Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle has spoken of how her Catholic faith gave her the confidence to pursue her dream career as a singer. Boyle shot to fame in April 2009 when her audition for Britain’s Got Talent aired on television and exploded onto the Internet. The youngest of nine children raised in a strongly…

Louise McCarthy Parishioners at an Antrim church last Sunday were shocked by graffiti daubed on a nearby Protestant church calling for the release of a suspect in the murder of two British soldiers. Massgoers at St Joseph’s Church, Greystone Road, arrived to see the graffiti on the walls of the Presbyterian Church, just across the road.…

“Realistic targets” have been set for next year’s enrolment

Staff Reporter Catholic schools are being urged to focus on the religious formation of students in a bid to promote their distinctive ethos. Dr Rik Van Nieuwenhove, lecturer in theology at Mary Immaculate College Limerick warned: “There is a temptation in an increasingly secularist society to identify Catholic schools in terms of values which are widely…

Brothers Fionn (4) and Aidan Lockett (2) from Grangegorman, Dublin present copies of ‘Feeling the Heat', a Trócaire research paper on the impact of climate change in the developing world, to Minister for the Environment, Alan Kelly TD. Photo: Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland

Pope Francis has removed US Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, 66, as head of the Vatican’s highest court and named him to a largely ceremonial post for a chivalric religious order. Cardinal Burke, formerly prefect of the Apostolic Signature, will now serve as cardinal patron of the Knights and Dames of Malta. It is highly unusual…

The president of the Nigerian bishops’ conference said his country’s government could defeat the Boko Haram Islamist militant group if it could muster the same political will it found to fight Ebola. Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos suggested that the government could end the group’s attacks on Christians and civilians if it really wanted to.…

A British doctor has been ordered to appear in court accused of planning an abortion based on the sex of the unborn baby. Dr Prabha Sivaraman was one of two medics recorded allegedly agreeing to arrange terminations because of the gender of the foetus in a Telegraph investigation in 2012. Dr Sivaraman from South Yorkshire…