Society has to decide what the governing ethos of its hospitals should be, writes David Quinn News that the Sisters of Charity are ending their involvement with the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group (SVHG), and therefore with the three hospitals that come under the group, is very sad. In retrospect, the sisters should never have let…
Category: Opinion
Silence around Vatican watchdog speaks volumes
Muted reactions to statements from Cardinal Gerhard Müller are highly revealing, writes John L. Allen Jr. There’s an old philosophical head-scratcher about whether, if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a noise? In similar fashion, one might ask if an alleged Vatican heavyweight makes…
Blasphemy is not about insults, but bullying
Dear Editor, I believe your paper’s coverage of the blasphemy question – most recently in your Book Editor’s comments – misses the point (IC 25/05/2017). Blasphemy is not about passing comments on God, or the beliefs people hold about God; these are already explicitly allowed for in our Constitution and the law itself. Rather blasphemy…
Going on, ahead…
“I go on ahead to prepare a place for you!” Jesus speaks those words to his disciples on the eve of his death as he sits at table with them and senses their sadness as they grapple with his dying, his going away. His words are meant to console them and give them the assurance…
Irish people value the Angelus
Roger Childs During the nine years I have been in my present role as Genre Head of RTÉ Religious Programmes, the continued broadcasting of Angelus chimes on RTÉ Radio One and RTÉ One television, has been debated a number of times in a number of different settings, from the letters pages of newspapers, to local and national…
Problems facing the world mustn’t make us pessimistic
“There has never been a greater need for mutual understanding and cooperation”, writes Michael Kelly Sadly we’re becoming all-too-used to that sinking feeling of waking up in the morning to turn on the radio to news of yet another terrorist atrocity in towns and cities that are known to us. That feeling is all-the-more heart-wrenching…
Luther’s message to a new Taoiseach
“With abortion legislation, he did not permit deputies to vote according to their consciences”, writes Mary Kenny Europe is this year marking the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s famous first protest, in 1517, which became in effect, the beginning of what is sometimes called the Protestant Revolution, and sometimes the Reformation. The Catholic Church has,…
Pope Francis and building a better world
We are challenged to build an economy that is designed to serve people, says President Michael D. Higgins At the Vatican, I had the great honour of meeting with a man who exemplifies in the most striking and moving of manners the extraordinary importance of the spiritual as a powerful wellspring of global ethics, coupled…
Enda Kenny: the best Taoiseach that secular Ireland ever had
It is easier for politicians to attack the Church and go along with the secular agenda, writes David Quinn What are Catholics to make of Enda Kenny’s time as Taoiseach? This is a very broad question because the answer doesn’t depend solely on his attitude towards the ‘institutional Church’ or to some of the big…
We should never forget the bravery of missionaries
Dear Editor, I was glad to see you give prominence to the selflessness of missionaries on last week’s front page (Nun Vows: ‘They’ll have to shoot us’ IC 18/05/2017). The words of Sr Margaret Sheehan FCJ that she would only be driven out of her work in South Sudan at gunpoint is typical of the…

David Quinn
John L. Allen Jr.

Fr Ronald Rolheiser

Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny

