Letter from Rome   Within just the last few days, two senior Catholic prelates from Iraq have referred to plans for Pope Francis to visit the country next year as, essentially, a done deal. Of course, this is the Middle East we’re talking about, where the best-laid plans go to die. St John Paul II…

Notebook I have had an interesting summer so far: bookended by two strong liturgies, but with a fairly weak one in between. The American bishops’ statement on liturgy always comes to mind as I reflect on celebrations in which I participate: “Good liturgy builds up faith, bad liturgy tears it down and destroys it”. I…

Anna is a long-time friend of mine. She is a devout Anglican, English, and also a member of the Conservative Party. Thus, she had a vote in deciding whether Jeremy Hunt or Boris Johnson should become the next Conservative leader, and next Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. She’s a conscientious person and…

The View   Unless the Northern Ireland Assembly is reconstituted and an Executive is formed on or before October 21, 2019, abortion law in Northern Ireland will change utterly on October 22, 2019. 66% of women and 70% of 18-34-year-olds in the North said in a recent ComRes opinion poll that they did not want…

The excesses of the fertility industry will come back to bite us, writes David Quinn   We are rightly disgusted at some of the adoption scandals of the past, especially those that involve a mother being effectively forced to give up her child. Another source of scandals were those instances where a birth certificate was…

The leader of Fianna Fáil was at pains to announce to the public this week that he is making every effort to walk places, instead of being driven to places, in order to help combat climate change. If Micheál’s doctor is anything like mine, he or she will be delighted with him. My doctor can’t…

Francis and Benedict’s papacies are profoundly interwoven, writes Greg Daly   Claims this week that Pope Benedict had in 2005 wanted the then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio to serve as his Secretary of State and help clean up the Roman Curia may be surprising, especially to those who clutter and poison Catholic media with tales of…

Letter from Rome   When the Vatican announced last Thursday that Pope Francis had named a new spokesman, most early reaction suggested the move didn’t exactly inspire confidence about an upgrade in the role of the press office. The Pope tapped a 43-year-old Italian layman who’s worked in the press office for the last decade,…

S eventeen years ago, a priest at the Church of Santa Maria in Buenos Aires was tidying up when he discovered two small pieces of a Eucharistic host on the altar. Church rules told him exactly what to do in such a situation, and he followed them to the letter – placing the pieces of…