Dave Feeney from Summerhill College, Sligo, presenting the papal nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown, with a picture of the ancient monastic settlement of Innishmurry, taken by past pupil Ciaran McHugh, at the blessing of the Bishop Christopher Jones Learning Centre, a new art extension for students with autism. Photo: Karl Brennan
Dear Editor, Like many readers of The Irish Catholic I was delighted to see the news in last week’s edition (IC 19/05/2016) that a visit to Ireland by Pope Francis is increasingly likely in order to participate in the 2018 World Meeting of Families. I also noted at the weekend that a collection is to…
Dear Editor, Well done to the Pro-Life Campaign for organising the ‘Celebrate the 8th’ event to promote the positive stories of children born thanks to the protection of the constitutional amendment (IC 19/05/2016 Meet ‘Generation 8th’). Unfortunately we have a very biased media in this country, so we only ever hear one side of this…
Dear Editor, President Michael D. Higgins has done it again. In questioning why reform of the direct provision system was missing from discussions on the formation of Government and the Government’s reliance on the private sector to build homes, he has gone beyond the remit of his non-political office. Mr Higgins seems to have forgotten…
Dear Editor, Two items in your May 19 issue highlight a major problem in our parishes – the case of the lay reader in Cork and the couple who wanted to be married in a pretty church. Both smack of individualism and moral relativism (basically an ego crisis in the Church) which Francis, Benedict and…
Dear Editor, I wonder if Laurena O’Donoghue (Letters 12/05/16) is aware of the profound implications for the use of special bread for coelics at Mass? In order to avail of this proposed accommodation one has to refuse the sacred host in the first place as a harmful substance. Is this an oversight which Christ wasn’t…
Dear Editor, The findings of a current survey undertaken by British Social Attitudes shows that, in 2014, 48.5% of Britons say they are of ‘no religion’ – almost doubling the 25% statistic found in 2011. According to an analysis of the survey by St Mary’s Catholic University in Twickenham, the Anglican church in Britain is…
The Church urges the continent to be true to its values, writes Paul Keenan “What has happened to you, the Europe of humanism, the champion of human rights, democracy and freedom? What has happened to you, Europe, the mother of peoples and nations, the mother of great men and women who upheld, and even sacrificed…
With a flourish he inherited from Argentina’s legendarily populist political force, Peronism, Pope Francis from the beginning has been a vocal champion of labour and workers’ rights, backing measures such as equal pay for equal jobs between men and women, affordable housing and land, and living wages. Just last week, during his daily morning Mass,…
The legalisation of surrogacy would be “the final blow” against the family in Italian law, the head of Italy’s bishops’ conference has said, saying surrogacy “exploits the female body” and profits from the poverty of women. Addressing members of the bishops’ conference, Genoa’s Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco said under a new law civil unions are implicitly…
Paul Keenan