It’s certainly a welcome development that Justice Minister Helen McEntee is to drop her proposed “hate speech” legislation. It would have led to all kinds of prying actions by the State into our private lives and opinions. It would have been a harness on freedom of speech, and perhaps ideas. And since Catholic values are…
Surrogacy in Ireland was legalised in June with virtually no critical media scrutiny. Even when the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission’s (IHREC) Third Annual Report on Human Trafficking strongly criticised part of the legislation, serious and concerning issues remain quietly buried. IHREC Commissioner, Ms Noeline Blackwell, explained on a recent Morning Ireland programme that the…
A professor at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium has claimed the university is intentionally downplaying a looming visit by Pope Francis, driven by anger over sexual abuse scandals as well as “shame” about Catholic identity and a “business and marketing logic” which views being identified with the institutional Church as potentially detrimental to…
Letter from Rome While offering an overall positive judgment on the Marian apparitions and devotions associated with the Medjugorje phenomenon in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Vatican nevertheless said in a new document released Thursday that some issues still need to be clarified. The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) presented the document, titled ‘The…
Notebook As I write these words, two events coincide – the first, the re-opening of old wounds following the publication of the ‘Scoping Report’ into historical abuse in religious-run schools and the visit to Ireland of the relics of St Bernadette of Lourdes. Is this a coincidence and what does one have to do with…
These days, Catholics are reduced to voting for the lesser of two evils in elections. It is the case in Ireland, for the most part, and certainly in the United States. Here in Ireland, there are small parties and individual candidates you can vote for with a clear conscience, but is there any plausible government…
Vanity Fair recently published an article by Kathryn Joyce with a headline designed to stir controversy: ‘Behind the Catholic Right’s Celebrity Conversion Industrial Complex.’ A bit like Kamala Harris, the article is all about the vibes and is short on details. Or rather, it is drowning in details but it does not add up to…
Reflecting on the last decade in this country as a Catholic presents itself as somewhat of a painful task. Our country, now liberated from the oppressive and cruel past inflicted by the Church according to many given prominence in both media and politics, is now in a transitional period away from these austere times, rejoicing…
“Has the Pope ever read the Bible?” This was a serious question from a serious person on social media this week. It follows yet another controversy about remarks made by Pope Francis, this time during a visit to Indonesia, when he spoke about faith to an inter-religious meeting of young people in Singapore. To critics,…
We live at a time when public scandals appear so ubiquitous that their shock value seems diminished; yet the case of Huw Edwards, the BBC newsreader convicted this week of viewing child pornographic images, has had a huge impact in Britain. It’s the fact that Edwards was such a decent, reassuring, familiar face in every…
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien
David Quinn
Brandon Scott
Martina Purdy