Families can work together to help themselves and others triumph over tragedy, writes Maria Byrne
Month: January 2015
President Reagan in Ireland
Echoes of the past from the Archives
Danes’ view of Irish censorship
Echoes of the past from the Archives
Saving Robert Emmet’s birthplace and the plaque that never was
Echoes of the past from the Archives
Churches are not concert venues
Dear Editor, I wonder if any readers are bothered by the latest trend of using Catholic churches as concert halls featuring various artists. Is this not side-lining the Divine Presence and replacing it with a singer, who receives the sole focus of the attention of the congregation present? It seems to be a very popular…
Archbishop Michael Neary laid out a plan for the future
Dear Editor, It is a pity that your initial coverage (IC 13/11/2014) of Archbishop Michael Neary’s homily to the Association of Papal Knights did not make it past the first half of the sermon, else Deirdre Uí Ghoibín (Letters, IC 04/12/2014) might have been saved from her uncharitable assessment. The archbishop’s homily was remarkable for…
St Joseph missing from prayers
Dear Editor, Without doubt the two most powerful prayers of the Catholic faith are the Angelus and the Rosary. Both are of very long standing and recited all around the world, so what could possibly be missing from them? The exact same thing that had been missing from the Eucharistic prayers of the Mass, i.e.…
Naivety around the occult
Dear Editor, In the autumn 1944, the Western allies had the deluded idea that the Wehrmacht was beaten and that it was only a force of old men and children. What shocked them with their defeat at Arnhem in September 1944, and the Ardennes attack two months later, was the transformation of a supposedly defeated enemy into…
Stereotypical image of the family
Dear Editor, The Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference must be congratulated on their excellent pastoral statement on the ‘Meaning of Marriage’. However, it is a pity the illustrations used were of the stereotyped family so beloved of the advertising industry: a handsome guy with a beautiful wife, but not more than two children, preferably one boy…
Religion is about much more than simply living a good life
Dear Editor, While I enjoyed Prof. Reville’s article ‘Science vs Religion’ (IC 04/12/2014), I was bemused to say the least that his view of “the function of religion is to teach us how to live good lives”. Maybe this is the function of certain religions but to me, as a Catholic, and based on Christ’s…