Bro. Kevin O’Reilly OP A new musical prodigy has appeared in our midst: Alma Deutscher, an 11-year-old English girl, has been causing quite a sensation in the world of classical music. Although she prefers not to be compared with Mozart, it’s difficult not to think in these terms. Hearing is believing when it comes to…
David Quinn offers an analysis of the Irish Church for the new papal nuncio First of all, welcome to Ireland. You arrive at a crucial point in the history of the Catholic Church in this country. Everyone wishes you well in your new job although there will be many different opinions as to what…
There is “pressure from those who no longer go to Mass regularly but want the consolation of the Church when it comes to a death”, writes Michael Kelly Few things attract more controversy in a parish that a decision to cancel a Sunday Mass or reconfigure the weekend liturgical timetable. There’s often an undercurrent from…
Mary Kenny writes that “we are in much darker, much more distressing territory” as the conflict surrounding abortion continues Those organising the campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution – which recognises the unborn as a human life – are hoping to follow the example, and the success, of the same-sex marriage referendum.…
Fine Gael fig-leaf gathering is arousing more than a little suspicion, writes Paul Keenan From the outset, there have been those voices who argue that the current Citizens’ Assembly, rather than giving voice to the popular will, was actually a diversionary tactic to shift the blame for any move towards introducing abortion to Ireland from…
Every Republican president since and including Richard Nixon, with the possible exception of the first President Bush, has caused huge controversy. Even before Watergate, Nixon was a controversial figure, in no small part because the US was embroiled in the Vietnam War, an entanglement begun under President Kennedy. Reagan was controversial because of his hardline…
Dear Editor, I found your ‘Webwatch’ section on January 26 challenging, to say the least. That a Catholic blogger like Simcha Fisher could so wholeheartedly embrace the ‘women’s march’, an event with an openly pro-choice agenda, left me appalled. Did the outspoken Mrs Fisher shun the March for Life a few days later? What of…
One of the dangers inherent in trying to live out a life of Christian fidelity is that we are prone to become embittered moralisers, older brothers of the prodigal son, angry and jealous at God’s over-generous mercy, bitter because persons who wander and stray can so easily access the heavenly banquet table. But this isn’t…
France is facing arguably its most unpredictable election in decades. The hugely-unpopular Socialist President François Hollande has declined to run for a second term after his approval rating with the electorate slumped to just 4%. France, it seems, is eager for change. And in the turbulent world that gave us Britain’s exit from the European…
Dear Editor, I write with reference to your Web Watch article regarding American blogger Simcha Fisher (IC, 26/01/2017) who is quoted as expressing strong (some might say strident) anti-Trump views which in some respects echo those of the mainstream liberal media, and who takes the ‘pro-life establishment’ to task for supporting Mr Trump. While, on…
David Quinn
Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny
Paul Keenan
Fr Ronald Rolheiser