Dear Editor, Bro. Malachy Buckley’s queries on celibacy and women’s ordination and his fear of empty churches failing drastic change (Letters, 22/09/2016) have been well-aired in organisations over the past 25 or more years, firstly locally, e.g. by BASIC here in Ireland, CWO in UK and in many other countries, culminating in a present world-wide…

Dear Editor, The Republic of Ireland is fast becoming the laughing stock of the world. Its Minister for Children was seen in Dublin, the seat of government, publicly advocating laws that would permit the killing of children. Is this caring for children? I think not. Yours etc. Fr Noel McKeown O.P., Newry, Co. Down.

Dear Editor, The old Irish blessing said to new mothers, “may you be a mother of a bishop”, has always been met with a tongue and cheek response, but the lovely image of Bishop Fintan and his parents (IC 29/09/2016) showed that wishful thinking can become a reality! It also showed how a family’s faith…

Dear Editor, Re: Bro. Malachy Buckley and his question asking why we have not got women priests (Letters, IC 22/09/2016), in the West/Latin Church, the priest acts, especially in the Eucharist, in persona Christi (in the person of Christ). This, a precious gift bestowed on the male apostles, to act as Christ, a male in…

Dear Editor, Why this terrible change in attitude of both Government and leading national media regarding the Catholic Church? Once sympathetic and harmonious, they are now aggressively hostile, not missing the slightest opportunity to make the ‘swipe’. I resent Children’s Minister Kathleen Zappone dictating we go ‘fast track’ in transferring our schools away from religious…

Dear Editor, In his book, The Origins of the Final Solution, Christopher Browning comments at pages 184 to 186 on eugenics which was advocated in Scandinavia, the US and of course Nazi Germany. Under the general heading of ‘Killing the handicapped’, he notes that the practice in Germany was relatively straightforward. But in Germany, the…

Dear Editor, Eucharist is a liturgy whereby we renew the Covenant that Jesus made between all members of the human race and our Heavenly Father, making us God’s adopted children. Like any covenant that is ‘cut’ between two parties e.g. marriage, there are the terms, and a communal celebration whereby both groups celebrate the new…

Dear Editor, Reporter Greg Daly quoted me in his September 23 article (‘Irish Bishops urged to adopt divorce-Communion policy’) about giving Holy Communion to divorced and remarried Catholics. His incomplete reference gives the impression that I approve of this practice. I emphatically do not.  It is wrong for someone who is living in a state…

Dear Editor, The comments of Frs Gerry O’Hanlon and Gerald Murphy in your article ‘Irish bishops urged to adopt divorce-Communion’ (IC 22/09/15) have been extremely helpful in making sense of what Pope Francis’ recent comments on the interpretation of Amoris Laetitia mean in reality. I have read articles elsewhere arguing that the Pope lacks the…

Dear Editor, I must confess myself baffled by last week’s letter from Chris Jezewski headed “Auschwitz camp was not ‘in Poland’” (IC 22/09/2016).  Mr Jezewski argues that Auschwitz was not “in Poland” since Poland was occupied during the period when the camp was engaged in its murderous work. Indeed, in stressing that the area around…