According to the Office of Public Works, just under 152,000 people attended the papal Mass in Dublin’s Phoenix Park on August 26. While organisers’ claims that over 180,000 Communion hosts were distributed suggest a counter-estimate of about 200,000 people, a respectable figure for a miserable day where Mass attendances held up around the country, one…
It is increasingly becoming heretical to say that there are differences between the sexes, writes David Quinn Not that you would think it from reading our newspapers, but one of the things that Pope Francis frequently criticises is so-called ‘gender ideology’. This is the belief that men and women are the same and if…
Letter from Rome Moments of great crisis generally affect institutions in multiple ways, some of which are immediately evident and others that take longer to discern. Amid the clerical abuse scandals currently rocking Catholicism, it’s worth asking if one such long-term result is playing out before our eyes. To wit, are we seeing a…
Michael W. Higgins One could be forgiven for thinking that it has never been as bad as this—Church authority assailed from within and from without, the episcopate in so many jurisdictions discredited, the papacy under siege from schismatic factions, the non-Catholic world appalled by a level of corruption the magnitude of which seems incomprehensible,…
If ever there was a baffling headline in Ireland’s self-proclaimed ‘newspaper of reference’, it was last week’s ‘Primary teachers disproportionately white, Irish and Catholic’, with its equally perplexing sub-head ‘NUI Galway finds Irish-nationality teachers “significantly overrepresented”’. For those inclined to skimming headlines and moving on, confusion about the Irish Times article will mainly have been…
In a book, 12 Rules for Life – An Antidote to Chaos, that’s justifiably making waves in many circles today, Jordan Peterson shares about his own journey towards truth and meaning. Here’s that story… At one point in his life, while still young and finding his own path, he reached a stage where he felt…
In just over three weeks’ time voters will be asked whether or not to delete the reference to blasphemy from the Constitution. It will pass by an overwhelming majority. Only the Islamic community are likely to oppose the move. Catholic bishops have already expressed the view that God can look after himself. In reality, the…
The Notebook I have a lot to answer for. As a young priest, I presided at numerous weddings, and often went along to the wedding reception too. I reflected on what I saw, and these reflections turned into an article in the diocesan magazine, which the national dailies took up. That was how I…
Dear Editor, The article by Fr Martin Delaney ‘Is it really unacceptable to label suicide as ‘wrong’?’ (IC 27/9/2018) is both sensitive and honest. It reveals the pain and bewilderment of individuals, families, the community and the local priest, in the aftermath of three suicides. It raises a really important question on whether it is…
It is no idle boast – it is not a boast at all – but I think I know as much about the damage that alcohol can do as any man or woman alive. Alcohol abuse devastates lives – and afflicts every family member connected to the abuse. It can drag a man or a…
Greg Daly
David Quinn
John L. Allen Jr.
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny