Dear Editor, We in the Irish Catholic Church would do well to wake up, open our eyes, get a realistic view of each of the 26 dioceses, and begin by discussing the various ills and weaknesses that afflict them. And if we could take a leaf out of the late William Glasser’s ‘Reality Therapy’, it…

Dear Editor, Congratulations on your special issue of the paper (IC 21/05/2015) celebrating the life and legacy of Archbishop Oscar Romero. The monsignor was an incredible inspiration and his beatification is a well-deserved, and long-time coming, recognition of his bravery and compassion in speaking out against violence and injustice, and spreading the Gospel message of…

Dear Editor, Writing as a priest, “may I express my astonishment and disappointment” with Dr John Murray in your ‘letter of the week’ of May 21. My first problem is one with his logic. He refers to Jesus teaching on marriage (Mark 10:1-12). The issue in Jesus’ time was with the interpretation of Deuteronomy 24:1…

Dear Editor, For most of the 20th Century the Catholic Church ran, and its priests and nuns worked in, most of our schools and hospitals. The Church ran most of our charities and campaigned on behalf of the poor. Many priests were social workers as well as self-help providers of jobs. Fr McDyer helped found…

Dear Editor, May I through the medium of your newspaper congratulate all involved in the restoration and rededication of the iconic St Mel’s Cathedral in Longford. We all remember when the news went viral on Christmas morning 2009, when the devastating fire destroyed St Mel’s, but like the phoenix it has risen from the ashes…

Dear Editor, The judgment that Ashers Bakery acted in a discriminatory fashion by refusing to decorate a cake with the slogan “Support Gay Marriage” raises a terrifying spectre of a future where the facile slogan “Don’t like gay marriage? Don’t get one” seems but a fond memory. I do not understand how Judge Isobel Brownlie…

In his letter last week, Dr John Murray inaccurately stated the name of the school in which he works in Mater Dei Institute of Education. It should have read ‘School of Theology’. Dr Murray apologises for the inaccuracy in this regard. Of course, Dr Murray was writing in a personal capacity as a Catholic theologian,…

Dear Editor, Along with many of your readers I am disappointed by the result of the marriage referendum. We face a period of uncertainty as this vote has its knock-on effects in our country’s laws. However, it was heartening to see the brave efforts of the ‘No Campaign’ to defend the meaning of marriage in…

Dear Editor, Writing as a Catholic theologian, may I express my astonishment and disappointment at those theologians and prominent Catholics who support a ‘yes’ vote. In every case that I have read or heard, none of these people has referred to the actual teaching of Jesus on marriage (see Mark 10:1-12). Jesus’ teaching is surely…

Dear Editor, The article by Ben Conroy ‘There is nothing weird about going to Confession’ (IC 23/04/2015), struck me as being mature, authentic and lovely. He refers to young Catholics drifting away from Confession, but older Catholics have drifted away also partly, I would say, as a reaction against an earlier overemphasis on sin and underemphasis…