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, There are two interesting points raised by Syl Doyne’s letter ‘Canonisations raise questions’ (IC 8/5/14). Firstly, it was Saint John Paul II himself who ordered the investigation into the case against Fr Marcial Maciel which was not concluded until after his death during the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI who then responded to…

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…

Dear Editor, People who go irregularly to Church don’t know whether to sit, kneel or stand at a funeral Mass. Those who attend Church regularly, sitting behind and to their side, copy them.   It is lacking in respect for the celebrant and regrettable that he is compelled to go to the microphone and request…

Dear Editor, I note with interest – and outrage –  that the then Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, last year changed, without notice to other interested parties, the format of the annual commemoration of the 1916 Rising as reported, ‘1916 families appeal for Mass ban to be lifted’ (IC 1/5/14). I understand that the reason…

Dear Editor, Am I the only one unsettled by the proposal to sell personal letters penned to Irish priest Fr Joseph Leonard by the late Jacqueline Kennedy? (IC 15/5/14) As detailed in your own article, Mrs Kennedy died without leaving any record of her life as US First Lady, demonstrating clearly how she valued what…