Mags Gargan and Greg Daly Parishioners across Ireland are preparing to welcome refugees fleeing Syria, Iraq and North Africa in answer to Pope Francis’ appeal to European parishes and religious communities to offer shelter to migrant families. Taking up the Pontiff’s urgent plea, Bishop Noel Treanor of Down & Connor has put in place a team to assess available…

Christians must neither seek refuge in conservatism or fundamentalism as though everything was better in the past nor reject everything that seems old-fashioned thereby “relativising all the wisdom accumulated in our rich ecclesial heritage” according to Pope Francis. Speaking by video message to participants in Buenos Aires at the Second International Congress of Theology, on…

At least two American presidential hopefuls have backed Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who has been jailed for contempt of court after refusing to register same-sex marriages. Ms Davis, who served as Rowan County’s deputy county clerk for 25 years to November last when she was elected county clerk, stopped issuing marriage licenses in…

Fr Jacques Mourad and about 270 Christians and Muslims taken hostage by jihadi militias in southeast Syria are alive, and are in a “stable and secure” condition, according to local sources, who say Church leaders are conducting negotiations through mediators in an attempt to obtain the captives’ release. The Syrian priest was kidnapped on May…

Longford’s iconic St Mel’s Cathedral, which was almost destroyed by a devastating fire in 2009, has attracted over 100,000 visitors since the restored building was once again opened to worshipers last Christmas. Only a burnt out shell was left of the 19th Century cathedral when a fire took hold in the early hours of Christmas…

Bishops back Indian strikes India’s Catholic Church supported some 150 million workers on a nationwide strike that shut down factories, banks, traffic and government offices on September 2. “The Church is in solidarity with striking workers because we are concerned about their welfare,” according to Jaipur’s Bishop Oswald Lewis, head of the Indian bishops’ labour office, adding that…

The Cremisan Valley Wall is “the last nail in Bethlehem’s coffin” according to the Catholic centre for human rights working under the patronage of Jerusalem’s Latin Patriarchate. A 90-page report by the centre, according to the Patriarchate, analyses the implications of the separation wall built by Israeli authorities in the valley, largely on Palestinian land…

A Hungarian bishop has challenged Pope Francis’ appeal for Catholics to open their communities as sanctuaries for refugees from the Middle East. Szeged-Csanád Bishop Laszlo Kiss-Rigo, whose diocese in southern Hungary is experiencing some of Europe’s heaviest migrant flows, denies that most of those arriving are refugees. “This is an invasion,” he said, “they come…