As attitudes to immigration harden in Ireland, it is instructive to study what Pope Leo said about migration during his recent visit to Spain, particularly in Gran Canaria, and during his visit to Lampedusa in Italy. Catholic social teaching on migration is nuanced. Pope Leo is continuing the tradition of all the recent popes. Even…
Ann Widdecombe was always a hard act to follow, but the demands on her time meant she was also a difficult act to get onto the stage in the first place. You knew however, if only you could get her out in front of that crowd, she would be brilliant. It took us 12 months…
Last week, the Department of Health posted quietly on its website the latest abortion figures, showing that 10,600 abortions took place in Ireland in 2025. The new data also shows that over 65,000 abortions occurred in Ireland since the new law took effect. As well as the under-the-radar way they were released, the latest Department…
I gladly and gratefully take the floor to share some reflections on what has begun to unfold throughout the Church during these years of the synodal journey. The fact that, during this consistory, the theme of synodality has been broached so extensively is a clear confirmation not only that an increasing number of people are…
In the screen documentary about Edna O’Brien’s life, The Blue Road, made shortly before her death, the Co. Clare author said that one of her regrets was that she’d been so hopeless at managing money. She’d earned plenty of it, but she’d often been broke just the same. I’ve experienced, at a lesser level, similar…
The loneliness of the long-distance believer Dear Editor, Like so many of my friends, I find myself alone at weekly Mass in our small local church. Lately my granddaughter, who has recently made her First Holy Communion joins me; ‘girl Friday’ to my ‘Robinson Crusoe’, both cast adrift on our island of obligation, striving to…
I have just finished reading Pope Leo’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. It will take some time to digest it because of its depth and wisdom. Contrary to what many perceive as the encyclical being about Artificial Intelligence, the primary focus of the document is the human person as made in the image and likeness of…
Was the celebrity wedding of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, the Kansas football star player, a good thing for the common good? On the one hand, it advertises the significance and meaning of matrimony, in an era when marriage is so widely in decline. And Simon Harris would scarcely have greeted the Taylor-Travis nuptials with…
America has just celebrated its 250th birthday so it seems fitting to ask whether America, in net terms, has done more harm than good, or vice versa, over those years? For the average Irish person, the question will seem ridiculous. By the average Irish person, I mean those who don’t think primarily ideologically. These ‘normies’…
When we sit in the warmth of the sun, when we look on a cloudless blue sky, when we examine the intricacy of a tree in bloom, of a single flower, when we look on the face of a baby, we see the work of God and indeed it is good. We are much blessed…
Breda O'Brien
Senator Ronan Mullen
Eilis Mulroy
Mary Kenny
David Quinn
Nuala O’Loan