Notebook In recent days I have found myself awake quite a bit when ordinarily sleep would have overtaken me. Thanks be to God; I sleep easily and well as a rule. You might or might not wonder or care why my sleep has been broken but I need to fill this page, so I am…
After 107 days, I was overwhelmed to be able to attend Mass on Monday [pictured]. The joy was palpable after the long Lent and Eucharistic famine we have been living. Coronavirus is still very much with us, and we must continue to approach the Celebration of the Eucharist with caution. I’m also conscious of the…
Does the Pope vote for a Green party? He clearly is supportive of the Green cause. I was surprised to turn on BBC radio last Monday morning and hear, at the top of the news programme, not a politician talking about the state of the country, nor a reporter analysing the tragic killing in a…
The View With all the media attention focusing on climate change targets and pension age, a less-discussed aspect of the recently agreed programme for government between Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Green Party is the commitment to legislate for exclusion zones around hospitals where abortions are now being performed. This isn’t exactly a new…
We need to teach young people that there is more to sex than just consent, writes David Quinn A new survey was launched to plenty of publicity earlier this week. If it is at all accurate, no parent should let their children, especially their daughters, anywhere near university or any other third level institution because sexual…
2019 marked a banner year for the US Church in terms of race relations, or so I had thought. Washington, DC, the nation’s capital and a long-time bastion of African American heritage, received its first ever black archbishop through the appointment of Wilton Gregory, the long-time leader of Atlanta, Georgia. To punctuate the appointment, it was…
St Eugene de Mazenod, the founder of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the Religious Congregation to which I belong, left us with these last words as he lay dying: “Among yourselves, charity, charity, charity.” I don’t always live that, though I wish I could, especially today. We are in a bitter time. Everywhere there…
Dear Editor, I agree fully with your editor’s comment [IC 11/06/2020]. The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life, the alpha and the omega if you like. The disrespectful way it is approached by some should not be facilitated or tolerated. I think there is an argument for the Church to take…
Documents obtained by The Irish Catholic this week offer something of a glimpse behind the scenes on the relationship between the Church and the State since Covid-19 restrictions began back in March. Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has been the key go-between on behalf of the hierarchy. His years in the Vatican’s diplomatic service has…
Notebook I’ve always enjoyed reading John B. Keane’s Letters of an Irish Parish Priest (or I did until I became one, anyway). One of the letters frequently received by this fictional pastor came from an anonymous parishioner, who always signed herself ‘One Who Tries To Be A Good Catholic’. This anonymous scribe’s notes were usually…
Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny
Maria Steen
David Quinn
Fr Ronald Rolheiser