Courtney McGrailThe Catholic Bishops of the US have voiced objections to proposals to allow scientists to commence research involving human-animal hybrids. In a message submitted to the National Institutes of Health, a division of the Department of Health, the prelates sounded a warning over the ethical arguments surrounding “beings who do not fully belong to either…
Month: September 2016
Syrian Christians remain strong in faith – abducted priest
Fr Jacques Mourad, the Jesuit priest who escaped the clutches of so-called Islamic State (ISIS) after five months in captivity in 2015 has said the faith of Christians in Syria remains strong despite the conflict there. Now ministering in Sulaymaniya, in Iraqi Kurdistan, Fr Mourad was formerly prior of the Monastery of Mar Elian in…
Extremist pressure on Indonesian Christians continues
In a sign of rising tensions for the Christian community in Indonesia, Muslim extremists have interrupted a Mass in Central Java, little over a week after a priest was attacked by an axe-wielding assailant at another celebration. During the celebration in the parish of St Peter Purwosari, near Surakarta, two men in the congregation of…
Vatican Roundup
Pope prays for nun murdered in Haiti Pope Francis has offered prayers for a Spanish missionary sister killed in Haiti. At the conclusion of events marking the canonisation of St Teresa of Kolkata in Rome on September 4, the Pope recalled Sr Isabel Sola Macas, murdered in a robbery on September 2. “At this moment, I would like to remember those…
Blessing the new school year
Ukrainian Catholic Fr Mykhailo Romaniuk blesses families from the Ukrainian community of Paris, France in St Volodymyr the Great Cathedral to mark the beginning of the new school year. Photo: CNS
Ten years on, it’s time to appreciate Benedict’s point about Islam
John L. Allen Jr.September 12 marked the 10th anniversary of perhaps the most controversial papal speech of the last half-century, an address given by emeritus Pope Benedict XVI in Regensburg, Germany, in 2006, which sparked a firestorm of protest across the Islamic world. In the opening section of the speech, Benedict cited a 14th-Century dialogue between a Byzantine…
Muslim leaders open a new front against extremism
Paul KeenanAn entirely new front in the war against so-called Islamic State (ISIS) was opened up at the end of August, and once again, the bulk of the western media missed it. More eager for the immediacy of daily bombings in Syria and battlefield gains by Turkish tanks and allies in pushing ISIS ever further back…
Media double standards on abortion
Dear Editor, Last week, the media reported about a pro-life pregnancy counselling agency that is apparently giving women inaccurate advice in order to pressure them into not having an abortion. This was well covered by RTÉ, and a man from the agency in question featured on Liveline. He did not do the pro-life cause very…
Liberal Churches lose members too
Dear Editor, Writing last week, Cindy Wooden says that ‘ecumenism remains high on the papal agenda’ (IC Notebook 8/9/16). This is as it should be. The Holy Father is to meet the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, next month. Ecumenical dialogue is sometimes a case of one step forward and two steps back. Relations…
Denying environmental degradation akin to ‘flat Earth’ devotion
Dear Editor, Interesting that there exists in many countries branches of an organisation known as: The Flat Earth Society. They believe that it is possible to fall off the edge of the world and vanish into emptiness. They base their belief it seems, at least in part, on the Gospel instruction where the Lord commanded…