We can already see that the new US administration will not be a friend of religious freedom, writes David Quinn The incoming US president calls to mind one of those Irish politicians who have ‘evolved’ on abortion. Once they were pro-life, but now they are firmly pro-choice, even some remain ‘personally opposed’. Back in the…
Cindy Wooden Although dogged for years by rumours of sexual impropriety, Theodore McCarrick was able to rise up the Catholic hierarchical structure based on personal contacts, protestations of his innocence and a lack of Church officials reporting and investigating accusations, according to the Vatican summary of its report released on Tuesday. In choosing then-Archbishop McCarrick…
Letter from America Carol Zimmermann The nation’s political divide was never going to be solved by the final tally of presidential votes or when the political signs came down. And the talk of moving forward and finding healing, or at least turning down the vitriol, can seem an unsurmountable task for a nation still reeling…
God is erotically charged and the world is achingly amorous, hence they caress each other in mutual attraction and filiation. So, in reality, the law of gravity and the gifts of the Holy Spirit have one and the same aim” Jewish philosopher Martin Buber made that assertion, and while it seems to perfectly echo the…
Notebook I spent my first 12 years in parish ministry as a curate, seven years in a suburban parish, then five in the commuter belt. They say a curate is “a mouse training to be a rat” (!); sometimes I wonder just how scarily effective that training was. You look at the photo adorning this…
Dear Editor, Gerard Gallagher placed the spotlight on a very important challenge and presented a great opportunity for our Catholic Church to address in Ireland 2020 [IC 22/10/2020], how to reach out and evangelise our young people in an effective way? Young people will identify with the Church’s commitment to social justice and works of…
The world has lost a great man in the death of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks at the weekend. I last met him in London in early March just before Covid-19 lockdown restrictions were imposed. He had just published a new book Morality and was as full of energy and ideas as ever. Lord Sacks – who…
There has been no evidence that Church gatherings are contributing to the spread of Covid-19 infection, writes Archbishop Eamon Martin It is only seldom, and on very important matters, that the four Catholic archbishops – of Armagh, Dublin, Tuam and Cashel & Emly – choose to seek a meeting with the Taoiseach. Given the strength of…
November is the month of the dead: traditionally in Ireland, the month of the Holy Souls. Elsewhere, all over Europe, ceremonies to mourn and remember the dead are held. Each November, as an Irish person resident in England (though, when Covid regulations permit, regularly in Ireland) I am faced with the same dilemma: do I…
The View In 1838, the Under-Secretary at Dublin Castle Thomas Drummond delivered a magisterial rebuke to the landlords of the Tipperary Grand Jury agitating for greater security (including my great-great grandfather), by reminding them: “Property has its duties as well as its rights.” Today, public discourse generally tends to highlight people’s rights more than their…
David Quinn
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Michael Kelly
Archbishop Eamon Martin
Mary Kenny