The planned destruction of the families, languages, cultures and traditions of the Indigenous communities of Canada through the residential school system was “genocide,” Pope Francis has said. Asked by an Indigenous reporter why he did not use the word genocide while in Canada, the Pope said, “I didn’t use the word because it did not…
After his first arrest, the peace activist Daniel Berrigan went into hiding. After four months, he was captured, but during those months underground, although a threat to no one, he was put on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list. There’s an irony here that did not go unnoticed. Someone put up a poster of him…
Recently I had reason to call a support line to discuss problems with a service. Over the space of four days, I called and though I spoke to someone each time, the situation remained unresolved. I arrived at the stage where I did not have to wait for the instruction to press ‘One’ or ‘Two’…
Dear Editor, As parents and grandparents, we are deeply concerned about the proposed radical revision of the Junior Cycle Social, Personal, Health Education (SPHE) curriculum. In common with many of our contacts and friends, we strongly object to the proposed changes on the grounds of the primary rights of parents in education and the likely…
Pope Francis is absolutely right to carry out his ‘penitential pilgrimage’ to Canada and unreservedly apologise for abuse, cruelty and mistreatment which First Nation children suffered in Canadian government institutions run by the Catholic Church. Wherever abuse, whether sexual or physical, has occurred, it should be named, investigated and the victims given full entitlements to…
The View Funeral after funeral. That is how this summer has been for me — sudden deaths, accidents, and deaths that were a long time in coming but shocking, nonetheless. There were funerals of young people or young at heart people, interspersed with anniversary masses. Oddly, perhaps the most difficult funeral was the one I…
For those who believe strongly in the importance of marriage, is it even worth fighting for anymore asks David Quinn It seems we might have another referendum on the family next year. That’s if the Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality has its way. The committee has in its sights the sections of the Constitution that…
Now is the time for priests and people to plan creatively for a future together, writes Fr Gareth Byrne Unprecedented change is coming in the Archdiocese of Dublin. In April 2021, Archbishop Dermot Farrell formed a taskforce under the title Building Hope. The archbishop asked the Building Hope taskforce to assess the needs of the…
MASKWACIS, Alberta – the first step of Pope Francis’ “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada involved him returning two pairs of children’s moccasins. The little shoes were not among the Indigenous artifacts held in the Vatican Museums, but rather reminders that Chief Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier of the Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan had left with Pope Francis…
The Belgian theologian Jan Walgrave, who directed my doctoral thesis, was a true intellectual and a rare one. True, in that his thought naturally, instinctually gravitated towards the huge philosophical questions of essence and existence. Why are we here? Who are we really? Moreover, he was also a rare intellectual in that he was an uncommon…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien
David Quinn