For good or for ill, the symbiosis between nationalism and Catholicism that was once a given all across Ireland is still potent in the North. It’s not surprising given the sectarian nature of the six-county state from its creation almost a century ago that Catholics united in opposition. From the beginning, anti-Catholicism was endemic and…
Category: Editorials
The Church can humbly act as a mirror to help people confront this virus in our midst
In a way, every time someone is talking about clerical sexual abuse the Church is losing. Few things convulse people with anger and dismay as much as revelations that those charged with leading people to God betray that trust and instead inflict the most appalling harm. Perhaps, the only thing to come close is when…
Ireland can make a humble but vital contribution to the universal Church
I’m in Rome this week attending the unprecedented meeting on the protection of minors within the Church. Primate of All-Ireland Archbishop Eamon – as president of the Irish bishops’ conference – is here sharing the experiences of the Church in Ireland with his brother bishops. Even before the summit got underway this morning (Thursday) people…
People need to reject nostalgia and follow their convictions where they lead them
As If she didn’t have enough to concern her in her own job, Minister for Culture Josepha Madigan launched a broadside against the Catholic Church this week. Speaking at an event in Dublin, Ms Madigan referred to what she described as “catastrophic moral failures”. Ms Madigan went on to express the view that Catholics need…
Making sense of suffering
“A punch in the stomach followed by a kick in the teeth” – that’s how a priest described his reaction to the death of Fr John Cummins. A priest of the Kildare and Leighlin Diocese, 52-year-old Fr John died in an accident last week. Speaking at the requiem Mass for Fr John, Bishop Denis Nulty recalled…
Taking the pulse of the Faith
One of the great sorrows of many Irish parishes is the pain felt by parents and grandparents when family members no longer go to Mass. Whenever I speak at parish events or novenas, I see the acute pain as people tell me about how they did their best to bring their children up in the…
It may be hard to be optimistic but hope springs eternal
It is not now an infrequent occurrence to meet someone who will observe of contemporary Ireland that “it’s not the country I grew up in”. Some will go further and say “it doesn’t feel like home anymore”. At a basic level, the world and society are always changing. Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher born in 544BC…
Knowing what we’re for and what we’re about
The idea of ethos can sometimes be a thorny issue. In a world which often prides a utilitarian approach to education over a holistic vision of the human person, ethos can get reduced to 15 or 20 minutes of religious education every now and then. When one speaks of ethos to politicians, they will often…
Time to embrace a vision of a missionary Church
In just two months’ time, Pope Francis will mark six years on the Throne of St Peter. For many, Cardinal Bergoglio came from nowhere. The Jesuit Archbishop of Buenos Aires was little known amongst Catholics, though he had made a deep and abiding impression on the College of Cardinals. Remember when Benedict XVI announced that…
A period of exile for today’s people of Faith
In her famous annus horribilis speech in 1992, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II described the fading year as one which “is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure”. Queen Elizabeth was reflecting on the fact that 1992 had seen her son the Duke of York separate from his wife, the Princess…