Dear Editor, Elaine Ryan’s misgivings (IC, Life’s Little Things 29/01/2015) about trusting children with ‘other’ people are understandable, but prompt me to remember words of Mother Teresa: “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” Yours etc., Declan Rankin, Donnycarney, Dublin 9.  

Dear Editor, The Government proposes an ‘historic’ change to the Irish Constitution, which will redefine the age-old definition of marriage. If approved by referendum, the amended definition will read: “Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex.” God’s definition of marriage as taught by Christ is: “Have…

Dear Editor, In answer to Fr Oliver Skelly’s letter, “Confusion between Mass and Communion” (IC 29/01/2015), I remember my first ‘experience’ of a Communion service in a hospital chapel where I had entered to attend Mass. The Communion service consisted of the Liturgy of the Word – then the Our Father was recited and Communion…

Dear Editor, Pope Francis gave an interview on an airplane again and that means one thing: several media outlets waiting in the wings, like piranha in a tank, for morsels of ambiguity or concession on moral teaching, usually relating to sexual morality, to spin into sensational headlines. The holy father gave a vigorous defence of Humanae Vitae,…

Dear Editor, A recent letter entitled “The difference between ‘died’ and ‘passed’ (IC 08/01/2015) resonated with me two other wordsthat never sit well when read. They are ‘remains’ as in death, whereas ‘body’ is a much more spiritual word. Whenever I hear this I recall Romans 14.8 “whether we live or die we belong to the…

Dear Editor, Am I alone in feeling irritated by the habit of some within the Church to use terms like ‘special Mass’ to try and add emphasis to a particular celebration of the Eucharist? One can, perhaps, forgive the error if it is used by journalists in secular newspapers, but it’s very disappointing to see…

Dear Editor, I was more than surprised to find a full page given over to Lucinda Creighton in your edition dated January 15. While Ms Creighton’s claim to fame, for pro-life people, is undoubtedly her principled stand in July 2014 when she did what few politicians will do, viz. keep their word, I cannot see how…

Dear Editor, What an inspiring letter on devotion to St Joseph from John Cleary (IC 15/01/2015). I’m afraid St Joseph has been somewhat neglected in our devotions. I actually took his name, Josephine, at Confirmation but have to admit that it is only in recent years that I have come to acknowledge him and to…

Dear Editor, Cathal Barry (IC 08/01/2015) reports the proposal of the Forum on Diversity’s Professor Coolahan that Catholic schools be financially penalised for not takings a proactive stance in handing over Catholic schools to secularists. His proposed discrimination is most alarming. Two years ago the Department for Education undertook a massive patronage survey in the…

Dear Editor, Your editorial (“One Church but a very different Catholicism”, IC 08/01/2015) was an important event. To read in a Catholic paper that “History proves that, when the Church lusts after political and secular power, the Gospel is soon relegated”, is to pinpoint the dilemma upon whose horns the Church has been impaled ever…