As someone born in the 1960s, I grew up during the Cold War. One of my earliest, clearest current affairs memories was the fall of Saigon to North Vietnam in 1975 and the helicopters taking off from the roof of the American embassy. The whole country then became united under a communist government. In those…
Before Easter, Notre Dame, Indiana, posted on Facebook requesting that people not line up before 9 am for the Holy Saturday liturgy, which was set to begin at 9 pm. All attendees needed to be physically present by 6:30 pm. Why would people have to queue for 12 hours for a Holy Saturday liturgy? Room…
Detransitioners are people who once believed in the promise of medical transition and later came to regret those interventions and attempt to reverse course. For most of us, the idea of medical transition is strange, even unsettling. But for someone who is deeply unhappy in their body, or in their life, it can become a…
With the rise of artificial intelligence, society finds itself in a landscape that is both bursting with possibility and a bit overwhelming at the same time. For those of us tasked with forming the young in the faith – Catholic parents, educators and ministers – the challenge is no longer just about monitoring screen time or even…
Who threatens freedom of the press? Dear Editor, Michael Sanfey’s most informative report on the recent European conference of journalism and media freedom quotes one of the participants as warning against the influence that readers can exert on the media, thus compromising freedom of speech. The speaker offered as an example the fact that The…
Christians have Mary Magdalene and the other women to thank for the news of the Resurrection. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John recount the same happenings. Some details are different, but it is quite clear that Mary Magdalene and others found Jesus’s tomb empty and that they told the apostles. Peter and John believed them and…
Between Christmas and Easter, I attended a humanist funeral. It was not by design. I had assumed the deceased was of another Christian denomination, and there would at least be a religious element to the service at the crematorium. “Oh my God,” I thought as the humanist ‘minister’ rose to speak about John (not his…
Some years ago, while on a diplomatic posting at the Irish Embassy in Lisbon, I attended a ceremony at which the then Ambassador of Ireland to Portugal, John Campbell, gave an address to graduating students at St Dominic’s International School. The key sentence of Ambassador Campbell’s speech that day has always remained with me. He…
It is right, as many have already so done, to acknowledge and welcome the release of the first tranche of data from last year’s survey of parents and school communities on issues relating to patronage, language of instruction and single sex/mixed school settings. This is an important milestone marking that perhaps for the first time,…
Recently, I had the privilege of leading a retreat for English-speaking priests in Assisi during a particularly significant Jubilee year for followers of St Francis. This year marks the 800th anniversary of his death at the Portiuncula, the small chapel at the heart of the first Franciscan community. St Francis died there on the evening…
David Quinn
Breda O'Brien
Martina Purdy