Dear Editor, Dr Tom Finegan [The Irish Catholic – November 10, 2022] puts us all in his debt by drawing our attention to a fault line in our thinking as Catholics. Like a geological fault line it is all the more dangerous for being unsuspected. We don’t think it is possible for us to imitate…
Dear Editor, Many of the reactions to Fr Sheehy’s homilies, including Bishop Browne’s reaction, seem to overlook completely a very important truth, namely, that Jesus Christ preached strongly against sexual sins. In Matthew 5, he warns us that lustful thoughts can lead to damnation and must be avoided even if this involves serious sacrifice. In…
Dear Editor, As Christians around the world start thinking about setting up nativity scenes for Christmas, the ox and the donkey regular fixtures around the manger are latter-day inventions nowhere to be seen in the gospels. The Vatican itself has included animals in the nativity scenes it sets up each year in St Peter’s Square.…
Dear Editor, The Government is considering plans to extend exclusion zones to any place that might putatively be providing “termination of pregnancy services” and not only those already doing so. The term itself is broad enough to cover everything from an actual abortion clinic all the way down to any local pharmacy that might be…
Dear Editor, Despite deep disquiet, expressed in a recent National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) public consultation, it is now almost certain, that a new intensified mandatory sex-education programme will be imposed upon schools. It will be part of an expanded SPHE module. This is the third wave of sex-ed programmes, each of which…
Dear Editor, Halloween which stems from the Celtic festival of Samhain marking the end of harvest and the start of the Celtic New Year is almost upon us. During the night of October 31 into November 1 the barrier between the realm of the spirits and the real world grew weak. This allowed the deceased return to…
Dear Editor, The ongoing three-year review of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act, is most lamentable. There is a complete absence of media scrutiny. Similarly, there is no avenue to include consideration of the views of those horrified by the desperation, cruelty and ultimately the unsustainability of our country, due to our birth-rate having…
Dear Editor, I must say I was grieved to see Peter Costello’s unfavourable review of The Saint Mary’s Book of Christian Verse, which I chose and introduced. Having enjoyed Mr Costello’s amusing biography of James Joyce’s father and knowing that he writes well of poetry himself, I would have liked to have had my book…
Dear Editor, Every week The Irish Catholic supplies us with words of wisdom, but your September 15 issue surpassed itself when I found two paragraphs on Pages 34 and 35, which were worth the €2.50 price of the paper on their own. The first was written by Fr Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap, and read: “Forget…
Dear Editor, With all the hullabaloo surrounding Queen Elizabeth’s death, the energy crisis, war in Ukraine etc… the fact that we are living through a housing crisis seems to have slipped from the agenda. This is the issue that seems unsolvable, at least it seems that way due to a host of inept politicians and…