The View Child abuse sadly appears to be widespread in all societies, writes David Quinn   A major report into the problem of child abuse in the Catholic Church in Holland was published in the run-up to Christmas. The report brings us closer to being able to answer such questions as whether the problem was…

Fr Chris Hayden on searching for a destination for Ireland   Remember when the M50 was being widened? Remember the national running commentary on the traffic chaos that arose from what was, metaphorically, an attempt to service an aircraft while it was flying. Some of the chaos was probably avoidable, and the pandemonium that prevailed…

  Christmas is God’s answer to human longing, God’s response to the centuries of prayers that lay hidden in our groaning, our sighs, our frustrations, and our religious efforts, each of them a plea, mostly silent, for a divine intervention, all of them asking God to come and rid the world of injustice and our…