Suffering is the flipside of love writes David Quinn Everyone at some point in their lives has to confront the awesome reality of suffering. It may come in the form of ill health, job loss or the breakup of a marriage. These things are bad when they happen to us personally but are often…
Category: Opinion
Faith and superstition
The power of a subordinate clause, one nuance within a sentence and everything takes on a different meaning. That’s the case in a recent brilliant, but provocative, novel, The Ninth Hour, by Alice McDermott. She tells a story which, among other things, focuses on a group of nuns in Brooklyn who work with the poor.…
We all need time to recharge
Fr Bernard Healy Every January, the clergy of my Diocese gather for our annual assembly. We spend three days away together for renewal and ongoing formation. Until recently this was a Priests’ Assembly, but now we have been enriched by the presence of our Permanent Deacons. We take those three days to listen to…
People can’t have their cake and eat it
Dear Editor, I cannot be alone in thinking that Cardinal Kevin Farrell and the Vatican are perfectly within their rights to decide who can – and cannot – speak on Vatican territory. The report that the organisers of an event at which former President Mary McAleese is due to speak next month have had to…
Does Pope Francis have a blind spot on abuse?
There is growing disquiet within the Church about Pope Francis’ handling of allegations of clerical sexual abuse. Shortly after his appointment, Francis won widespread praise for setting up the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. It was a bold statement of intent that the Argentine Pontiff was intent on ensuring that the global Church…
What are we to make of Hungary’s claim on Christian values?
What are we to make of Viktor Orban, the Hungarian leader who is almost certain to be swept back to power in the Hungarian spring election? He is regarded as an ‘anti-liberal’ and ‘semi-authoritarian’ by the European Union – and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was widely criticised in Ireland just for paying a visit to Mr…
Fighting against a eugenic reality
The View There have been exchanges during the week on Twitter and in the mainstream media in which those in favour of legalising abortion have decried those who are against it for trying to make the point that children with disabilities would be particularly vulnerable if the Eighth Amendment is repealed. Down Syndrome Ireland…
Speaking up before the blow falls
We cannot be silent about aborting babies with disabilities, writes David Quinn The issue of Down syndrome has featured fairly prominently in the abortion debate so far and is likely to feature more prominently in the weeks to come. The reason is simple; huge numbers of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome (DS) are aborted.…
How does God act in our world?
There’s an oddity in the gospels that begs for an explanation: Jesus, it seems, doesn’t want people to know his true identity as the Christ, the Messiah. He keeps warning people not to reveal that he is the Messiah. Why? Some scholars refer to this as “the messianic secret”, suggesting that Jesus did not want…
Voting to protect the unborn will send a powerful signal to the world
The starting pistol has been fired on the referendum on whether or not to give politicians the power to legislate to provide for abortion on demand. Truth be told, the battle started a long time ago – a media largely sympathetic with the push for wider access to abortion has been engaged in ‘softening up’…