Dear Editor, I am sure many people are taken aback at the hypocrisy of Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, in inviting Pope Francis to Ireland, after this Government’s disgraceful treatment of relations with the Vatican.  Firstly, we had his tirade based on misquoting Pope Benedict, the reference to a law not even in place and, as pointed out…

Dear Editor, If a Catholic priest/religious stated that they were in favour of redefining marriage between a man or woman, or that, equally preposterous, abortion or women’s ordination were likewise correct they would face canonical sanctions. On April 29 the Stormont Assembly defeated a proposal to redefine marriage, where not one Nationalist (Catholic) politician voted against,…

Dear Editor, Amid all of the recent coverage of the hopes and plans for Pope Francis to respond positively to an invitation to visit Irish shores, David Quinn’s cautionary note ‘Any papal trip must not be exploited by this Government’ (IC 1/5/14) is the message to be heeded. As we watch from afar Pope Francis…

Dear Editor, It was a great weekend for the Catholic Church as two of our Popes were elevated to the position of sainthood, but I have two questions. One: why is it mostly religious who are honoured in this way, and also why is it necessary at all?  If I manage to get to Heaven…

Dear Editor, I write as a simple layman, who wishes to respond to the invitation on the front page of The Irish Catholic ( 17/4/14) inviting laypeople to express their views on Church renewal. Father Tom Whelan, Prof. Eamonn Conway and some of our Irish bishops suggest that because of the shortage of priests, laypeople could…

Dear Editor, A propos Minister Quinn's latest dictat regarding the teaching of religion in Catholic Schools, are we now to understand that the teaching of a rational, historically based religion like Christianity is to be placed on a par with irrational nonsense like astrology, alien abduction, New Age fantasy or whatever else you're having yourself?…

Dear Editor, Fr Tom Grufferty deplored the lack of a Catholic presence at the President's visit to Britain and suggested a visit to Westminster Cathedral should have been included. On the contrary, Southwark Cathedral should have been a 'pit stop' for the President because, when Terence McSweeney, the Mayor of Cork, died on hunger strike…

Dear Editor, Many many congratulations to you and you staff at The Irish Catholic for the excellent commemorative edition of the paper (24/4/14) to honour the Two Popes, Two Saints. Received in the days before the canonisations in Rome, the edition was, for me, not only the perfect prologue to events but a wonderful, detailed…

Dear Editor, Regarding David Quinn’s ‘Gender-bending’ comes to your local primary school’ (IC 17/4/14), to publish such a disrespectful and demeaning article about transgendered people in your newspaper presents a most hateful side of Catholicism. Trans people have the highest rate of suicide Ireland. Where was your editorial judgement? One would expect any report to…

Dear Editor, Recently, we took part in a debate on same-sex ‘marriage’ on a university campus (NUI Maynooth) with lots of young students in attendance in a packed lecture theatre. Presenting the Catholic position, and looking both to natural-law reasoning and revelation, we defended traditional man-woman marriage as the only form of marriage that retains…