Dear Editor, When in Rome, Enda Kenny apparently invited Pope Francis to visit Ireland. Since then The Irish Catholic has been promoting the idea, ostensibly to assist the peace process in the North. Our Taoiseach and our anti-Catholic Government would welcome a boost to their re-election prospects in two years’ time but do they deserve…

Dear Editor, In a world and at a time when cyber-theft and warnings of same have us all of a dither, perhaps it’s time that we reclaimed the internet. It is, after all, a gift of the Holy Spirit and it’s time we use it and all technological advances for the good and praise of…

Dear Editor, For Br Kevin Crowley, that quiet Capuchin champion of the homeless to feel compelled to write a letter expressing concerns at Ireland’s levels of homelessness truly shows how far we have sunk into disgrace as a nation (‘Homelessness at crisis point – Br Kevin Crowley’, IC 29/5/14). After 45 years operating the Capuchin…

Dear Editor, Your issue of May 15 mentions the Pope's visit to Ireland in 1979. I had a tiny involvement in it, in that I am the father of one of the six young children of Aer Lingus staff who were chosen to greet the Pope when he arrived in Dublin on an Aer Lingus…

Dear Editor, In your edition of 8th may, Syl Doyne (IC 8/5/14) raised the question as to why the Church canonises saints since all those who go to Heaven are saints. An answer can be found in Lumen Gentium 50 of Vatican II: "When we look at the lives of those who have faithfully followed…

Dear Editor, Marriage and society are being re-defined. Those who do not accept homosexual behaviour as normative are legally being forced to embrace the rationalisation or be silent in the face of it. Those who oppose homosexual acts are being labelled homophobes and it is these that are becoming the victims of hatred. What better…

Dear Editor, What a sad convergence of news Ireland’s faithful faced last week. Hot on the heels of criticism levelled by the former National Coordinator for Diocesan Vocations, Fr Paddy Rushe, (IC 22/5/14) on an apparent lack of Church focus on promoting vocations came news of the closure of All Hallows College after 172 years…

Dear Editor, The missed element in Andrew O’Connell’s Notebook ‘Revisiting the legacy of the papal visit’ (IC 15/5/14) is the question as to whether a visit to Ireland by Pope Francis could lead to the same effect on people here as that most memorable 1979 visit undertaken by now St John Paul II. Quite rightly…

Dear Editor, Recent events in the North of our country have reminded us of the ongoing need for clarification and reconciliation in all areas of social life. In that context it is not perhaps inappropriate to recall the infamous speech to the Dáil of Mr Enda Kenny in July 2011 on foot of the Cloyne…

Dear Editor, With reference to David Quinn’s ‘Is Hell really real?’ (IC 8/5/14), Catholic theology has always maintained that after death there are two locations ultimately where the souls of the dead continue to exist, namely Heaven and Hell. Hell has never been defined and the mode of existence there is unknown to us. Let…