Is consent alone, however defined, ever enough to make a sexual encounter moral, asks David Quinn A sexual consent programme has been launched that is aimed at second level schools. It has been developed by the ‘Active Consent’ unit at NUI Galway and will include workshops for students and parents. The programme is aimed at…
Our parishes must be converted to make them fit for purpose by becoming missionary in orientation writes Fr Pat Collins CM It could be argued that the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) initiated a sort of theological and pastoral revolution in the Catholic Church. While the subject of evangelisation had not been mentioned at Vatican I…
Letter from Rome Had you or I been among the almost 30 million Americans who tuned in to hear Walter Cronkite bring us the news of the evening of October 29, 1969, we would have heard a great deal about an underground Soviet nuclear test that day, one of 19 throughout the year that exacerbated…
One of Europe’s leading cardinals has criticised the continent’s political leaders, and those throughout the west, for abandoning Afghani refugees, focusing more on numbers than on how best to help those fleeing violence. Speaking to SIR, the news outlet of the Italian bishops, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, archbishop of Luxemburg and president of the Commission of Bishops’…
Nothing so much approximates the language of God as does silence. Meister Eckhart said that. Among other things, he is affirming that there is some deep inner work that can only be done in silence, alone, in private. In the end, the other is heaven, the salvation for which we are ultimately destined. Utter aloneness…
Dear Editor, The events in Afghanistan are tragic to say the least, the future of the population, especially women and girls is shrouded in doubt. Their future under the Taliban, whether that be access to education, the workforce and other basic freedoms is under threat. It is not only women, but all those seen to…
Christianity basically invented the idea of what we now call separation of Church and State. Taking up Christ’s words “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s”, the idea of an appropriate separation emerged as healthy for both Church and State. A mature understanding of the separation…
Notebook Irish people of all stripes are aware, at least vaguely, of the achievements of the learned monks of early Christian Ireland. Comparatively few details of the monastery schools and scholars on the island of Ireland at this period are known, however, and we know a good deal more about the Irish intellectuals who rose…
Khola Hasan (pictured) is an academic lawyer and scholar at the British Islamic Sharia Council, and she caused controversy last weekend by defending the Taliban on a BBC religious programme. She said that Muslims in Britain – “every single Muslim” she knows – were celebrating the Taliban victory in Afghanistan; and that the victorious Taliban…
The View Single people have played a very important role in my life, beginning with my much-loved aunt, Kathleen O’Brien, who died at the early age of 71. Kathleen was a fascinating figure to me as a child. She had spent the years of the Second World War in Sweden as, I think, a kind…
David Quinn
John L. Allen Jr.
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien