Dear Editor, As the pontificate of Pope Francis continues through its first year, it is becoming ever more certain that the right man for the Church of our times was chosen by the conclave in March. The personal style Francis has brought to the papacy has appealed to all who believe in the caring and…

The fact that peace is more than the absence of war is so self-evident it hardly seems worthwhile pointing out. Nevertheless, the truism bears repeating in the particular context of the Northern peace process.   By any objective measure the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and the ceasefires that precipitated the accord have been a stunning…

Open debate and free discourse are healthy, so maybe it’s good that we are witnessing “rebel priests”, such as Fr Iggy O’Donovan, Fr Gerard Moloney, Fr Tony Flannery and Fr Brian D’Arcy making their opinions known, even when this invites Vatican disapproval.   I am not sure if the correct word really is “silenced”, since…

"Home is where we start from.” T.S. Eliot wrote that and it describes an experience that can be felt both as a freedom and as a heartache. I cite my own case:   I grew up in a second-generation immigrant community on the Canadian prairies. My grandparents’ generation had been the first settlers in that…

Pope Francis offered words of encouragement to Rome’s priests this week, assuring them that recent and current scandals cannot overcome the Church’s holiness and urging them to keep their vocations alive through love of God.   The Pope made his remarks at a meeting with diocesan clergy in the Basilica of St John Lateran, the…

Vatican plans diplomatic drive for peace The Vaticanís new secretary of state plans to use the Churchís vast global diplomatic network to build peace.   Archbishop Pietro Parolin (pictured) said Pope Francis has already injected a new impetus into the Vaticanís Secretariat of State structure and given a new push for Church-led diplomacy.   The…

79 In percentage terms the number of US Catholics who view Pope Francis favourably, according to research conducted by the Pew Research Centre.   Just 4% of Catholics in America say they have an unfavourable view of the first Latin American Pope, while 17% express no opinion or say they have not heard enough about…

The president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has said the Catholic Health Association’s acceptance of rules governing women’s access to contraceptive coverage under the Affordable Care Act was “less than helpful” to the bishops’ effort to seek changes in the mandate. “We have not, ourselves as bishops, been able to arrive at…

Before the papal election Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio hadn’t given a thought to what name he would choose if he was elected Pope. The very idea hadn’t even entered his mind. Even immediately after his election he still hadn’t thought what name to choose. Then a good friend of his, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, Archbishop Emeritus of Sao…