There was great news for Ireland last week: the population of this country is due to increase by more than a million people in the next decade or so. The prediction from the ESRI is that by 2030, the population will have grown by 1.1 million. Population increase – particularly for countries which are under-populated,…
The View In a significant development, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee) has challenged its sister body, the Committee on Human Rights. Or perhaps the latter should instead be called the Committee on Human Rights for some, because it has been pushing a ‘right’ to abortion on…
News In Brief The vandalism of a Church of Ireland church is “an attack on all Christians”, Archbishop Michael Neary has said. Commenting on the vandalism of Holy Trinity Church in Errislannan, Clifden, Dr Neary pointed to the desecration of churches in Iraq and the Philippines over the past year, saying such actions “are a…
News In Brief Gospel values demand that we travel safely on roads today, Killaloe’s Bishop Fintan Monahan has said. Speaking at a ‘Blessing of the Roads’ ceremony in the Cathedral of Ss Peter and Paul in Ennis, Co. Clare, Dr Monahan said: “Road safety awareness is the parable of the Good Samaritan in action within…
News In Brief Cemetery gates in Belfast are believed to have been vandalised by a group of youths who are said to have set fire to traffic cones and a wheelie bin right beside them. “Significant damage” was also caused to the surrounding entrance according to the Diocese of Down and Connor. “This was a…
Many Protestants and Catholics have found common cause in fighting for fundamental rights, the Pope should encourage this writes David Quinn Short of some unforeseen development, Pope Francis will be here next August for the World Meeting of Families. Everything he says and does will totally overshadow everything else that takes place at the…
Merton treasured the word, writes Michael W. Higgins Pope Francis recognised in the monk-poet Thomas Merton a prophetic and moral genius, ranked along with Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, and Abraham Lincoln. And he did that in Washington, in a powerful address to the Joint Houses of Congress. Can you imagine that happening now…
Christian leaders in Philippines have banded together to help rebuild Marawi, a Muslim-majority city in southern Philippines damaged by five months of occupation by terrorists. The Christian leaders are calling on smaller Christian groups “and even the monks” to pool their strength toward restoring Marawi, said Jing Henderson, communications and partnership development coordinator of the…
Letter from Rome Marshall McLuhan famously said, “the medium is the message.” In the same vein, one might add that equally often, “the messenger is the message.” When you’re trying to put a human face on something, in other words, the best strategy is usually to have a genuinely decent person making the pitch.…
John Hearne: Architect of the 1937 Constitution of Ireland by Eugene Broderick (Irish Academic Press, €29.99) A study of all constitutions promulgated since the French Revolution in 1789, by the Chicago Law School, found that the average constitution lasted a mere 17 years, before it was replaced. By that measure, the Irish Constitution, which will be…
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien
David Quinn
John L. Allen Jr.