Christian democracy means putting the human person at the centre of our political action writes Manfred Weber MEP The world has been in crisis management mode for more than a decade: we experienced a global financial crisis and a pandemic. Now we are witnessing what it means having a bloody and ruthless war right on…
Category: Opinion
On synod secrecy, does Pope Francis risk destroying the village in order to save it?
As first reported by Loup Besmond of La Croix, Pope Francis apparently is considering imposing pontifical secrecy on the upcoming Synod of Bishops on synodality, not simply on opinions and votes, as was past practice, but on all issues addressed during synod discussions. The stated aim would be to protect the frankness and honesty of…
Gabon Catholic leaders hope for better conditions following coup
Fredrick Nzwili Two weeks after the military seized power in Gabon, a Catholic priest there said ordinary people feel more secure and hopeful, even as some analysts warn of a “contagious coup pandemic” in the former French colonies in West and Central Africa. On September 4, General Brice Oligui Nguema was sworn in as the…
To you glory and praise for evermore…
Donal McMahon It’s strange but in all my years of reading at Mass I had never read the psalm for Trinity Sunday (Year A) until this year, on June 4. In case the choir wasn’t there to sing it, I studied it at home. I saw immediately how different it was from the usual…
Key focus must be on sustaining faith in families
When we speak of the vocations crisis, we shouldn’t speak of it in isolation from the wider crisis of faith that we are currently experiencing in Ireland and large parts of the western world. Healthy and committed vocations only come from healthy and committed communities which can only be formed by healthy and committed families.…
Fostering respect and understanding in Jerusalem
Dear Editor, Your recent front page article [The Irish Catholic – September 7, 2023] highlighting Tánaiste Micheál Martin’s warning to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the harassment faced by the Christian minority in Jerusalem, has stirred my concern. As Christians, we are called to embrace love, compassion, and solidarity with our fellow believers, regardless…
Parenting by voluntary principle…
I wrote, last week, about the reason why there’s a ‘culture gap’ between younger people, and the more mature generations – especially on issues like ‘gender wars’. Younger people often have a literal attitude to equality: everyone must be equal, and natural, or biological, differences, don’t come into the equation. There is also an interesting…
The Church needs to change to remain faithful to its mission
The Catholic culture of our childhood memories is unlikely to return, whether we would wish it to or not writes Fr Eamonn Conway When I was growing up in Tuam, Co. Galway in the 1960s, the town was a ‘mini-Vatican’. The diocesan boarding school, St Jarlath’s College, had over a dozen priests on staff. Both…
A simplistic take on the Church and sex ed
Does Sadlier really believe his teachings will lead to sexual nirvana? David Quinn asks The programme opens with a shot of a cross and the presenter informing us: “As a predominantly Catholic country, Ireland always had a complicated relationship with sex and sexuality.” Immediately, there is a problem with the narrative. It is predictable, cliched,…
Defence of Pius XII reflects concern Francis could be styled ‘Putin’s Pope’
Yesterday Crux carried two stories which, at first blush, appear unrelated. The first concerned the latest Ukrainian backlash against Pope Francis’s praise of “Great Mother Russia,” while the second covered the discovery of a previously unnoticed bit of anti-fascist graffiti from the WWII years in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State. Yet pushing beyond the headlines, the two stories do actually…



John L. Allen Jr.


Michael Kelly

Mary Kenny

David Quinn
