Dear Editor, Austen Ivereigh writing about the current Synod on the Family (IC 08/10/2015), quite rightly states that the backdrop to the synod is “the massive collapse across the western world of support for the Christian understanding of marriage in culture and now law – as Ireland, and most of our families have witnessed at…

Dear Editor, The year 2015, with the referendum for same-sex marriage, for good or bad, has marked a key turning point in the history of Ireland. As a Christian, I confess that on a number of occasions over the course of the referendum, and since, I have been both deeply shocked and saddened by some…

Dear Editor, The dispute within Britain’s Labour Party over its ability to win the next (2020) general election is similar to the issues facing our bishops at the synod in Rome. In Britain, the argument seems to be that Labour must do whatever it has to do in order to become electable, a position rejected…

Dear Editor, “Church urged to include divorced and remarried Catholics in Eucharist” (IC 01/10/2015). This is a rubbish headline and it wouldn’t be a first in The Irish Catholic as it panders to the ‘have your cake and eat it’ brigade. No one better than Pope Benedict XVI to cut through such baloney with crystal…

Dear Editor, Are the people who marched for abortion in Dublin recently saying that they had no right to life when they were in their mother’s wombs? Yours etc., Noel Mc Keown OP, Newry, Co. Down.  

Dear Editor, An article in The Irish Catholic (01/10/2015) titled “The optimistic conservatism of Pope Francis,” outlined the positive effect Pope Francis is having on the world. We have been through a period of such shame in the Church that we all rejoice in his present popularity. However, it is distressing when praise of Pope…

Dear Editor, Am I alone in wondering what is the point of the Synod on the Family? The media sells it as a guise of finding pastoral solutions to the question of Holy Communion and divorced and remarried persons. The ability to receive Holy Communion is determined by being in a state of grace. One…

Dear Editor, Your front page story in last week’s The Irish Catholic (08/10/2015) focused on a possible papal visit to Ireland in 2018 and the places that may be included in his itinerary. If he were to come he should also visit the Shrine of Matt Talbot. This was actually included in John Paul II’s…

Dear Editor, The other day I saw one of the first Christmas ads on television, and I thought, “Christmas is here already!” Well, actually this may be closer to the truth than we may think.  Celebrating Christmas on December 25 and citing the true date of Yeshua’s (Jesus’) birth in the Jewish /Hebrew calendar are…

Dear Editor, Mary McAleese has received plenty of coverage for her most recent attacks on the Synod of Bishops, just as last year when she claimed the idea of the Church’s bishops advising the Pope on family life was “completely bonkers”.  Her sneers at the idea of the Pope seeking the advice of celibate males…