Dear Editor, The excellent article and important research by Mags Gargan showing that the Government does not know the cause of death of more than one in three asylum-seekers who die in State care, once again exposes this country’s attitude towards ‘foreigners’ (IC 27/07/2017). The sheer carelessness of this is hard to exaggerate. The State…
Category: Opinion
Not enough notice for collection
Dear Editor, The Sunday collection in aid of the famine-stricken countries of Africa was a very laudable action which had the potential to raise many millions. However, the opportunity was somewhat wasted by the lack of preparation. Most Mass-goers only knew of the collection when it was announced at Mass on the day and they…
Our utmost in dealing with our Faith
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
The complexity of adulthood inevitably puts to death the naiveté of childhood. And this is true too of our faith. Not that faith is a naiveté. It isn’t. But our faith needs to be constantly reintegrated into our persons and matched up anew against our life’s experience; otherwise we will find it at odds with…
Church doesn’t take her own social teaching seriously
Christopher Altieri Of all the areas that constitute proper objects of the Church’s magisterium – her official teaching office – Catholic social teaching is the one that has, without doubt, received the greatest attention and development over the past century and a half. Why is it, then, that so few Catholics seem to have heard…
Late labourers can do vital work
Greg Daly
The story of the workers in the vineyard is a powerful parable, and one especially apposite in these times when Pope Francis is trying to build on St John Paul’s efforts to draw back into the Church’s flock those stray sheep and lambs the Pope is tasked with tending and feeding. ‘Cradle Catholics’ and those…
Fluid families and fewer fathers
David Quinn
Discussing the latest census data released last week, RTÉ’s George Lee said with a smile on his face that they show “people are still interested in each other but maybe in a more fluid way than the traditional way”. What did he mean? Simply this: the family based on marriage is not as strong as…
A Catholic Dunkirk – in reverse
John L. Allen Jr.
Right now, cinemas are featuring the summer blockbuster Dunkirk, written and directed by Christopher Nolan, about the famous WWII evacuation of trapped Allied troops which most Brits regard as among their finest hours. That evacuation, in which hundreds of ordinary people joined an impromptu flotilla to bring the troops home, occasioned Winston Churchill’s famed 1940…
Here today but gone tomorrow
Dear Editor, I’m delighted that Róisín O’Rourke, who responded to my original letter (IC 06/07/2017), is enjoying teaching religion in Leitrim Village. It reminds me of my own experience, 60 years ago, when I too was a primary teacher. I am presently the curate in the largest city parish in Limerick. We have marvellous First…
A child is a child, no matter the argument
Dear Editor, Subsequent to the concert at Manchester Arena, outrage was expressed worldwide in the media at the deliberate targeting of the innocent. Among the dead and injured were a sizeable number of young and teenaged children. Some of them were accompanied by parents to act as guardians in getting them there, ensuring to the…
Thank you, archbishop
Dear Editor, You published on July 13 Archbishop Diarmuid Martin’s recent address at a conference in Germany. The archbishop concluded that the Church is “the redefinition of power in terms of the way in which Jesus revealed who God is”. To me anyway, I have not ever read words that outline the true meaning and…