which may be interpreted in any which way”, writes Mary Kenny Frances Fitzgerald, the Justice Minister, has a huge  task before her in bringing legislation before the Oireachtas…

The latest revelations deserve greater attention, writes David Quinn Another report of another child abuse inquiry was published last week. This time, the inquiry, the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry, chaired by retired judge Sir Anthony Hart, dealt with abuse in institutions in Northern Ireland. These institutions were run by the Catholic Church, by the…

For some, he has blood on his hands. But, any objective judgement of Martin McGuinness reveals a remarkable man, writes Martin O’Brien Martin McGuinness, genial and ruthless guerrilla leader turned statesman, now fighting serious illness, has been one of the most significant figures in the history of these islands over the past five decades. From…