I am as apprehensive of Artificial Intelligence as the next person, and the notion of robots governing so much of our lives is worrying. How many jobs will be lost when AI does everything from accountancy to keyhole surgery? Will authors and writers lose control of their own texts once AI can compose words as…
For some reason, Catholics can get a little nervous when it comes to charismatic prayer. Years ago, I brought my good Catholic mother to a Life in the Spirit Seminar. We both thought it was just a series of lectures on the Holy Spirit. But when scores of people in the hall jumped up to…
As the centenary of Matt Talbot’s death approaches, the Knights of St Columbanus have launched a renewed effort to promote the Venerable not only as a candidate for sainthood but as a model saint for the modern day. Their initiative — tied to commemorations taking place on June 6–8 — looks ahead, seeking to present…
Juniour Certificate students are to be taught all about the institutions run by the country’s religious orders including the mother and baby homes, the industrial schools and the Magdalen laundries. Thus, they will be acquainted with what is often called a ‘dark chapter’ from our past. And yes, there are dark chapters in our past…
One of Pope Francis’s critiques of modern society was that too many people prefer to have animal pets rather than children. In 2014, he described this trend as “selfish”, and returned to the theme in 2022, when he called it “a denial of fatherhood and motherhood” that “takes away our humanity”. Well, the pattern has…
Well before the same-sex marriage referendum in Ireland– currently celebrating its tenth anniversary – I think I sensed that attitudes were changing. Back in the 1990s, after Mary Robinson held a soirée in Áras an Uachtaráin for gay citizens, I had a conversation with an entirely conventional Irish Catholic grandmother, who would then have been…
In the four short weeks since Pope Francis died, we have seen the gathering of the Cardinals from all the corners of the earth, the papal election, the inauguration on Sunday of Cardinal Robert Prevost as the new Pope, Leo XIV, and his first public Mass as Pope. It is quite extraordinary that the Catholic…
As people try to get the measure of Pope Leo XIV, it is natural to look to Leo XIII, who was pope from 1878 to 1903. Unsurprisingly, the focus has been primarily on Rerum Novarum, his groundbreaking encyclical on the rights of workers, the right to private property, and gospel values as opposed to the…
Reams of paperless columns have already been written about our new Pope, Leo XIV, analysing every little look or utterance, every handshake, his dress, his repossession of the Papal Apartments. It seems to me that, among Catholics, there is a change in sentiment – a ‘vibe shift’, if you will – and a sense of…
What does the Irish public think of the Catholic Church after all the scandals and all the reports about those same scandals down to the present day? It will probably not surprise you to discover that public attitudes are deeply split. Amarach Research has carried out a major poll on the matter which was commissioned…
Mary Kenny
Renata Milán Morales
David Quinn
Nuala O’Loan
Breda O'Brien
Maria Steen