There are prices to be paid for greater social variety, writes David Quinn ‘Diversity’ is the new religion of Ireland. It is one of those words that is never challenged, is constantly promoted and is simply assumed to be a good in itself. Celebrate it, we’re told. ‘Diversity’ is ‘inclusive’. ‘Diversity’ is ‘compassionate’. These…
The Vatican has told bishops and priests in China that they must follow their own consciences in deciding whether to register with the government, and it urged Catholics in the country not to judge them for the choices they make. The problem, the Vatican said, is that registration almost always requires the bishop or priest…
Jean Vanier challenged Catholics to examine what the Church should be like, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has said. Speaking at a celebration of the L’Arche founder’s life at the Riasc Centre in Swords, Co. Dublin, the archbishop of Dublin praised the late humanitarian’s understanding of the Beatitudes as rooted in “a deep and thoughtful insight into…
John McGuirk This week, we found out something that was supposed to be a secret. We were not supposed to know that Google employees manually interfered with search terms to promote some videos on Youtube, and hide others, in the week leading up to last year’s abortion referendum. This was a decision taken internally,…
Letter from Rome Inés San Martín As the Catholic Church in Germany prepares to embark on a synodal process motivated in part by a desire to stop a haemorrhage of faithful, Pope Francis has sent them a letter reminding them they don’t walk alone but with the universal Church. In the missive he also…
High profile anti-vaccination advocates have hit out at this newspaper after it reported a story stating that priests and theologians said “parents are morally obliged to vaccinate their children”. Most outrage stemmed from the fact that some vaccines were developed from cell lines descending from aborted foetal tissue Irish journalist Gemma O’Doherty wrote on Twitter:…
Pope Francis will declare Blessed John Henry Newman, the 19th-Century English cardinal, a saint on October 13. The English theologian will be canonised during a Mass at the Vatican along with a Swiss laywoman, an Indian nun, an Italian nun and a nun known as the “Mother Teresa of Brazil”. The date for the canonisation…
Bishops in the Ivory Coast have warned of a new civil war in the run-up to 2020 elections, unless urgent action is taken to ease communal tensions and withdraw weapons in West African state. “A general climate of fear now reigns throughout our population, linked to recurrent intercommunal conflicts, issues of insecurity, illicit forest occupation…
Google has admitted that it “blacklisted” a significant number of videos on YouTube ahead of last year’s abortion referendum, and interfered with search results. This newspaper was also directly affected by the interference. Voters who searched for certain terms had the results of their searches manually altered by Google, ensuring that videos chosen by the…
Last week, a British appeals court ruled a mentally incapacitated woman would not be forced to have an abortion against her will, overturning the decision made by the country’s Court of Protection. The original decision was met with shock by the country’s Catholic Church and pro-life organisations. Although little is known about the woman’s circumstances, it…
David Quinn
Colm Fitzpatrick