Dear Editor, I think Bishop Martin Drennan was quite in order to demand answers from the SVP (‘Bishop demands answers from SVP on gay donation’ IC 04/09/2014). I always thought the SVP looked after the poor in their different needs, paying ESB bills, school uniforms and maybe groceries, etc. The poor bishops – they are…
Category: Opinion
Deacons don’t replace lay parish volunteers
Dear Editor, I find the opposition to deacons hard to understand. I live in the UK and we have had married deacons for the last 40 years. Ordained deacons are usually married men with a family, so there is no chance they will take over functions presently undertaken by lay people. Even if they wanted…
On the issue of women deacons
Dear Editor, Regarding the question of the diaconate for women, it might be of interest to know what St Edith Stein had to say on the subject. Edith Stein was a Jewish Carmelite who was gassed at Auschwitz on August 9, 1942. She wrote: “The early Church gave outlet for the manifold activity of women…
Savita’s death misused by politicians and media
Dear Editor, The tragic death of Savita Halappanavar in Galway Hospital in 2012 was massively misused by politicians and the media who were more concerned with using her death to force abortion legislation into Ireland, rather than find out the truth about why she died. Now, almost two years later and after a lengthy investigation,…
Synod on the family will see heated debate
As it stands, remarried Catholics are not permitted to participate fully in the Eucharist.
Innocent until proven guilty
Mary Flaherty, the CEO of Children at Risk in Ireland has called on former President Mary McAleese to name, publicly, the cleric who, she said, laughed at her when asked to reveal details of sexual abuse in the Church in Ireland. The cleric should certainly be identified since he is now being judged guilty without…
The focus should be on what deacons are, not what they do
How has a bishop implementing a decision of Vatican II become controversial, asks Bro. Martin Browne OSB
Making the Church fit for mission
The work of the Irish bishops’ conference is in need of some reform, writes Michael Kelly
Pressure is on to repeal our pro-life amendment
Changing our Constitution will introduce a permissive regime of abortion, writes David Quinn
Clergy on the field of play
Appearances were sometimes surreptitious with modified surnames

Mags Gargan
Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny
David Quinn