The Church should be lobbying for a swifter return to public worship, writes David Quinn For the first time in the history of Christianity, churches have been closed across much of Europe to public Masses and other religious ceremonies. But the picture varies, and the speed at which public worship is being restored from…
The View As we face another week in lockdown it would be easy to become discouraged, to wonder how on earth we can survive all this: these are difficult days. However, it is sometimes important to put things into context and reflect on where we are from a wider perspective. Yes, there are profoundly…
To look at this coronavirus spiritually is to see it as a call to conversion, both personally and as the Church, writes Fr John Harris OP On many occasions over the last few weeks I have been asked where is God in this lockdown and coronavirus crisis. Needless to say from the perspective of…
Notebook “Patience is a virtue, get it if you can, seldom in a woman, never in a man.” One of my earliest memories is hearing my grandmother recite this proverb. I’m not sure what impatience on my part warranted this correction, and I’m not sure it had much effect either! What does patience mean,…
There is such a thing as a good death, a clean one, a death that, however sad, leaves behind a sense of peace. I have been witness to it many times. Sometimes this recognised explicitly when someone dies, sometimes unconsciously. It is known by its fruit. I remember sitting with a man dying of cancer…
Like many people, I am acutely feeling the absence of Sunday Mass. Parishes are doing their best, and there is a wealth of creativity in many of the Masses that are being streamed online. But it isn’t the same – not really. I am blessed where I live that churches remain open as places of…
Dear Editor, How to sad to read [IC 7/5/20] that Pope emeritus Benedict XVI feels that there has been an attempt to silence him in retirement. There has certainly been a sense from some ideologically driven voices within the Church to present him in opposition to his successor Pope Francis. Unfortunately, this has come from…
Is the coronavirus ‘God’s judgement’ to punish humanity for the errors of its ways? Surely not, and Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick is quite right to describe such ideas as a form of blasphemy. Pope Francis had previously given the lead in dismissing any such notion that the virus is some kind of Old Testament…
The View There was a tragic case recently in Mullingar when the wrong body was given to a family for burial. It was spotted by a mortician when a name on a body bag matched that of someone whose remains had allegedly already been collected by a funeral director. Imagine the distress of the…
Some Christians will never sacrifice respectability to speak out against what is popular, writes David Quinn The Catholic bishops of Germany have admitted in a new document that they did not do enough to resist the Nazis during the war. The 23-page report says: “Inasmuch as the bishops did not oppose the war with…
David Quinn
Nuala O’Loan
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien