Msgr Paddy Delargy On being appointed a Chaplain to His Holiness, Msgr Paddy Delargy wonders whether the clerical honour actually acknowledges human limitations Is there really a significant choice in everyone’s life that sums up all that has gone before and influences radically the future course of events? If so, in my life it…
Lorraine Clifford-Lee survived because she is a liberal woman in a party that is very short of liberal women, writes John McGuirk There are very few politicians in the Oireachtas with a more conventionally liberal voting record than Senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee. If you can think of a hot button issue over the past six or…
Francis talks peace, poverty and prayer during historic visit to Thailand and Japan, writes Colm Fitzpatrick This month marked 25 years since a Pope has visited Thailand, with Francis embarking on an Asia tour which saw him venture to the former kingdom of Siam – the same place that St John Paul journeyed to in…
It’s becoming increasing difficult in today’s world to trust anything or anybody, for good reason. There’s little that’s stable, safe to lean on, trustworthy. We live in a world where everything is in flux, is flux, where everywhere we see distrust, abandoned values, debunked creeds, people moving on from where they used to be, contradictory…
Some politicians never tire of telling us how liberal and tolerant Ireland is today. It is, they claim, a much better place than the Ireland of the past. Debate, they tell us, is much more civilised today and there is not the ‘chilling effect’ that many claim the prospect of a belt of a crosier…
I was in Carrickmacross last week, visiting my uncle, Brian Mac a’ Bhaird. You might have seen him on Prime Time earlier in the month, with his wife Sheila, and Romy, their youngest daughter. Romy has cerebral palsy, and faces severe limitations in living her daily life, limitations her extraordinary parents, siblings, and neighbours have…
Dear Editor, In your front page story ‘Vatican urged to block nun’s hospital transfer’ (IC 21/11/19), you quoted Fr Gerry Kane as saying: “I think that the Church in Ireland has been doing the work of the State for far too long…it is time for us to have stand-alone Catholic institutions, like Catholic hospitals, Catholic schools and…
Here’s a sad post-adoption story which emerged last week: a 60 year old man was informed by Tusla, the child and family agency, that the mother and father he believed were his birth parents were in truth his adoptive parents. They had never revealed this – they are now dead – and he was stunned…
The View It is remarkable how large a role faith still plays in American politics. There is not a single out-and-proud atheist among the very crowded field of Democratic hopefuls seeking nomination as the presidential candidate. As a non-observant Jew, Bernie Sanders would have been considered perhaps the least religious but even he said somewhat…
It is fundamentally wrong to politicise children, writes David Quinn The Dáil Chamber in Leinster House was handed over to children last week to discuss the issue of climate change. They were aged between 10 and 17 and it was part of RTÉ’s climate week, intended to raise aware of the effect humans are having…
Colm Fitzpatrick
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien
David Quinn