Young Jewish people don’t want to draw attention to their creed due to anti-Israel sentiment in Ireland, according to a Jewish representative body. Irish Jewish people are conscious of being overt about their Judaism as they “do not want to attract the generally obsessive nature of anti-Israel demonisation which goes on in Ireland”, according to…
Dear Editor, Pro–life people in the Republic of Ireland are very worried about remarks made by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin in a TV interview on the Feast of the Apparitions at Knock, on August 21. They were made in an interview on the Six One News on RTÉ with Teresa Mannion. In reply to a question,…
Dear Editor, Greg Daly is to be commended for his analysis as “unsustainable and probably unconstitutional”, the recommendations of the Australian Royal Commission to compel priests to break the seal of Confession where child sexual abuse is disclosed (IC 17/08/2017). His interview with Teresa Devlin, CEO of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the…
Dear Editor, Someone who opposes abortion and holds to the traditional definition of marriage is immediately branded a ‘social conservative’. Why? If these values ensure the progress of human society into a safe and healthy future, surely that person merits the descriptive noun, ‘progressive’, i.e. ‘forward looking’? Yours etc., Judith Leonard, Raheny, Dublin 6.
Dear Editor, An urgent plea to all, your prayers (especially the Rosary) are asked that we may continue to protect the unborn and that Ireland remains abortion free. There are many people in this country who wish to change the law concerning the Eighth Amendment, which would allow abortion to be carried out in Ireland…
Dear Editor, Mary Kenny is mistaken when she refers to the “strange death of the SDLP” (IC 17/08/2017), because the SDLP is far from dead. Yes, they took a hit in this year’s Westminster election, but that still leaves a substantial group in the Northern Assembly and a sizeable number of councillors. However, longer term…
Dear Editor, I was delighted to read in The Irish Catholic that five of the recently ordained priests stated they “were inspired in their vocation by the Legion of Mary”, having just read the book From Navan to China giving details of the success of the work of the Legion of Mary in China, where…
There’s a famous billboard that hangs along a congested highway that reads: You aren’t stuck in traffic. You are traffic! Good wit, good insight! How glibly we distance ourselves from a problem, whether it is our politics, our churches, the ecological problems on our planet or most anything else. We aren’t, as we want to…
One of the great challenges that Pope Francis is setting before the Church is the need for Catholics to get out of their comfort zones and bring the Gospel closer to people. Francis likes to talk about the absolute urgent need to reach out to what he describes as the “existential margins” or “peripheries” of…
I am reminded of the somewhat cynical remark made by someone a few years ago when he said “it’s well for those who can afford to say their prayers abroad”. It was a comment on the many thousands of Irish people who every year travel to places of pilgrimage like Lourdes, Fatima, Medjugorje, Rome, the…
Chai Brady
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Michael Kelly