Dear Editor, I am very dismayed about a letter published last week (IC 29/11/18) which said that high profile human welfare charities are addicted to their public self-importance. The author, John Tierney, concluded: “But we must never forget the adage; charity should be given without being asked for.” I think this perspective is very cynical…

Dear Editor, The Open Adoption Bill 2014 was sponsored by Anne Ferris and initiated on March 11, 2014. That Bill never progressed past stage two and has since lapsed. The Adoption (Identity and Information) Bill 2014 was sponsored by Fidelma Healy Eames, Jillian van Turnhout and Averil Power. It was initiated some four years ago…

Dear Editor, In the course of the last week, it emerged that the HSE, at the behest of the Department of Health, had offered €450 (around twice the normal delivery) to GPs, for each abortion (assassination) they performed. This stunning news was hardly mentioned in any newspaper. It was stunning, because of the value placed…

Dear Editor, On the evidence of last week’s proceedings at the Select Oireachtas Committee on Health, Minister Simon Harris is determined to force healthcare professionals who object to abortion on clinical and/or conscientious grounds to refer women seeking abortions to colleagues with no such objections. Has he considered how this can to be operationalised? How…

Dear Editor, Archbishop Eamon Martin’s call for a ‘listening Church’ (IC 1/11/2018) is a brave suggestion, though it’s hard not to feel that there’s a risk that this may be brave in the sense that Sir Humphrey of television’s Yes, Minister might have used the word: who knows what such a proposal might unleash? Back…

Dear Editor, I thought your last week’s front-page story (IC 25/10/18) about the NI government’s reliance on charities because of failures in welfare reform was very interesting, and just goes to show how much the government there is struggling. Regardless of who is to blame, it’s an absolute disgrace that people in need are being…

Dear Editor, According to Collin’s Dictionary to blaspheme is to “show contempt for God, especially, in speech”. One may add to Collin’s definition the personal and social implications of gratuitously insulting and offending our fellow citizens who conscientiously believe in God. Blasphemy, therefore, if not prohibited in the Constitution or by law, can be a…

Dear Editor, Your editor’s comment on the need to present young people with real challenges (IC 11/10/2018) exposes a very serious problem in our efforts to pass on the Faith to our children, the gravity of which our Church seems unable to grasp, as comments by Bishop Brendan Leahy on the YouCat for Kids suggest.…

Dear Editor, Can I congratulate you on the clear-eyed way The Irish Catholic has analysed the papal visit and World Meeting of Families in recent weeks? Pieces asking searching questions about the Pope’s speeches, his apparent ignorance of the reality of modern Ireland and most recently the low turnout in Phoenix Park for the closing…

Dear Editor, The article by Fr Martin Delaney ‘Is it really unacceptable to label suicide as ‘wrong’?’  (IC 27/9/2018) is both sensitive and honest. It reveals the pain and bewilderment of individuals, families, the community and the local priest, in the aftermath of three suicides. It raises a really important question on whether it is…