Dear Editor, At a time when the role of third level chaplains is being questioned (IC 14/04/2016 ‘Mass attendance a crude measure of chaplaincy support services’) perhaps it is time to look again at clergy deployment priorities. The question I would ask is, why are some parishes being deprived of their full-time priest and yet…
Dear Editor, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin is rightly concerned about the “lazy narrative” on the Catholic Church from the main Irish media outlets, particularly RTÉ (IC 07/04/2016). However, this goes much further than a “lazy narrative”. It is now an all-out assault, not just on Catholic/Christian values, but on the very mention of God. For example…
Dear Editor, It is my opinion that a baby in the womb should be fully protected by legal safeguards provided by our Constitution. I cannot reconcile myself with the pro-choice lobby that abortion can be seen as a sensitive intervention in cases of fatal foetal abnormality. When these situations arise perinatal hospice care is the…
Dear Editor, I notice that, while The Irish Catholic is now featuring a great number of advertisements, the Letters Page is more frequently missing. Do you plan to restore the Letters Page? I can assure you that it is very popular – and much missed by your readers. Yours faithfully, Isabella Corr, Greyabbey, Co. Down
Dear Editor, Great prominence and praise is rightly given by the media to Pope Francis’ visit and care to refugees in Lesbos. Our Irish bishops could be more supportive of the leadership of the Holy Father in this vast humanitarian crisis. I wrote to the hierarchy some weeks ago suggesting that vacant religious convents and centres could…
The Church teaches that ecclesiastical ministry is exercised in different degrees, writes Cathal Barry The ministerial priesthood has the task not only of representing Christ before the assembly of the faithful, but also of acting in the name of the whole Church when presenting to God the prayer of the Church, and above all when…
“If the Church cannot give life to families, she herself has no future” Fr Bernard Healy Much of the commentary about Amoris Laetitia will focus on the care of those in ‘irregular unions’. It seems a shame that the ‘hot button issues’ will take attention away from a vision that could be genuinely revolutionary in…
“What must be borne in mind is the fact that daily Mass is a (praiseworthy) devotional exercise”, writes Editor Michael Kelly Chaplains at universities and other third level institutions in the Republic were getting it in the neck this week. Atheist Ireland – a body which, oddly, seeks to present itself as the representative organisation…
Following “a terrific reception for his latest document Amoris Laetitia” in America, there are those “who feel that he hasn’t gone far enough”, writes Mary Kenny I have a friend who wrote a well-researched book about the British royal family as a shrewdly ‘marketed’ celebrity product. When I asked him how his book had been…
The success of the synod in Limerick was that it listened to people, writes Cathal Barry The decision to convoke a diocesan synod back in September 2014 was a bold move by Limerick’s Bishop Brendan Leahy who at the time was little over a year in office. After all, until last weekend there had not…
Cathal Barry
Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny