Dear Editor, As Clomaney country music festival, Fleadh Cheoil, Galway races, and the ploughing championships are all cancelled, I decided to do something this summer. So instead of a staycation I did a praycation. So off to Holy Cross Abbey in Rostrevor, Co. Down for a week. The experience was silent especially with the monks…
Dear Editor, The Church can never permit marriage of its clergy as long as it continues to stand against artificial contraception. If priests marry, it is only to be expected they will have children. But how many children? If a priest produces only a few offspring, he will be suspected of practicing birth control. In…
Dear Editor, The concept of ‘safe access zones’ around places that provide abortion is still being bandied about, most recently by Limerick City and County councillors. A group of councillors do not have the power to deprive people of the right to pray quietly outside abortion clinics for the unborn children losing their lives through…
Dear Editor, Relating to Bishop Tom Deenihan’s comments [IC 01/07/2021] that the Government has directed the Catholic Church to cancel First Holy Communions and Confirmations, I have said it before and I will say it again the Catholic Church’s religious practices and those that attend them are of no interest and therefore not a voting…
Dear Editor, Breda O’Brien suggests that if President Joe Biden is to be excommunicated then William Barr, President Trump’s Attorney General should also be excommunicated because of his support for the death penalty [IC 01/07/2020]. While I totally support Breda in her opposition to the death penalty, I contend that there is no comparison with…
Dear Editor, Given the current debate about the site for the new National Maternity Hospital, it is important to ask the question that, while our country needs more hospital beds, do we really need more abortion facilities? The number of abortions increased dramatically to 6,666 in 2019. In 98% of those cases, no threat to…
Dear Editor, Being from the Republic, I read with astonishment that there is a policy in the North, as well as the rest of the UK, that disallows poorer families to receive child benefit for a third or subsequent child. I would certainly not call myself a bleeding-heart socialist but children should never be put…
Dear Editor, I was sad to see the Redemptoristines have still not noticed an increased demand for Eucharistic bread despite churches reopening for public worship in a recent article [IC 10/06/2021]. As they say, demand is still at a “trickle”. Undoubtedly this is because of Government-imposed limits on Mass attendance. The worry I have is…
Dear Editor, Some national politicians have questioned why a Catholic ethos should be present in our schools. Perhaps the reason lies in the fact that the overwhelming majority of children are from a Catholic background and that their parents have a sneaking feeling that the Catholic ethos is the most compassionate, coherent and comprehensive available. These…
Dear Editor, The issue of Irish prisoners not being able to attend Mass, highlighted on your front page [IC 03/06/2021], is most serious. Although some of these people may be behind bars for serious criminal offences, this does not mean that their constitutional rights can so easily and wrongly be taken from them – particularly…