Dear Editor, Regards your front page story ‘Pope wages war on dull sermons’ (IC 12/05/2015). How right he is. And I too have been one of the guilty preachers. The late Fr Peter Lemass, while working with the Catholic Communications Institute of Ireland and Radharc, many years ago had a great line for aspiring preachers…

Dear Editor, I am currently researching the story of the late missionary to China, Miss Gladys Aylward. She became a household name in the 1960’s with the Hollywood film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness based on her life and which starred Ingrid Bergman as Gladys bringing 100 orphans over the Shanxi mountains to safety…

Dear Editor, Well done, Bishop Brendan Leahy. Yes! Indeed, why not postpone Confirmation for young people until they are at least 16 years old! (IC 29/01/2015) Unfortunately, few of the parents or students who have given feedback on the issue are keen on this new idea: and the clergy, I’m sure, are shivering in their…

Dear Editor, Your correspondent from America, Michael W. Higgins, makes some extraordinary statements (IC 19/02/2015) from the point of view of anyone who sees President Obama first and foremost as a champion of abortion right up to birth, who not only defends his position when and where called for, but forces others not so minded…

Dear Editor, I cannot see how any Christian believer can accept same sex marriage without neglecting or rejecting what God has revealed about marriage: “Have you not read that the creator from the beginning made them male and female, and that he said: ‘This is why a man must leave father and mother, and cling…

Dear Editor, The violent deaths of so many people in Paris recently would not have happened if the ten commandments from the Bible were followed. In the Koran, there are concepts of God, Heaven and Hell akin to Judaeo-Christian beliefs, within recognition of Old Testament prophets. Moses, an Old Testament prophet, received the ten commandments…

Dear Editor, As stated in the Editor’s Comment on 29/01/2015, I agree that the current large majority in support of same-sex marriage may not hold to the referendum day. I think an explanation for this may lie in the fact that many of us, including practicing Catholics are moved emotionally by the simple argument that…

Dear Editor, The Government has given us the wording for the same-sex marriage referendum. To my mind this wording is very bland. Subliminally it suggests that the electorate should vote for equality among all Irish people regardless of sexual orientation. This is not a simple matter. The insights of sociology and history cannot be discounted. The…

Dear Editor, Thank you for publishing Fr Brendan Purcell’s reply to Stephen Fry. (IC 05/02/15) I am a practising Catholic. But I often struggle with the questions that Mr Fry so passionately articulated. And many other practising Catholics do too. The questions deserve attempts at answers whether or not they come from atheists, and this…