Many tributes have been paid to the late Gay Byrne who died this week. He dominated much public debate in the second half of the last century and was a towering figure in broadcast journalism. In some ways, his television and radio programmes were a mirror being held up to an Ireland where many people…
The View In 1782, towards the end of the American war of independence, one of the most respected of the founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, scientist and diplomat, who negotiated both war and peace, expressed the opinion, “there has never been or ever will be any such thing as a good war or a bad peace”.…
Decades old tensions within the Church are showing themselves in a new and ugly fashion, writes Fr Bill Dailey CSC In the seminary, I had a moral theology professor who took a liberal, revisionist approach to Church teaching. They had a course packed with standard issue critiques of teachings I agreed with, and to my…
We have bequeathed young people a world where no one seems to know what the sexual rules are anymore, writes David Quinn There is a television series called The Affair. The name tells you what the series is about, although actually the affair itself is only a central feature in series one. After that, the…
A famous popular song, Baby, it’s Cold Outside – written in 1944 – has been banned on several American and Canadian radio networks for some time now because the male-female narrative implies a ‘lack of consent’ on the part of the female. Musically, it’s a great tune, cleverly syncopated between the male and female voice, as…
Questions of Faith If you pop into any church around the world and have a look around, you’ll probably see a set of small candles burning with the option to light one yourself. The use of prayer or votive candles has become very popular in recent years, and they are usually lit in front of…
The outcomes of the October summit could have a huge impact on indigenous communities, writes Colm Fitzptrick It’s been a synod tinged with controversy over priestly celibacy and female leadership in the Church; amidst all of this, eyes were also focused on two statues stolen from a church near the Vatican and subsequently thrown in…
It’s hard to be humble, not because we don’t have more than enough deficiencies to merit humility, but rather because there’s crafty mechanism inside of us that normally doesn’t let us go to the place of humility. Simply put, as we try to be self-effacing, humble and non-hypocritical, variably we take pride in that and…
‘Baptisms, marriages likely to disappear as priests become an endangered species’ was the dramatic headline in the Irish Independent this week. There was nothing new in the story and anyone who hasn’t noticed the declining number of priests in recent decades must be living under a rock. The report quoted a member of the Association…
Dear Editor, In response to Mary Kenny’s article ‘Students of sociology – here’s a suggestion’ (17/10/19), may I introduce you to something way more empowering for women: not going back down the road of enslaving women to contraception. Instead let’s educate women with the knowledge about how their cycle works. Let’s also ask the men…
Michael Kelly
David Quinn
Mary Kenny
Colm Fitzpatrick
Fr Ronald Rolheiser