Sometimes it takes a long arc of history for a remarkable person and his work to be fully acknowledged and recognised. A hundred years after he founded the Legion of Mary in Dublin, Frank Duff is now seen as not merely a devout and altruistic man, but enlightened and well before his time in his…

Chinese newspapers across the country declared the Legion to be an anti-revolutionary, subversive organisation in 1951, writes David Quinn In 1956, Ignatius Kung, the Catholic bishop of Shanghai, was brought before a crowd of thousands in the local dog racing stadium, bound and dressed by his captors in a pajama suit. He had been arrested…

Notebook Some weeks ago I watched a short American documentary about a remote part of the West of Ireland, filmed some time in the 80s. A packed church was shown, and an interview with the priest followed. The interviewer asked him some questions about his spiritual role, but he strikingly downplayed that aspect of his…

I had a conversation with an old rake the other day about past times and past sins, and their inclination to surface in the present. It occurred after a rather public accusation made by the Tory MP, Caroline Noakes, that she had been “groped” by Stanley Johnson – father of British prime minister Boris –…

The View As stated here before, there is an imbalance in public discourse between civil rights and civic responsibility, with not enough emphasis on the latter. Not just religion but community is about coming together and showing mutual support and consideration. St Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews (10: 24-5) speaks about spurring one another to…

It is time to breathe new life into the traditional concept of the common good, writes David Quinn During the abortion debate we all became familiar with the slogan, ‘my body, my choice’. It is the ultimate expression of personal autonomy. Pro-lifers have always responded that the slogan is misapplied to the abortion debate because…

Ireland’s recent appearance before the UN Human Rights Council should prompt questions about how serious a body it is, writes Jason Osborne The relevance of Ireland’s recent appearance before the United Nations’ Human Rights Council can be summed up by the fact that Iceland asked us to “repeal the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Act”.…

If the data is correct the post-coronavirus Church in Ireland will be a depleted force, but creative thinking can arrest decline, writes Michael Kelly The First Sunday of Advent at the weekend brought more potentially worrying news about the new variant of Covid-19 that has been discovered in South Africa. It’s a concern, health officials…