Dear Editor, Along with many of your readers I am disappointed by the result of the marriage referendum. We face a period of uncertainty as this vote has its knock-on effects in our country’s laws. However, it was heartening to see the brave efforts of the ‘No Campaign’ to defend the meaning of marriage in…
Category: Opinion
Civil marriage doesn’t affect the sacrament
Dear Editor, Writing as a priest, “may I express my astonishment and disappointment” with Dr John Murray in your ‘letter of the week’ of May 21. My first problem is one with his logic. He refers to Jesus teaching on marriage (Mark 10:1-12). The issue in Jesus’ time was with the interpretation of Deuteronomy 24:1…
Dechristianisation of Ireland in full swing
Dear Editor, For most of the 20th Century the Catholic Church ran, and its priests and nuns worked in, most of our schools and hospitals. The Church ran most of our charities and campaigned on behalf of the poor. Many priests were social workers as well as self-help providers of jobs. Fr McDyer helped found…
Congratulations on restoration of St Mel’s
Dear Editor, May I through the medium of your newspaper congratulate all involved in the restoration and rededication of the iconic St Mel’s Cathedral in Longford. We all remember when the news went viral on Christmas morning 2009, when the devastating fire destroyed St Mel’s, but like the phoenix it has risen from the ashes…
Ashers Bakery court judgment does not make sense
Dear Editor, The judgment that Ashers Bakery acted in a discriminatory fashion by refusing to decorate a cake with the slogan “Support Gay Marriage” raises a terrifying spectre of a future where the facile slogan “Don’t like gay marriage? Don’t get one” seems but a fond memory. I do not understand how Judge Isobel Brownlie…
Clarification
In his letter last week, Dr John Murray inaccurately stated the name of the school in which he works in Mater Dei Institute of Education. It should have read ‘School of Theology’. Dr Murray apologises for the inaccuracy in this regard. Of course, Dr Murray was writing in a personal capacity as a Catholic theologian,…
Christ’s Resurrection and ours
Encounters with the risen Christ characterise the Christian hope of Resurrection, writes Cathal Barry
We are infinite spirits journeying in a finite world
The renowned spiritual writer Henri Nouwen made no secret about the fact that he was emotionally over-sensitive and that he suffered, sometimes to the point of clinical depression, from emotional obsessions. At times, he, a vowed celibate, was simply overpowered by the feeling of being in love with someone who was hopelessly unavailable that he…
A sense of unity on the Feast of Corpus Christi
The Church brings us all together in the unlikeliest places, writes Fr Martin Delaney
Church does need a ‘reality check’ after the referendum
Yes vote forces Church to re-evaluate teaching on human sexuality, writes Michael Kelly

Courtney McGrail
Cathal Barry
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Michael Kelly