Dear Editor, I was very glad to hear Bishop William Crean speaking out on the radio about the high number of deaths of migrants making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean. He said the situation resonates strongly with the Irish experience of the ‘coffin ships’ during the time of the Great Famine and he called…

Dear Editor, In reference to your story ‘Future of Irish Church rests with strong lay people’ on July 30. I think Archbishop Diarmuid Martin hasn’t put a lot of thought into this request. For at least two decades we have received no direction from our Church. The recent referendum is a typical example – not…

Dear Editor, One has to agree with Andrew O’Connell in his Notebook article (IC 06/08/2015) ‘Preserve churches as places of silence’. In many churches, groups in the congregation may be heard having a loud discussion before Mass, oblivious that they may be distracting others, as well as lack of respect for the Blessed Sacrament. There…

Dear Editor, I write to express my welcome and support for the excellent article in your edition of 30/07/2015 by Fr Seán MacGiollarnáth on Amnesty International and that organisation’s support for widespread access to abortion. He expressed perfectly the inexplicable contradiction of a “human rights” advocacy group categorising unborn human life as worthy of protection,…

Dear Editor, Felix M Larkin’s review of Joe Good’s Inside the GPO 1916: A First-hand Account in the issue of July 30 acknowledges the author’s vivid account of his experiences in the turbulent years from 1916 to 1921. He is rightly critical of Good’s seeming lack of compassion and regret for those affected by the…

Dear Editor, Does Niall Guinan’s reasoning in ‘Not in my Name’ (IC 30/07/2015) add up? Fittingly he says “The eighth amendment is an equality provision, protecting the most vulnerable human beings among us”. Planned Parenthood takes “the most vulnerable human beings” with a spark of divine being, kills them, takes the parts, “dead” in the…

Dear Editor, Fr Peter McVerry states that the Church must learn from the young and focus less on the God of the law but on a God whose passion is compassion (IC 23/07/2015). I think very few of us would disagree in principle, but practically I am not sure what Fr McVerry is suggesting. Living…

Dear Editor, Fr Peter McVerry states that young people who are uninterested in the Church or a “God of the law” are the prophets of today (IC 23/07/2015). As an oldie I welcome the “young prophets of today”. The young people who swim against the tide, who love Jesus, practise their faith, are pro-life etc.…