Campaginers protesting against the closure of the Irish Embassy to the Holy See have expressed delight after dozens of Oireachtas members turned up at a briefing aimed at informing politicians of the value of the relationship. Ireland Stand Up invited members of the public who are opposed to the move by the Government to…

People who use the phrase ‘Ireland is a republic’ need to be clear on what they mean by the word, writes Fr Alan Hilliard   Shopping in the local shop many years ago left little room for choice. A tin of beans meant that you got whatever brand of beans was on the shelf. There…

A gay reader shares some uncomfortable questions aroundthe Church and a gay lifestyle.     As a practising gay Catholic (practising both my faith and my sexual orientation) one gets used, not entirely comfortably, to coping with ambiguity. The Catholic Church could never be described as a welcoming place for gay Catholics; this is despite…

  ”When grace enters, there is no choice — humans must dance.” W.H. Auden wrote those words and, beautiful as they sound, I wish they were true. When grace enters a room we should begin to dance but, sadly, more often than not we let some little thing, some minor mosquito bite, blind us to…

  Paddy Monaghan describes how theAlpha course is growing in Ireland   Pope Benedict XVI, announcing the forthcoming Synod on New Evangelisation, stated that ”the Church exists to evangelise”. But how do we evangelise? The Alpha course is certainly one way. It is a 10-week course on the basic truths of Christianity. It brings people…

  To live a chaste life is not easy, not just for celibates, but for everyone. Even when our actions are all in line, it is still hard to live with a chaste heart, a chaste attitude, and chaste fantasies. Purity of heart and intention is very difficult. Why? Chastity is difficult because we are…

  What is the heart of education? One photograph, over the past week, said it all for me. It was the picture of more than 50 parents camping out for up to two days to get their daughters into the Presentation Secondary School in Tralee, Co. Kerry. The all-girls’ school is clearly such a beacon…

  The View John Waters   When I was a child, in the manner of children everywhere, I would express my identity as: John Waters, Main Street, Castlerea, Co. Roscommon, Ireland, Europe, The World, The Milky Way, The Universe. Now, all the time, the pressure is on me to live in a smaller and smaller…

To mark Christian Unity Week, Dean Robert MacCarthy offers a remedy to current woes   This is winter time for the Church and unlike the climate it is not soon going to be succeeded by spring and summer. The evidence of sexual abuses in America and Europe has triggered a worldwide decline in the Roman…

  Are reforms at Maynooth for the better or a return to the sort of rigid seminary life of yesteryear, asks David Quinn   Last week, this newspaper reported changes that are being undertaken at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, in the wake of the Apostolic Visitation conducted on behalf of the Pope by Cardinal-designate Timothy…