The willingness to take great physical risks is inspirational, writes David Quinn People love their heroes. Heroes are always the best in their field. During the World Cup, countries looked to the heroes in their squads. For Portugal it was Cristiano Ronaldo. For Argentina it was Lionel Messi. For Croatia it was Luka Modric.…
He’s a loser! You’re a loser! Among all the hurtful slurs we mindlessly utter, this particular one is perhaps the most hurtful and damaging. It needs to be forbidden in our public discourse and stricken from our vocabulary. We’ve come a long way today in forbidding certain language in our public discourse. Mostly the terms…
The Notebook Megan McKenna tells the story of a man who decided to clean out his fish tank. The problem was where to put the fish while he did the cleaning. He decided on the bathtub. He transported the fish, dumped them in their luxurious temporary quarters, and went to work cleaning the tank.…
Dear Editor, With the World Cup coming to an end on Sunday, it really struck me during the celebrations the sense of unity that football was able to create. Throughout the world, people of different nationalities, creeds and perspectives came together for a common cause and hope. They supported their own teams, but they, like…
Has the time come to abolish the concept of a written Constitution? As clause by clause is unpicked from our present Constitution – first composed in 1937, and with added amendments since – a self-evident truth emerges: what is accepted as a general good in one generation will often be dismissed as an outdated irrelevance…
The View The appointment of Paolo Ruffini as head of the Vatican Dicastery for Communications should be an occasion for rejoicing, as the respected 62-year-old journalist is the first layperson to be appointed as prefect of a Vatican department. The historic nature of the appointment may be overshadowed because the post has not gone…
It could take years before we know if the papal trip has been a success, writes David Quinn And so, all 500,000 tickets available for the Pope’s Mass in Phoenix Park next month have been taken up. That is an impressive number by any reckoning, and especially in today’s very secular climate. An additional…
Criticism of Cardinal Kevin Farrell is misplaced, writes Greg Daly “Priests do not have experience to prepare people for marriage, says Vatican Cardinal,” read a headline in the Irish Times early last week. Summing up and quoting some key points in an interview with Cardinal Kevin Farrell in the Irish bishops’ Intercom magazine, the…
In a new interview, Libero Milone, the lay Italian financial expert who was named the Vatican’s first-ever Auditor General in 2015 and who resigned under murky circumstances two years later, asserts that a Vatican criminal investigation against him has ended with no charges being filed. Speaking to the Italian state TV network RAI, Milone said his lawyers…
Huston Smith, the renowned commentator on world religions, submits that you should not judge a religion by its worst expressions, but by its best, its saints. That’s also true in terms of judging the merits of vowed, consecrated celibacy. It should be judged by its best, not perverse, examples, as is true too for the…
David Quinn
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien
Greg Daly
John L. Allen Jr.