Dear Editor, A few years ago a priest friend, while on holiday from England, was one of the concelebrants of a funeral Mass for John, who had Down Syndrome. Many of the deceased’s friends and colleagues from the Old Monastery Day Centre, Killarney attended the Mass and gave public expression to their loyalty and deep…

Dear Editor, Colm O’Gorman, the executive director of Amnesty International in Ireland, was present in a Catholic national school in the Archdiocese of Dublin, to present the students with the “first ever Amnesty Friendship trophy for the huge generosity and effort” put into the school’s Friendship Week’s fundraising. It is reported on the school’s website…

Dear Editor, I watched Barack Obama during his visit to Hiroshima to remember the victims of the dropping of the first atomic bomb on that city 71 years ago. He was accompanied by the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe in the presence of a very small number of survivors of that evil massacre of the…

Dear Editor, Mr Ken Curtin of Cobh appears to blame local church authorities for his removal as church reader at St Colman’s Cathedral. Mr Curtin has nobody to blame but himself if he does not meet the qualification for this role. Paragraph 101 of the General Instruction on the Roman Missal, echoing the sentiments of…

Dear Editor, The Eighth Amendment is Ireland’s life equality provision which protects the lives of mothers and babies in pregnancy. The Catholic Nurses Guild of Ireland resolved unanimously at its Annual General Meeting in May to support the retention of the Eighth Amendment. The Ethical Guidelines of the Catholic Nurses Guild of Ireland (8) states:…

Dear Editor, What an excellent article in the May 26 issue by Kieron Wood about the difficulties in finding times for Mass in Dublin parishes. I couldn’t agree more and since I moved to Co. Tyrone I experience similar problems in parishes up here. Parishes are happy to put details in their bulletins only and…

Dear Editor, As the Eighth Amendment is now up for general discussion I should like to contribute my ‘two cents’ by way of a quotation from the book, Maurice Baring Restored, by Paul Horgan, published by Heinemann. This is the quotation: “One doctor to another, ‘about the termination of pregnancy – I want your opinion. The…

Dear Editor, Now that First Holy Communion and Confirmation have been administered to our young people, perhaps it’s time to take stock of the current situation. Many of the parents, and those who committed themselves to follow Christ in the Catholic tradition, will not be found in church at Mass the following Sunday but at…

Dear Editor, These days our bishops and educationists are again circling the wagons against the encroachment of ‘faith-neutral’ models of religious education in Catholic schools. So, for example, we hear Dr Eugene Duffy of St Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, insisting that: “Parents, if they’re sending their children to a faith-based school, will have a genuine…

Dear Editor, I found myself in church, quite accidentally, on a Saturday afternoon at a baptism ceremony. It was conducted by an elderly priest, for whom I had great sympathy. Why? The atmosphere in the church was anything but quiet and respectful. There was widespread talking and giggling, children running around through the seats, even…