Left-wing pressure groups are lining up to push Ireland in an even more liberal direction, writes David Quinn For many years, various United Nations (UN) bodies exerted pressure on Ireland to abolish the Eighth Amendment. Moves are now on to cajole us into making our present already very liberal abortion law even more permissive. Ireland…
Legacy Supplement 2021 – A Future Full of Hope Operation Smile continues to combat cleft lips, palates and stigma around the world, through Covid and beyond, hears Jason Osborne Cleft lips and cleft palates aren’t too much a feature of day-to-day life in Ireland or the western world anymore, modern science and medicine allowing these…
Father William Doyle, A Year’s Thoughts edited by Alfred O’Rahilly (Te Deum Press, $US16.95 /€19.95) This is a useful collection of prayerful reflections from the pen of Fr William Doyle, a spiritual leader who touched many souls during his career as a retreat-giver and for a long time after. A Jesuit priest and military chaplain, he…
Inviting people to participate in a process that is really only about erecting scaffolding around old structures will further alienate even the enthusiastic, writes Garry O’Sullivan “Trying to turn the pyramid upside down,” is how Fr Brendan Hoban described what they were doing by organising a diocesan assembly in Killala, one of the smallest dioceses…
Cardinal Raymond Burke has maintained that Catholic bishops have a “sacred duty” to apply canon law by advising pro-choice politicians not to receive Holy Communion. Issuing a 2,800-word statement Cardinal Burke recalled his efforts to persuade Catholic politicians to defend the lives of unborn children while serving as the bishop of La Crosse, Wisconsin, and…
Personal Profile When Dr Alex O’Hara visited Clonmacnoise as an eleven-year-old, he could hardly have known that it would be a life-defining moment. But looking back now, the professor of early Church history and Irish monasticism knows that this visit and another to a monastery in Normandy had a “profound effect” on him. Dr O’Hara’s…
“To tell someone, with fullness of heart, ‘I love you’, is virtually the same as saying, ‘You shall never die.’ Twentieth century philosopher Gabriel Marcel wrote those words and they echo words written 500 years earlier by Blessed Magdalen Panattieri, a Dominican Tertiary, who wrote to a friend, “I could not be happy in heaven…
Self-driving race cars make history in Indianapolis The winner was not a driver but an algorithm at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the top car clocked an average speed of 218km/h, ushering autonomous vehicles into a new era. Setting the record pace over two laps, a team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) won…
Dear Editor, I am a full-time worker with regular hours who doesn’t finish before 5pm, and prior to the pandemic I had little difficulty locating an evening Mass to attend on weekdays. Since the churches have re-opened however, I have found to my dismay that there is now a dearth of evening Masses (7pm-7.30pm) in…
Notebook Dear Sr Lelia, You will be surprised to see this letter which is almost 50 years too late but please bear with me. Last week I participated in a beautiful celebration to mark the 150th anniversary of your congregation, the Sisters of St John of God. This celebration has brought me into something of…
David Quinn
Fr Ronald Rolheiser