The wrong kind of synodality risks the Catholic Church fracturing like Anglicanism, writes David Quinn
Category: Opinion
Parishes prepare to welcome refugees
Delays in the arrival of refugees to Ireland, have not dampened enthusiasm to help, writes Mags Gargan
RTÉ does not treat religious programming seriously
Dear Editor, I have been watching with interest the current series of The Meaning of Life on RTÉ television. I’m often tempted to think that the listing in the RTÉ Guide is incorrect and the programme should actually be called The Meaningless of Life. It’s a curious thing that, when it comes to religion, RTÉ…
Need to educate non-believers thoughtlessly receiving the Eucharist
Dear Editor, As I grow older I go to more and more funerals; a fact of life! It seems as though these are significant occasions for evangelisation. Nowadays the minority of younger people attending funerals do not attend Mass regularly; they do not know the responses or the movements (knelling, standing etc.) Yet many of…
Religion is caught, not taught
Dear Editor, For as long as I can remember the annual novena to St Gerard Majella took place in the Redemptorist church in Dundalk in October. As a youngster, I used to walk, with others, from the far side of the town for the devotions just after school. It was a novelty for us kids…
Amendment campaigners’ easy interviews
Dear Editor, Readers may notice how publicly-funded RTÉ presenters, and other media, have been using their publicly-funded media pulpits to attack the Eighth Amendment, Catholic ethos in schools and generally use their public position to advance secularisation. Typically this involved inviting anti-Eighth Amendment studio guests in and then feeding them nice, soft, leading questions. We…
‘Abortion bus’ is a shameless stunt
Dear Editor, It is incredible that in the present financial climate, as hundreds of Irish people are being evicted from their homes, we have homeless people dying on our city’s streets, refugees living in institutions that are a form of open prison and thousands of Syrians coming to our shores to escape warfare, that Ruth…
Rosary beads don’t suffer technical faults
Dear Editor, In this digital age where so many of us have a closer relationship with our allegedly ‘smart’ phones and less with our creator, might I respectfully suggest that the better accessory to which we should become attached is a set of rosary beads. Granted, such rosarys lack technology but neither will they run…
Are bishops blind to intimidation in Catholic schools?
Dear Editor, Your October 22 front page headline ‘Some Catholic teachers feel “intimidated” in faith schools’, makes for very sad reading. Prompted by this and your August article on the quality of religious education (RE) in secondary schools, I have reflected upon my experience as principal of two English secondary schools. English bishops organise regular…
Good things come in small packages
Dear Editor, There was a major statistical error in Mary Kenny’s piece on the rise of strictly Orthodox Jews in Britain (IC 22/10/2015). The UK Jewish community is just under 0.5% of the total population not the 5% she quoted. This amounts to a community of just under 300,000 out of a total UK population…

David Quinn
Mags Gargan
Courtney McGrail