Category: Opinion

With abortion, empathy and ethics are not synonymous

Dear Editor, A few years ago a priest friend, while on holiday from England, was one of the concelebrants of a funeral Mass for John, who had Down Syndrome. Many of the deceased’s friends and colleagues from the Old Monastery Day Centre, Killarney attended the Mass and gave public expression to their loyalty and deep…

Churches must lead moral revolution

Dear Editor, I watched Barack Obama during his visit to Hiroshima to remember the victims of the dropping of the first atomic bomb on that city 71 years ago. He was accompanied by the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe in the presence of a very small number of survivors of that evil massacre of the…

Mass readers have to comply with teaching

Dear Editor, Mr Ken Curtin of Cobh appears to blame local church authorities for his removal as church reader at St Colman’s Cathedral. Mr Curtin has nobody to blame but himself if he does not meet the qualification for this role. Paragraph 101 of the General Instruction on the Roman Missal, echoing the sentiments of…

Catholic nurses appeal on the 8th

Dear Editor, The Eighth Amendment is Ireland’s life equality provision which protects the lives of mothers and babies in pregnancy. The Catholic Nurses Guild of Ireland resolved unanimously at its Annual General Meeting in May to support the retention of the Eighth Amendment. The Ethical Guidelines of the Catholic Nurses Guild of Ireland (8) states:…

Great article on Mass times

Dear Editor, What an excellent article in the May 26 issue by Kieron Wood about the difficulties in finding times for Mass in Dublin parishes. I couldn’t agree more and since I moved to Co. Tyrone I experience similar problems in parishes up here. Parishes are happy to put details in their bulletins only and…

My ‘two cents’ on the Eighth Amendment

Dear Editor, As the Eighth Amendment is now up for general discussion I should like to contribute my ‘two cents’ by way of a quotation from the book, Maurice Baring Restored, by Paul Horgan, published by Heinemann. This is the quotation: “One doctor to another, ‘about the termination of pregnancy – I want your opinion. The…