The View I have been thinking more and more about what it means to be defiant in the face of what can seem like an overwhelmingly anti-life culture. I don’t use that phrase ‘anti-life’ casually, either. It is a theme touched on by Pope Francis and others who have reflected on the dubious default of the modern…
Category: Opinion
The pressure to conform to a Catholic image
Popular images of the practicing Catholic ought not to be mistaken as essential elements of the Faith, writes Jason Osborne For the younger generations of Catholics, the internet is now an inextricable part of their experience of the world. I believe I grew up in the last years that weren’t entirely permeated by the internet,…
Parents must be properly consulted about gender ideology in Schools
Many feminists also reject this worldview and see it as a threat, writes David Quinn Teacher Enoch Burke is in prison at the time of writing for contempt of court. Mr Burke is an evangelical Christian who refused to use the new gender pronoun and name of a pupil in his school in Co. Westmeath,…
Elizabeth II was determined to mend UK-Ireland relations
We have lost a model for peace and reconciliation, writes Baroness Nuala O’Loan These have been sad days for so many people in Britain and across the world. In her 70 year reign and her 96 years of life, Queen Elizabeth II seems to have become ‘the queen’ for so many countries – even leaders of…
‘Reality still bleak’ for Lebanon’s Catholic schools amid economic crisis
Doreen Abi Raad In Lebanon, teetering on the abyss of a socioeconomic crisis, the future of Catholic schools is at risk. Melkite Fr Youssef Nasr, secretary-general of Lebanon’s Catholic schools, said the school year was opening amid “a major life and existential crisis that stifles the breath of the entire nation and threatens the future…
Catholic Church works to battle ‘fake news’ in Brazil’s election campaign
Eduardo Campos Lima Although the electoral campaign officially started on August 16, the attacks against the two leading presidential candidates in Brazil – current President Jair Bolsonaro and former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, commonly referred to as Lula – has been growing on social media since last year. Much of it is “fake…
When paranoia possesses us, we become suspicious and distrustful
What’s in an image? An image can imprint itself indelibly into our consciousness so that we cannot not picture a thing except in a certain way. Take, for instance, Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting of the Last Supper. Today if you close your eyes and try to picture the Last Supper, that image will spontaneously…
Our Lady and the defeat of communism in Russia
Dear Editor, Mikhael Gorbachev would seem to have played, unintentionally, an important role in the unfolding of the Message of Fatima. On March 25, 1984 Pope St John Paul II, in accordance with the request of Our Lady, consecrated the world including Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The following year Gorbachev was elected General…
Finding the right pace to pray
Life is full of surprises. If you had told me 30 years ago that I would be writing an article in praise of the Breviary, I would have thought you mad. Yet that’s just what I am doing today. Thirty years ago, I was very sporadic in my praying of the Divine Office. I was…
Pope in the North is the unfinished business of reconciliation project
Editor’s Comment Much focus in recent days has, rightly, been on the role that Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has played in reconciliation. The late queen has been a keen supporter of the Irish peace process and has played no small role in building bridges between both Ireland and Britain and the two communities in the…




David Quinn
Nuala O’Loan


Fr Ronald Rolheiser


Michael Kelly