Month: October 2018

The good and bad of the #MeToo movement

One year ago, the #MeToo movement erupted across much of the Western world, starting in the United States.  The Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was accused by a number of women of sexually assaulting and even raping them (charges he denies), and then other women came forward to say that they had also experienced sexual assault…

Indian priest linked to bishop’s rape case found dead

A senior Catholic priest considered a prime witness against an Indian bishop accused of rape has been found dead, with his family suspecting foul play. Fr Kuriakose Kattuthara (67) was found dead inside his room in Jalandhar on the morning of October 22, a week after Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar was bailed by the state…

Bringing solidarity to the Christians of the Holy Land

“Without the Christians, the Holy Land is no more than a museum”. This was the stark message from Bishop Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo to a group of participants in The Irish Catholic annual Christian Solidarity Pilgrimage to the Holy Land in Jerusalem last week. Bishop Marcuzzo – who is an anxiliary bishop to the Latin Patriarch of…

No evidence for minister’s blasphemy claim

Government spokespeople have been unable to support a claim by Justice minister Charlie Flanagan that some countries at the United Nations “have quoted Ireland’s blasphemy laws in defence of their own repressive regimes”. Mr Flanagan made the claim on Twitter on Sunday, October 21, calling for people to vote this Friday to remove Ireland’s constitutional…

‘Many youth’ attracted to Church teaching rather than ‘angry’ politics

Bishop Donal McKeown has likened Brexit to radical nationalist movements in Germany, France and the US under Donald Trump’s administration, saying the Church’s message is more appealing to “many young people”. The Church’s message focuses “very strongly on the whole idea of reconciliation and healing, it certainly has a huge contribution to make,” he told…

A victim of its own success

If liberalism is in trouble nowadays, it’s not because it’s failed but because it’s succeeded. That, at any rate is the theory of US academic Patrick Deneen, whose latest book, Why Liberalism Failed, has been making ripples since it was published early this year and who spoke last week in Dublin’s Notre Dame-Newman Centre for…

Primate hopes Dublin archbishop can help Rome summit

Primate of All-Ireland Archbishop Eamon Martin has expressed the hope that his counterpart in Dublin Diarmuid Martin could give input to a key Rome meeting on abuse next year. Speaking to Crux at the Synod of Bishops, Archbishop Eamon said that the Dublin archbishop “has a knowledge and understanding of this issue which I think…

Cervical cancer campaigner 
receives 
award

Irish Cervical Cancer campaigner Vicky Phelan has been tapped to receive the Fitzgerald Bible Award for her role in the CervicalCheck scandal. Ms Phelan settled a High Court action against a US lab after her cancer was missed in a smear test. Chairman of the Fitzgerald Bible Bruff Award group Paul Dennehy said the award…

Making voting count

In recent years, the people have been called to the polls with increasing frequency, both to vote in elections and in constitutional referendums. For the health of democracy and the encouragement of civic duty, people should only be called to the polls when really necessary. The biggest argument against the referendum to take the reference…