It is just over a month since People before Profit TD Gino Kenny launched and sponsored the Dying with Dignity Bill, continuing the efforts of former TD John Halligan to see assisted suicide legalised in Ireland. The bill is entitled ‘An Act to make provision for assistance in achieving a dignified and peaceful end of…
Given that the right to life follows from the dignity that we have in virtue of being human, it is inconsistent with human rights law that the life of any human being can be taken away by appeal to such dignity, writes Dr Gaven Kerr The Dying with Dignity Bill – which passed the first…
Letter from Rome Fans of the TV show The West Wing probably remember an episode in which an internal White House memo is leaked to the press accusing President Josiah Bartlett of timidity and compromising his positions to placate critics. In response, Chief of Staff Leo McGarry crafts a strategy of ‘Let Bartlett be Bartlett’,…
The treatment that President Donald Trump has received to fight Covid-19 has turned the focus on an experimental drug that shows promise in combating the coronavirus but is raising ethical questions about the cell line that helped researchers develop the medicine. At the centre of attention is the ‘cocktail’ of antibodies in the drug called…
On October 4, the feast of St Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis released a new encyclical entitled, Fratelli Tutti – On Fraternity and Social Friendship. It can appear a rather depressing read because of its searing realism, except it plays the long game of Christian hope. Fratelli Tutti lays out reasons why there’s so much…
In the Discworld novel Eric by Terry Pratchett, as the Wizard Rincewind and teenaged demonologist Eric Thursley escape Pandemonium, they notice that the individual cobbles on the ‘Road to Hell’ have good intentions written on them. These included “for the good of the kids”, “I meant it for the best” and “we are equal opportunities…
Dear Editor, I would like to congratulate you on the publication of the article [IC 25/06/2020] by Dr Noel Keating. Dr Keating begins his study by making a brief reference to Thomas Merton or Fr Louis, which was the name given to him in ordination as a Trappist monk in Gethsemani, Kentucky, US. Merton was…
Notebook To light a candle or not to light a candle, that is the question. Or to put it more pointedly, when the HSE advises churches not to permit people to light candles, should the advice be heeded or ignored? The HSE’s most recent comprehensive statement of ‘Covid-19 Guidance for Religious Services’ were last updated…
In the search for a cheap headline, truth is the first casualty – that’s why good journalism matters, writes Michael Kelly The well-known Dominican preacher Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP wrote recently about his increasing disenchantment with the mainstream press. “The media is relentless in attacking the Church,” he writes. “Every day there is verbal abuse,…
The Belfast-born poet Derek Mahon, who died last week, aged 78, after a short illness, was rightly acclaimed as one of the finest poets of our time. I knew Derek (along with his late wife Doreen) as a friend and a neighbour – when our children were young they played together in London’s Kensington. The…
John L. Allen Jr.
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny