A number of stories have emerged in recent times revealing misconduct in science. But, perhaps things are better than they seem. A new study has just been published – Does Science Make you More Moral? – by social psychology researchers Christine Ma-Kellams and Jim Blascovich of the University of California Santa Barbara in the online journal…
Category: Opinion
The survival of our Church
Dear Editor, This is a response to a general tendency I notice in much I read in The Irish Catholic. Many articles focus on the challenges to the Church, lack of vocations, the Faith not being passed onto our children, Church law not being upheld, what we do in the aftermath of the sexual abuse…
Clarity needed on politicians receiving Communion
Dear Editor, A Sunday news story said that anonymous reports claimed that parish priests had “pilloried” TDs from the pulpit and challenged others directly and refused Communion because they voted for the abortion law. Mr M Long, spokesman for the bishops’ conference, said there was no diktat issued. Unfortunate all round. The canon law on…
500% increase in broken marriages
David QuinnThe number of Irish adults who have been through a broken marriage has increased by a massive 500% in the last 25 years. Last week The Iona Institute (which I head) issued a report called Marriage Breakdown and Family Structure in Ireland. The figures in it are drawn from Census 2011 and compare today…
Speaking up for the Catholic viewpoint
Catholic Comment launched in time for last year’s International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, with a mission to serve “both the Church and the media”: since then its speakers have taken part in over 90 radio and television interviews including on programmes such as Prime Time, The Frontline, Tonight with Vincent Browne, Ireland AM, Morning Edition,…
In spite of evil, God does continue to work
God writes straight with crooked lines. That axiom sounds clever, but is there real truth or depth to it? Can good ever really arise out of evil? Do love, truth, and justice ever work out through hatred, lies, and injustice? Do crooked lines really straighten?The answer to those questions will invariably be negative when we…
Welcome to the world of ‘life sciences’
Choosing the sex (or, as some say, the gender) of a child may have been an aspiration that parents have sometimes wished for, throughout history: think of a family with four girls wanting a son, or vice-versa. And now clinics in San Diego, California are offering this choice to men through a process of sperm…
Ireland Stand Up stands up for faith
The View Sometimes in politics, it is not the things you expect that cause a reaction. When the last Government proposed restrictions on the use of the medical card it was probably inevitable that it would cause a major backlash. When a hospital ward is closed a backlash will be absolutely inevitable. But…
Sensing a slight shift in the wind?
Attacks on the Catholic Church have gone too far and people are starting to notice, writes David Quinn It is now 20 years since the Bishop Eamon Casey/Annie Murphy scandal first came to light, and 18 years since the Albert Reynolds/Dick Spring government fell, ostensibly as a result of the Fr Brendan Smyth…
The ugly reality of the Irish sex trade
Irish law must change to criminalise those who purchase sex, writes Sr Stan Kennedy RTÉ’s Prime Time programme ‘Profiting from Prostitution’, broadcast last week, exposed the shocking and tragic reality of abuse and enslavement endured by many women throughout this country. The broadcast exposed the ugly reality of the Irish sex trade: shedding…