Now that the United Kingdom has voted to introduce assisted suicide into law, there can be no doubt that where the UK has gone, Ireland will follow. Across the Irish Sea there was at least a serious, public debate with strong voices on both sides arguing the issues. In Ireland, we could only wish for…
Category: Editorials
Priests are heroic community leaders
One of the challenges facing the Church in Ireland today is the tension between the fact that necessary Church reform requires patient discernment, but also the fact that this reform is urgently needed. Within a decade the Dublin Archdiocese – the country’s largest with over a million registered Catholics – will have only a couple…
The voiceless have the loudest say
Despite 54% of Catholic – and 60% of non-Catholic Christians – voting for Donald Trump, according to exit polls, it would be naïve to rely on him to preside as a Christian leader of the world’s most powerful country. However, the voting trends which saw the President-elect win the election with a popular vote surplus…
Begotten, not made
Honour thy Father and Mother’ is an instruction that comes to us from on High. But it is not just a Catholic or Christian demand. Until recently it had been timeless and universal. It was an instruction that was central to the proper organising of society. It was often taken as a given, an objective…
State weakening voice of civil society that holds it to account
The 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic, in some ways the country’s founding document, commits to cherishing ‘all the children of the nation equally’. The Thirty-first Amendment of the Constitution (Children) Act 2012 inserted clauses relating to children’s rights and the right and duty of the state to take child protection measures. This amendment was…
A society where bad ideas have driven out good
The saying goes that nature abhors a vacuum. Bad money drives out good. These idioms are not to be dismissed in any walk of life. The evidence of this is clear when it comes to the changes being seen in the school curricula on SPHE. We are seeing it in our healthcare systems. We are…
The erosion of our rights
Today is the day that the Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Act 2024 comes into operation in Ireland, marking an important landmark in Ireland’s drift towards authoritarianism and progressive restrictions on civil liberties. This Act designates 100m Safe Access Zones around certain premises where abortions are or may be taking place, where “conduct”…
Stars of David in a dark sky
When Bono of U2 tweaked the lyrics of the song ‘Pride’ a year ago in the wake of the massacre of young people at a music festival in Israel he came in for immense criticism. “Early morning, October 7, the sun is rising in the desert sky. Stars of David, they took your life but…
Healing the Irish Church
There is a new dimension at play as the Church in Ireland seeks to come to terms with the latest round of outrage in regard to past abuses. In the intervening years, partly in response to the need for specialist expertise but also due to the decline of numbers of priests and religious, many Catholic…
Change is before the Archbishop’s eyes so why can’t he see it?
Safeguarding Sunday has become a regular feature on the calendar of the Archdiocese of Dublin. The idea is to ensure that parishes and communities are acutely aware that the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults was not a single moment or piece of work that was undertaken in reaction to sickening abuse reports, but the…