Dear Editor, Aged 14 years, I was given my most memorable insight into the mystery of The Eucharist, based on the following words at The Offertory of the Mass: “By the mingling of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled Himself to share in our humanity.”…
The alignment of a coffin before the altar tells its own story. I celebrated a funeral Mass for a priest during the month — not that many who attended were aware of this man’s one-time status. He had trained and been ordained by a religious community I had never heard of, in another country, and…
Dear Editor, Brendan Butler congratulates Sarah Mullaly on her appointment as the first female supreme head of the Anglican Communion and goes on to refer to “women (in the Catholic Church) excluded not only from being ordained and forbidden from reading the Gospel at Mass.” This he claims “is an injustice against Catholic women and…
Dear Editor, Catherine Connolly views seem to subvert the very constitution that the President is elected to protect. She wants a third legal gender to have equal status with male and female! Our laws are based on biology – male and female. He created them, but all our laws will have to change accordingly if…
Friendship and inclusion: the keys to unlocking closed doors Dear Editor, As a priest who worked in England for over 50 years, I have returned home in retirement, and am wrestling to fully understand what is happening in the Church of my homeland. There are shattering changes across the religious dimensions of Catholicism nationwide, and…
At a United Nations high-level meeting in New York, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher of the Vatican said “technology is being used to exacerbate certain forms of abuse and violence,” adding that the gravity of the violence and abuse against women and children extended beyond sexual exploitation and trafficking. That technology he spoke of is the…
Dear Editor, this is a letter to Maria Steen. Firstly I am deeply disappointed that you are not on the list of candidates for President of Ireland. To have missed a nomination by a mere two signatures makes it heartbreaking for you as it was for those of us who had pinned our hopes on…
Dear Editor, For the life of me, I cannot understand the stance of Independent members of the Oireachtas and local county councils. As Shane Ross remarked in last week’s Sunday Independent, the three-horse line-up to date for the presidential race lacks lustre and is second rate. Maybe Sinn Féin will pull a rabbit…
Political generosity in the upcoming presidential election Dear Editor, In the interest of democracy, local authority council elected members should be allowed a free vote when it comes to the nomination of presidential candidates. They should not be fettered by political party loyalties which block potential candidates. The constitutional requirements were never intended to be…
Dear Editor, I am responding to Mr Duffin’s letter from the August 14 edition, where he made the suggestion that perhaps the readings at Mass were too long, confusing and quite incomprehensible, and that shorter readings would be better for the lessening attention span of Mass goers. I think this thought is exactly one…