Dear Editor, I feel so sorry for the homeless people that had to endure the freezing weather this week. People are often left cold in their own homes, so imagine what people without homes are feeling? Over the last year, many homeless people have been found dead, lying in the street, because of the harsh…
It is no exaggeration to say that the Irish State is aggressively hostile to the rights of the unborn child. It is a level of hostility rare to find in any other Western country in recent times, including countries that have permitted abortion on widespread grounds for decades. In most countries abortion is introduced either…
Niamh Uí Bhriain On March 10, the rally to Save the Eight Amendment is expected to draw record numbers, but this will only happen if you make the effort to be there. This is our last chance before the referendum in May to show the Irish people, and the Government, that we must retain the Eighth Amendment and keep Ireland’s…
One of the most sensible interventions made in the current impasse of the North’s politics were comments made last week by Baroness Eileen Paisley. Eileen, widow of the late Ian, said that her husband and the late Martin McGuinness would never have got into this current “mess” in the first place. Widows defend the reputations…
Rome, in many ways, is a company town, dominated by two major industries – Italian political life and the national government, symbolised in the city’s Quirinal Palace (to Italians, simply the Quirinale), and the Papacy and the Catholic Church, iconically represented by St Peter’s Basilica. As a result, if you’re a devotee of either industry, meaning…
We share the world with more than seven and a half billion people and each of us has the irrepressible, innate sense that we are special and uniquely destined. This isn’t surprising since each one of us is indeed unique and special. But how does one feel special among seven and half billion others? We…
The Rev. Billy Graham, a fiery Baptist preacher who was easily the most famous evangelist of the 20th Century and for decades one of the world figures most admired by Americans, died earlier this month at his home in Montreat. He was 99. He had suffered from Parkinson’s disease for many years, although he continued…
Dear Editor, Bishop Sorondo’s recent statement: “Right now, those who are best implementing the social doctrine of the Church are the Chinese” focuses fresh attention on the said “social doctrine”. Does the said “doctrine” embrace the detention of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, forced abortions, a regime that ties religion to extremism and terrorism, subjecting…
Fr Martin Delaney The recent death of one of my parishioners got me thinking about how the smallest acts and gestures can have an enormous impact. I was reminded of when Communist rule fell in the former Soviet Union. In August 1991 a group of Russian generals were determined to turn back the tide of…
How many nostalgic memories are triggered by the news that Walton’s Music Shop in Dublin’s South Great Georges’ Street is closing down! What a fine institution it was, and how valiantly it upheld the cause of Irish music down through the decades, ever since 1922. But Niall Walton, who inherited the business from his father…
David Quinn
Mary Kenny
John L. Allen Jr.
Fr Ronald Rolheiser