Not everyone experiences a vocation to the priesthood or religious life, but becoming a priest has been shortlisted in a directory of the top 50 jobs for the future. The list, published last week by the Irish Independent, saw the priesthood beat out other popular careers such as engineering, computing and banking. A calling to…

Dwindling numbers forces action in Down and Connor

Act breaches religious freedoms

The Vatican is being urged to pressurise religious congregations that ran Magdalen laundries here to contribute to compensation and redress for former residents. Reform Alliance TD Lucinda Creighton said it would be a “positive step” towards helping heal some of the hurt caused by religious orders involved in the running of the laundries. She told…

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ordered the government there to enact a range of measures to protect religious minorities in a move described as “historic”. In a ruling arising from the September 2013 suicide attack on the All Saints church in Peshawar which claimed 85 lives, Chief Justice Tasaduq Hussain Jillani ordered immediate action in various…

Sex education must involve more than just teaching children scientific facts, newly released sex education guidelines by the Church here claim. The guidelines also dismiss as a “distortion” any attempt to communicate the facts of life without reference to the religious and moral dimensions of human sexuality or to the student’s need to grow in…

Annual national pilgrimage on Sunday, July 27

Pontiff presented with new catechism by Veritas Director

Australia’s Cardinal George Pell will chair the Fota VII International Liturgy Conference in Cork city this weekend. Hosted by St Colman’s Society for Catholic Liturgy, the conference from July 5-7 will focus on priestly identity, and will hear papers delivered by a number of speakers including Bishop Philip Boyce of Raphoe and American prelate, Cardinal…