Pope Francis addressed engaged couples on St Valentine’s Day ten years ago. He gave his now-famous advice regarding the need to say, please, thank you and I’m sorry. He went on to say, “We all know that there is no such thing as a perfect family, nor even the perfect husband or the perfect wife. We…
Recently, well-known and outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins publicly declared himself to be a ‘cultural Christian’, as he defined England as ‘culturally Christian country.’ This perhaps unexpected admission from the hardened atheist who famously wrote The God Delusion was made during an interview regarding the city of London’s decision to celebrate the Muslim feast of Ramadan…
It is my experience that most people are fair-minded when they reflect on things. But the clerical child abuse scandal has for many years been such an emotional subject that a discussion about safeguarding priests from the lingering cloud of suspicion would have been challenging and even considered inappropriate. Despite the ongoing trauma and hurt…
We are not at all as European as we think. For all the talk of ‘being Europeans’ (which we clearly are), almost everyone identifies with and relates to their own country first. It is the same across the rest of Europe and next door in Britain as well. This is why we know much more…
If you hate the thought of more hate legislation, brace yourself. There’s a fresh push to deal with ‘hate crimes’ north of the border, despite controversies in the Dail and elsewhere, over this kind of law. It’s a noble aim to stamp out hatred and prejudice. But how far can the law go to achieve…
The controversy surrounding Eurovision 2024 led me to recall Fr Michael Paul Gallagher SJ’s commentary on St Paul’s visit to Athens. On arrival, St Paul “was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols” (Acts 17:16). Yet despite this, he searched for something in the Athenians’ worship of pagan deities that he…
Letter from Jerusalem Justin Robinson OSB I’m writing from Nablus, in the West Bank, where the Christian community has just celebrated the feast of St Justin Martyr who was born here in the year 100 AD. Nestled between the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim – some fifty kilometres north of Jerusalem – today’s Nablus is…
Letter from Rome With the imminent departure of Joseph Donnelly as the US Ambassador to the Holy See, it seems likely the post will be vacant for a while. It would make little sense to try to ram through a nominee before the election in November, and afterwards it can take a new (or returning)…
Notebook In recent weeks, I presided at the funeral of a young man who died by suicide. He was one of several who died in the same way in recent months here in the South-East. His tragic death was heart-breaking and devastating for his family. In preparing the homily for the funeral Mass, I was…
Letter of the Week A narrative which sees life, family, religion as dispensable Dear Editor, As we look back on a completely lacklustre European election campaign, we see that it ignored the most important challenge facing our continent, namely the impending social and economic collapse which is seen as inevitable by multiple demographic statisticians. No…
Breda O'Brien
David Quinn
Martina Purdy
John L. Allen Jr.