Trócaire staff in South Sudan have been evacuated from an area in the north of the country as a result of heavy fighting in the region. Three staff members, who are all South Sudan nationals, have been forced to suspend vital humanitarian programmes in the Melut region and return to Juba, the country’s capital city.…

The Pro-Life Campaign (PLC) has urged the Government to reject draft legislation on assisted suicide being prepared by campaigner Tom Curran, whose late partner Marie Fleming lost a landmark right-to-die case in the Supreme Court in 2013. Cora Sherlock of the PLC told The Irish Catholic that “if our laws are telling people that they…

An Irish-born priest has been appointed as the new bishop of the English Diocese of Nottingham. Msgr Patrick McKinney (61) is the eldest son of Patrick and Bridget McKinney (deceased), originally from Ireland, and was brought up in Birmingham. His parents moved back to Ireland in the 1970s when he began his studies for the…

Dublin City returning officer James Barry has apologised to Harold’s Cross priest Fr Gerry Kane after a Sheriff’s Office official removed a crucifix from the local pastoral centre. The official had removed the crucifix as he had been told it was offensive, but on being contacted by Fr Kane offered to restore it. Mr Barry…

A Pilgrim prays to Archbishop Oscar Romero during beatification Mass in the Divine Saviour of the World square in San Salvador. Photo: CNS

British star Jude Law has been cast as a fictional young American Pope for a new television series, directed by Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino. The actor will play Italian-American Lenny Belardo, a conservative “recruited by a Vatican fed up with liberals” who is thrust into the papacy as Pope Pius XIII, and must grapple with…

A leading charity offering support to children affected by sexual abuse has said that national apologies for past practices “ring hollow when children continue to be abused by an inadequate system”. Children at Risk in Ireland (CARI) said that a lack of services nationally was leaving children struggling to cope unsupported and that children as…

Blessed bishop is an inspiration to us all

The same-sex marriage referendum result was “a defeat” that highlights a gap between the Church and modern society, the Vatican daily newspaper has said. “The margin between the ‘yes’ and the ‘no’ votes was too large not to be accepted as a defeat. It was the result of high voter turnout, notably among young people,”…