Dear Editor, I read new figures which suggest a small decrease in national homelessness (IC 03/05/18). The statistics from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government showed that 9,681 people accessed State-funded emergency homelessness accommodation in March, down slightly to 9,807 in February. It’s wonderful that this number has decreased, but it is still…
The foray into the abortion debate of the leadership of the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) at the weekend is a puzzling one. I emphasise the leadership element to the intervention since I’ve been contacted by several priests this week who are members of the ACP but deeply annoyed at the statement and the obvious…
Rosie opened her new café and restaurant in the Midlands about 12 months ago. The business has gone from strength to strength. Many of the customers are regulars and they banter with Rosie and each other about the news of the day. A few months ago Rosie noticed an older woman coming into the restaurant…
Ireland has been named one of the most equal societies in the world, but one remaining field of inequality, we are told, is between the young and the old. About 60% of the wealth of the State is in the hands of those over 55, even though this age-group is just less than a quarter…
The View On May 25, the people of Ireland will be able to vote on whether the Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution should be repealed. That amendment reads: ”The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in…
Fr Andrew McMahon Considerable consternation was caused in recent days when graffiti appeared on the outside of two northern Catholic churches around 30 miles apart. St Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh was defaced overnight on Sunday, April 22, while in the Co. Tyrone village of Carrickmore, St Colmcille’s Church was daubed with paint sometime the…
Far from being a fallacy, the ‘slippery slope’ is all too often all too real, writes David Quinn I sometimes wonder what it would take to persuade liberals that the ‘slippery slope’ is a reality. I’ve come across various articles lately claiming it is a myth and that whenever traditionalists claim a certain dire consequence…
Letter from Rome While there are undoubtedly many ways to measure the greatness of an idea, here’s one: when it outlives its original application, and becomes a permanent part of a much larger reality. That, in short, is the story of Catholic Voices, which is undoubtedly the most successful Catholic communications initiative of the…
Inés San Martín Condemning repeated killings of innocent Nigerians by ethnic militias in the country’s north-eastern region, Nigeria’s Catholic bishops have said that the government should “encourage and empower” citizens to protect themselves, and also called President Muhammadu Buhari to resign over failures to deter violence. “This is not the time to disarm people with…
Cardinal Francis George was once asked what he thought of the radical pacifism of people like Dorothy Day and Daniel Berrigan, prophetic figures who believed in absolute nonviolence. How can this be practical, he was asked, it’s utterly naïve to believe that we can live without police and without soldiers. This was his reply: the…
Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny
Nuala O’Loan
David Quinn
John L. Allen Jr.
Fr Ronald Rolheiser