In a remarkable book, The Inner Voice of Love, written while he was in a deep emotional depression, Henri Nouwen shares these words: “The great challenge is living your wounds through instead of thinking them through. It is better to cry than to worry, better to feel your wounds deeply than to try to understand…
Dear Editor, In attempting to shed light on Ireland’s vocation numbers (Letters, IC 3/10/2019), it seems that Canon Paul Ferrer has drawn attention to just how much fog and confusion bedevil this subject. The term ‘pre-seminary’ never appears in the Holy See’s 2016 Ratio Fundamentalis on priestly formation, he says, highlighting how the document identifies propaedeutic formation…
“I remember when you used to visit the school, and we had such good times and fun there, but I never thought that the future would ever be like this.” I knew what he meant. His mother had just died following an accident – a young woman, with so much left to live and to…
It’s now 14 months since Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told Pope Francis that the Government felt it was time for a new covenant between Church and State in Ireland. Mr Varadkar hasn’t elaborated since and there is little to point to by way of evidence that he is either minded or capable of fostering a mature…
The Government deserves no credit for Ireland’s energy policy, writes John McGuirk By the time you are reading this, a litre of diesel or unleaded will cost much more than it does as I write this, on the Sunday evening before the budget. The fact that it costs more will have no impact whatsoever…
It was my good fortune to discover that my Dublin neighbour, in Stillorgan, is Dr Teresa Iglesias, the much admired scholar, academic and specialist on John Henry Newman. She edited with a new preface Newman’s famous text The Idea of a University and has been closely involved in preparations for the canonisation in Rome later…
How can a global religion help us navigate a global world, asks David Quinn It’s fair to say we live in a time of big political turmoil. We don’t want to exaggerate, mind you. It is not anything like as turbulent as the years from World War I until the end of World War…
Dear Editor, I was pleased to read an article in your publication (IC 03/10/19) praising the efforts of climate activist Greta Thunberg. Despite her age, this young girl has rallied countries and political leaders around the world to be more environmentally conscious and shed light on how detrimental our current carbon consumption really is. At…
Notebook Is your priest punctual; does he start Mass on time? If he does, have you arrived by then? This issue arises in every parish in Ireland, where Mass can begin in one of three ways; a little early, bang on time, or a little (or a lot) late. There is a fourth possibility, which…
One of the great weaknesses of contemporary debates in Ireland is that few of them penetrate beneath the surface. Too often discussions rest solidly on ideology rather than a shared search for understanding. Take education, as an example. It is increasingly obvious that the thrust of policy in this area is to ensure that schools…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny
David Quinn