Monks have secrets worth knowing, and these can be invaluable when a coronavirus pandemic is forcing millions of us to live like monks. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, millions of us have been forced to stay at home, work from home, practice social-distancing from everyone except those in our own houses and have minimal social…
Notebook I know it’s early days and we have had just two weekends of congregations back at Mass but I have to confess the whole experience is leaving me as a priest somewhat cold. Like most people I was relieved when the authorities gave us the green light to begin to open our churches for…
Dear Editor, If we want an image of pure innocence and joy just look at lambs as they prance around without a care in the world in our fields. Picture this. You’re in a restaurant enjoying your meal and, as you are about to put a piece of succulent, tasty lamb into your mouth, the…
In some ways, the saga of Jeffrey Epstein and his long-term girlfriend and associate Ghislaine Maxwell is almost a morality tale for our time. Epstein, who exploited young girls for sexual purposes, flying them to various spots in America on an airplane jokingly known as ‘The Lolita Express’ is, of course, dead. It’s widely known…
The View During the last four months the world as we knew it has stopped. Gone are many of the things we all took for granted. We know now that it will take years for our world to recover from the economic and social deprivation which have been the result of these months. Can you…
Covid-19 figures and the gender pay gap get the headlines when the tragedy of abortion is sidelined, writes David Quinn The figure of 6,666 abortions that took place in Ireland last year will be seared into the memories of anyone who read it because it is horribly symbolic. But how many will get to remember…
As China appears to be considering relaxing its strict population control measures, American women’s rights activist Reggie Littlejohn has criticised the country for hypocrisy in encouraging Chinese families to have more children while forbidding Uyghur Muslims to do the same. She also voiced doubt that China will completely do away with birth restrictions, insisting that…
Imagine this. You are the dutiful daughter or son and your mother is widowed and living in an assisted living facility. You happen to be living close by while your sister is living across the country, thousands of miles away. So the weight falls on you to be the one to help take care of…
Dublin Diocese has announced that priests are taking a 25% pay cut on already low salaries and that it is looking for one third of its 82 lay staff to take redundancies. Among those asked to consider redundancy are parish pastoral workers (see Page 4). The bishops’ conference in Maynooth is also cutting back on…
Dear Editor, Thank you so much to all at The Irish Catholic for your wonderful photos [IC 2/07/2020] of people returning to Mass. Although I was a bit nervous myself, I could not be separated from the Sacrament any longer, donning my facemask I left the house for Mass for the first time in so…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Mary Kenny
Nuala O’Loan
David Quinn
Michael Kelly