Dear Editor, Your article in regard to the Commission on the Protection of Minors (IC 17/03/2016) based on my recent interview with The Irish Catholic, confused two issues about which I had spoken. One issue was a lack of clarity around future funding of the commission and the other was the refusal by elements of…
Dear Editor, Mary Kenny’s column (IC 10/03/2016 ‘Don’t terminate – donate organs, urge British doctors’) seemed somewhat disappointing. First, she declined to question a proposed “legal right to terminate the pregnancy” in cases of fatal foetal abnormality. She thus emitted to highlight the huge moral difference between dying and killing. Next, your columnist neglected to…
Dear Editor, I write regarding Sr Eileen Clear’s letter (IC 03/03/2016). I agree with Church teaching on capital punishment as it has developed to respect the value and dignity of human life in all contexts, including those of abortion, euthanasia, and violent crime. Bur her contention that “For Scalia, the law and constitution always came…
Dear Editor, Last week our acting Taoiseach Enda Kenny, in front of assembled Americans, stupidly insulted every Christian and embarrassed the majority of Irish people by using the expression “Be Jaysus”. This is not the kind of leadership I want for my country. Please, step aside Enda! Yours etc., Anne McGrath, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.
Cathal Barry takes a look at who receives and who administers the Sacrament of the Sick The Church teaches that Anointing of the Sick “is not a sacrament for those only who are at the point of death”. “Hence, as soon as anyone of the faithful begins to be in danger of death from sickness…
The Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick is given to those who are seriously ill, writes Cathal Barry The Church teaches that Christ invites his disciples to follow him by taking up their cross in their turn (Mt 10:38). “By following him they acquire a new outlook on illness and the sick,” according to the…
Fear is the heartbeat of the powerless. So writes Cor de Jonge. That’s true. We can deal with most everything, except fear. The late, Belgian, spiritual writer, Bieke Vandekerckhove, in a very fine book, The Taste of Silence, shared very honestly about the demons that beset her as she faced a terminal illness at age…
“A rough calculation, based on this exit poll, would put weekly Mass attendance among Catholic voters at about 40%”, analyses Andrew O’Connell The recent exit poll, conducted by Behaviour and Attitudes for RTÉ on election day, included questions on religious affiliation and church attendance. Voters were quizzed as they left their polling stations across the…
Addressing thousands of pilgrims in St Peter’s Square at the weekend, Pope Francis told them: “God does not nail us to our sin.” The Pope went on: “He does not identify us with the evil we have done. We have a name, and God does not identify this name with the sin we have committed.”…
“time heals all wounds between nations, and history puts everything into a constantly changing perspective”, writes Mary Kenny The history of St Patrick’s Day in Britain is interesting. Up until 1916 – significantly – it was well-marked and well-observed in London, particularly, as a great day for the Irish. The tradition of a royal family…
Cathal Barry
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny