Even in a country like Ireland where the story of the Nativity is well known, the humble narrative of Christ’s birth in Bethlehem still has the power to captivate the imagination. All but the most jaded and cynical of post-Catholics surely cannot find themselves unmoved at the thought of the Virgin Mary hearing the message…
Isn’t Mullinalaghta wonderful? This small village in Co Longford raised a national cheer – and a hooray among the diaspora too – when its GAA football team beat Kilmacud Crokes to win the Leinster Football Club final last weekend. Mullinalaghta has a population of only 447 and the GAA club’s membership there is just 155…
The consciences of medical staff will be abused with a seal of approval from the Oireachtas, writes Dr Noreen O’Carroll I was very struck by the phrase “the abuse of conscience” used by Pope Francis in his apology for the abuse perpetrated on minors by members of the clergy and hierarchy; he apologised not only…
Human rights need Christian foundations, writes David Quinn This month marks the 70th anniversary of the passage of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the key human rights document of our time. This document is quoted across the political spectrum to this day. It is used and misused to advance various human…
Letter from Rome Under any circumstances, the announcement in September that Pope Francis plans to convene a summit on February 21-24 for all the presidents of bishops’ conferences around the world, along with the Vatican’s senior leadership, to discuss the clerical sexual abuse scandals in the Church would have been big news. After the…
Inés San Martín In October, the government of Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo imposed a sweeping ban on civil protest in Nicaragua, which critics saw as an effort to snuff out a spontaneous protest movement that almost brought them down earlier this year. As is almost always the case here in this…
God, it seems, favours the powerless, the unnoticed, children, babies, outsiders and refugees with no resources or place to go. That’s why Jesus was born outside the city, in a stable, unnoticed, outside all fanfare, away from all major media and away from all the persons and events that were deemed important at the time,…
I used to think we got Christmas all wrong in Ireland. Now I am beginning to think we get it very right (from the perspective of my rural parish, at least). I must be mellowing. Mind you, Christmas does seem to start earlier and earlier. A friend in the trade assures me that the reason…
As scandalous headlines go it’s hard to compete with ‘nuns spend $500,000 school donations in Casino’. While the secular media is having a field day reporting the details of the story and anti-Church commentators are dining out on the added discomfort and embarrassment to Catholics, the scandal is only compounded by the fact that the…
Dear Editor, Your front-page story on the Religious Sisters of Charity’s failure to seek canonical permission to dispose of the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group (IC 6/12/2018) really showed the truth of the comments from UCD’s Prof. John McCafferty as related in the previous week’s Webwatch. Prof. McCafferty had been critical of the failure of fellow…
Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny
David Quinn
John L. Allen Jr.
Fr Ronald Rolheiser