Pope’s call for courageous negotiations a red flag to critics, writes Dr Michael Sanfey Remarks by Pope Francis during a recent interview with Swiss TV have sparked outrage. As The Pillar reported, Francis was asked about global conflicts and his hopes for peace. The Pope responded “I believe that the stronger one is the one…
Still lack of satisfaction with Church’s response to abuse allegations, writes Ruadhán Jones The quality of the Church in Ireland’s safeguarding structures and culture has “greatly improved” in the last 10 years, according to a report from the national safeguarding body. “A lot of progress has been made, and plans are in place to…
A top cardinal and leading papal diplomat has said that amid the ongoing war in Gaza, peace in the Holy Land requires a change of mentality in which both sides recognise and respect each other’s right to exist, regardless of whether there is one state or two. “I don’t know if two states are better…
There is an effort these days to cleanse pornography of its dirty image, dressing it up as part of a healthy sexual life. But a new study from the Economic and Social Research Institute’s (ESRI) should complicate that picture. It shows that, among 17–20-year-olds in Ireland, consuming pornography is associated with aggression, “risky” sexual behaviours,…
Organisers of Pope Francis’s ongoing Synod of Bishops on Synodality have announced that ten different working groups hadvebeen formed in the Roman Curia to address specific topics that came out of last year’s session. These topics, they said, are restricted to issues mentioned inside of the synod hall and include hot-button questions such as…
Dear Editor, When I first read the proposed amendments to our Constitution, I was enraged as I remembered by own lovely mother and the wonderful women who have gone before us. To try and remove the word ‘mother’ completely and the word ‘women’ in this instance, is an insult to us all. The male of…
Fr John Harris OP Now that all the partying is over and the ‘Paddy’s’ day celebrations are litter, maybe we as Catholics can look more soberly at our patron saint and see what he has to say to us in our present situation. In this the second decade of the 21st Century of the Christian…
Last Saturday morning at 9am, the counting of votes began on the ‘family’ and ‘care’ referendums held the day before. Soon results started to trickle through from count centres around the country. By 10am political journalists were calling it: it was a No vote in both referendums. Following the announcement of the massive defeat, the…
There has been, obviously, much discussion about the role of women in the national sphere recently; but one of the groups drawing least attention is what we might call ‘the tribe of widows’. When I was involved, with others, in forming the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement in 1970, the position of widows was one of…
The Irish will never want to remove ‘mothers’ from the Constitution, writes David Quinn No-one expected such resounding defeats of the two referendums put before the Irish people by the Government, proposals that were backed by every party in the Dail aside from Aontu with its one TD, and Independent Ireland with its three. The…
Ruadhán Jones
Maria Steen
Mary Kenny
David Quinn