Pope to visit Assisi Pope Francis will visit Assisi, the birthplace of St Francis this October 4, the saintís feast day. Following a meeting with ill and disabled children, the Pontiff follows a busy itinerary, moving to pray at the shrine of San Damiano and afterwards paying a visit to the Basilica of St Francis…
Month: September 2013
Pope sets scene for Vatican reform
Pope Francis hosted a key meeting with the heads of all Vatican departments on Tuesday in anticipation of expected Vatican reforms. A committee of senior cardinals – who the Pope has picked to advise him on reform of the Church’s central governance – is due to meet in Rome early next month. The so-called…
Gay marriage impacts on religious freedom
The fight between religious rights and gay rights that started at state ballot boxes and in courtrooms has moved to floral shops, bakeries and photo studios. As churches are concerned about the potential of facing lawsuits, some are changing their bylaws to explicitly reflect their views on traditional man-woman marriage. A bakery in…
Fr Rolheiser and atheists
Dear Editor, Fr Rolheiser’s weekly column is always enlightening, but is he correct in saying recently (IC 05/09/2013) that atheists who criticise the Catholic Church “…do us a huge favour,” since they offer us a chance to hear the truth about ourselves? In fact, generally speaking, atheists who criticise the Catholic Church hate it…
Boycott call for media abortion bias
Dear Editor, The time has finally come to take a stand and organise a concerted campaign to boycott the ‘likes’ of The Irish Times and The Sunday Times due to their anti-Catholic editorial bias, journalistic imbalance, and their very obvious pro-abortion stance. The impetus for such a strategy could come from the various pro-life groups.…
The collapse of moral standards
Dear Editor, David Quinn writes about the ‘anything goes’ sexual morality of teenagers today. But it’s not just standards of sexual morality that have fallen. Irish moral standards in general have collapsed. I lost my mobile phone today, and I am distraught. It’s not just that the phone contained irreplaceable photographs of my…
Syrian nightmare continues for Christians
As the war of words around a proposed strike against Syria raged last week, the war on the country’s Christians continued. On September 4, word emerged from the country of the targeting of the predominantly Christian village of Maalula, an ancient enclave where some of the population still speak Aramaic and where a number…
Syria’s desperate diaspora
The slaughter of the Syrian people has been ongoing for two years now. Over 100,000 are dead, 4.2 million have fled their homes, and 2 million are refugees in neighbouring countries. As shocking as those statistics are, behind each of those figures is a real person. When I was in Lebanon recently, I met…
The healing legacy of Padre Pio
Padre Pio is a saint for our time. He has been recorded on tape, filmed, and photographed by many people. I’ve known and spoken to people who have met him, talked to him and been toconfession with him. I lived with a friar who, while a theology student in Rome, spent the summer months during…
Does science make us good?
A number of stories have emerged in recent times revealing misconduct in science. But, perhaps things are better than they seem. A new study has just been published – Does Science Make you More Moral? – by social psychology researchers Christine Ma-Kellams and Jim Blascovich of the University of California Santa Barbara in the online journal…