Notebook Dear Notebookers! I am not exactly sure who you are. Well, that is not altogether accurate, since I spoke with a priest friend in Raphoe last week with whom I had not been in contact for a while. “The only place I see you”, he told me “is on the back page of The…
Over the past week or so, the BBC’s globally-famous interview with Princess Diana in 1995 has come back to haunt the corporation. Accusations – and evident proof – of underhand and deceptive methods of gaining access to Diana have emerged. Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, has shown that the interviewer, Martin Bashir, used forged documents to…
The View Niamh Uí Bhriain Just three months into the supposedly progressive and compassionate abortion regime established by Simon Harris after the repeal of the Eighth Amendment, the unthinkable happened. A preborn baby boy was diagnosed with Trisomy 18 in the National Maternity Hospital. His parents said that they were not afraid to care for…
Bishop-elect Stephen Chow Sau-yan completed his noviciate in Ireland, continuing a 90-year link between the nations, Ruadhán Jones learned Jesuit bishops are a rare thing, largely because the Jesuits vow not to seek such offices and will only take up a bishopric if the Pope asks them directly. As such, it wasn’t easy for Fr…
By helping to weaken the clan system, Catholicism helped to pave the way for individual freedoms , writes David Quinn Western societies are ‘WEIRD’, that is to say, compared with almost everyone else who has ever lived, and is still alive today, we are much more individualistic and, in a certain way, non-conformist. Counter-intuitively, the…
Letter from Rome Let’s face it, labour complaining about management isn’t exactly new. Even the Gospel of Matthew records a scene of workers who’ve toiled all day in a vineyard grousing that Johnny-come-latelys who showed up just before quitting time were getting the same wage … and, in a template for such disputes throughout time,…
An expert on Chinese affairs has called Jesuit Fr Stephen Chow, the newly-named bishop of Hong Kong, a balanced choice for the Vatican as it attempts to navigate the complicated and rapidly changing on-the-ground status of the territory. Speaking of the appointment, Fr Bernardo Cervellera, head of AsiaNews, said that from what he can tell,…
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. We know this works for love. Does it also work for hatred? Can someone’s hatred follow us, even into eternity? Agnes doesn’t know what to do with that hatred, which dominates her world and…
“Covid-19 has changed the Church,” we hear. It’s almost a cliché at this stage, but that doesn’t make it wrong. Change is a constant in life – the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus said: “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man”. Cardinal Newman put it well when he said:…
Dear Editor, Fr Gerry Young makes some interesting points in relation to the Government’s plans to allow gender-neutral toilets in all new or refurbished schools [IC 13/05/2021]. Under Norma Foley’s recent leadership, the Department of Education excluded the two largest parent groups from all consultations and there have been at least two significant developments that…
Mary Kenny
Ruadhán Jones
David Quinn
John L. Allen Jr.
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Michael Kelly