Dualta Roughneen In a document that covers an enormous amount of ground, the Church risks upsetting and assuaging critics on both sides of the societal divide as it addresses the fundamental issue of human dignity in the latest Declaration from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith Dignitas Infinita. What is the meaning of…
Sr Anne Marie Walsh SOLT “Your beliefs don’t make you a good person. Your behaviour does.” This is a meme that floats around Facebook every so often, but the idea has been around from the beginning of time. It’s been noted that the devil believes in God but is no better off for it. Just…
Dear Editor, I’m delighted and welcome Dublin airport’s decision to reverse the ban on the blessing of planes airside. It’s unfortunate that the initial announcement was made at all. The sudden change, and then reversal in policy was bizarre, particularly considering the longstanding relationship between parish and airport. Fr Des Doyle’s remarks about the supportive…
People are asking for reasons to believe, so let’s give it to them, writes Eoin McCormack Recently I attended a ‘Meetup’ event in Dublin city centre. For anyone unfamiliar with the concept, ‘Meetup’ is a social media platform for organising events and gatherings for people with similar interests. This event, being advertised to take…
An African cardinal widely seen as a conservative critic of Pope Francis, and styled by some as possible candidate for the papacy himself, has warned of what he described as a “practical atheism” taking hold within the Catholic Church. Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea also repeated his criticism of Fiducia Supplicans, the recent Vatican document…
Letter from Rome Matthew Santucci In the 2024 edition of the “Annuario Pontificio”, or Pontifical Yearbook, released last week, Pope Francis reinstated the ancient, honorary pontifical title of “Patriarch of the West”, reversing Pope Benedict XVI’s 2006 decision to suspend the title. This honorific designation has reappeared among the list of “historical titles” used to…
Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher called the stabbing of Orthodox Assyrian Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and Fr Isaac Royel “shocking and has caused distress to many in the community”. A 16-year-old boy stabbed and injured the two men at Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Sydney on Monday night. The attacker was arrested on Tuesday, and…
Vanitha Nadaraj Thousands in Malaysia have paid tributes to an Irish missionary nun who pioneered girls’ education in her adopted country for decades. Sr Enda Ryan died on April 7 at the age of 96, according to her religious congregation, the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (FMM). FMM is an international Catholic religious order founded in…
Brazil’s bishops celebrated a new resolution of the Federal Medical Council (CFM) determining that doctors cannot induce cardiac arrest on an unborn child with more than 22 weeks of pregnancy. The norm, however, is being challenged by prosecutors and legislators and may not last too long. On March 21, CFM published the resolution 2378/2024, which…
Deputy Mattie McGrath, leader of the Dáil’s Rural Independent Group, has criticized the government for deliberately blocking a Dáil debate on the EU Migration and Asylum Pact, labeling the action as a “scandalous attempt to silence debate” on a critical issue. “It is a scandal that the government, with the facilitated support of ‘so-called’ independent TDs, have…
