Rates of marriages and births decline as our social bond weakens, writes David Quinn. Ireland, or at least our opinion-formers, love declaring how much we have changed in recent decades and that it is almost all for the better. We are much more ‘tolerant’ now, they say, far more ‘compassionate’. We have legalised same-sex marriage.…
The war in Ukraine “can be stopped in a day”, just as the Soviet Union fell in three days, a chaplain to Ukrainian Catholics in Ireland has said. Giving hope to those who fled the war in Ukraine “is very, very challenging”, Fr Vasyl Kornitsky has said, but warned that despair is “a very dangerous…
The Archdiocese of Piura in northern Peru donated thousands of doses of medication May 30 to the government’s Regional Health Directorate (DIRESA) to combat the epidemic of dengue fever that has affected almost all regions of the country, especially Lambayeque and Piura. Dengue is a virus that is transmitted to humans through mosquitoes and can…
Pope Francis June 1 accepted the resignation of an Indian bishop cleared in early 2022 of charges of raping a religious sister in his diocese. The resignation of the 59-year-old Bishop Franco Mulakkal as head of the Diocese of Jalandhar comes more than 16 months after his acquittal by a court in India’s Kerala state…
Expanding prison capacity is more a coping strategy than a solution to prison overcrowding, Jason Osborne hears. Prison overcrowding has been back in the news, with recent reports claiming that well over one hundred prisoners, both men and women, have been sleeping on mattresses in prisons due to a lack of suitable space. As well…
We all need to learn how to forgive and how to be reconciled in this imperfect world, writes Dr Joseph White Forgiveness is a thread that runs throughout the story of our faith. In the Garden of Eden, we see the frailty of human relationships, both with God and one another. Throughout our history, we…
The internet has been asking questions about famed singer Elizabeth Woolridge Grant’s faith, better known as Lana Del Rey, after she visited Rio de Janeiro’s famous Christ the Redeemer statue while on a recent trip to Brazil. While visiting a famous landmark is no cause for speculation, the popstar went to the chapel of Our…
Letter from Rome Justin McLellan The flag of Vatican City, yellow and white with crossed keys under the papal tiara, is incorrect in many emojis, flying outside the United Nations and often even on Vatican buildings. Through confusion possibly caused by an erroneous Wikipedia entry, the Vatican flags waving outside its buildings and sold in…
Faith in film What’s a western doing on a Vatican film list? A genre that typically praises the triumph of individualism and a non-conformist Protestant culture might seem ‘anathema’. But Stetsons, stoic heroes, fantastic landscapes and engaging action have some Vatican sanction with its inclusion of the iconic western Stagecoach (1939) on a 1995 list…
Although not too many people might recognise this, the #MeToo movement is, in essence, a strong advocate for chastity. If chastity can be defined as standing before another with reverence, respect, and patience, then most everything about the #MeToo movement speaks explicitly of the non-negotiable importance of chastity and implicitly for what our sexuality is…
David Quinn
Ruadhán Jones
Fr Ronald Rolheiser