“there does appear to be something in Catholicism in America that is not present in many Irish parishes”, writes Michael Kelly I’m writing from the United States where I am attending the Religious Education Congress of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Irish Catholics who attend Mass in the US often return with memories of the…

“Conscience has to be understood more widely than the mere deification of feelings or obedience to a dominant orthodoxy”, writes Editor Michael Kelly By the time most people read this, the general election will be over. At least the vote-casting part of it. All but a few seats will be decided, and it will be…

“It’s good to see the Catholic Church laying claim to this heritage of caring for creation”, writes Mary Kenny I heard a sincere and impassioned sermon in Dublin at the weekend in which the priest spoke about defending the environment: this, he said, was following in the footsteps of Pope Francis and St Francis himself.…

Election candidates should be committed to increasing aid, writes Eamonn Meehan It is important that Ireland’s new Government does what it can to protect the poorest and most vulnerable people in the developing world. As Ireland rebuilds itself after our economic crash we must ask what type of a society we want. I would hope…

It seems to me that there should be energetic campaigns to increase knowledge about septicaemia, writes Mary Kenny Sepsis, or septicaemia, is recognised as a real and present threat to health in Britain – where some 37,000 people a year die from the infection. To its credit, the London Daily Mail has been running a…

Dr John Murray Who is the primary educator of children, their parents or the State? Is it wrong for the Catholic Church to have any control or input in schools that are publicly funded? Should Ireland’s schools, including Catholic schools, teach that all religions and belief systems are the same? Such questions are important at…

Certain social values which are not in any way negotiable…truth, freedom, justice and love, writes Nuala O’Loan As you contemplate the election, you may have very mixed feelings. The last ten years have not been great for Ireland. Unemployment rates rose to over 14%. Tens of thousands of people had to leave Ireland to get…

The detection of gravitational waves will provide for a better understanding of creation, writes Prof. William Reville Scientists working on the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) made the stunning announcement recently that they had detected gravitational waves, confirming Albert Einstein’s prediction that these waves exist. The waves originated 1.3 billion years ago when two black…

A return of the Fine Gael-Labour coalition will further damage traditional values, writes David Quinn The social liberalism of the outgoing Government cannot be exaggerated. The same is likely to be true of the incoming Government, unless it is a Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil coalition, and even then it will be only somewhat less liberal. When…

The fun began early for Pope Francis on his trip to Mexico, writes Greg Daly Pope Francis’ trip to Mexico could hardly have had a more dramatic overture, with his flight from Rome’s Fiumicino airport stopping over in Cuba for a meeting with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. The historic encounter between the…