Courtney McGrailA Senate Judiciary Committee in the United States has recommended that the country’s largest abortion provider be investigated by the FBI and the Department of Justice in connection with allegations of illicit trading in aborted body parts. Arising from undercover footage filmed by pro-life activists appearing to show members of Planned Parenthood engaging in trade…
Month: December 2016
How closely do we watch one another?
Dear Editor, I could not help but applaud Bishop Kevin Doran’s words in support of Pope Francis against those critics who claim the Holy Father is spreading confusion. His explanation that the Pope is trying to get people to understand that we cannot set ourselves up as the consciences of others struck me as very…
European bishops call for integrated response to poverty
The Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) has issued a document calling on Member States of the European Union to Member “to develop together with civil society and Church actors an integrated approach to combat poverty and social exclusion in all its forms”. In ‘Rescue the Weak and the Poor’, the…
Don’t give up
Dear Editor, I was pleasantly surprised to read in your paper of December 15 that almost 40% of people in the Republic of Ireland plan to see Pope Francis when he visits Ireland. With curiosity likely to increase over the next two years, I would expect the 11% who are undecided to come to think…
Outgoing US House of Congress strengthens religious freedom
In one of the final legislative acts before the Christmas break, the US Congress has passed a new religious freedom act which aims to make tackling religious persecution a key part of America’s foreign policy. The Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act passed through the Houses of Representatives and Senate with no opposition and…
Bishop’s intervention is encouraging
Dear Editor, Bishop Kevin Doran’s intervention in support of Pope Francis over Amoris Laetitia (IC 15/12/2016) is encouraging, and surely to be welcomed by all parties, especially given how it would take particular effort to claim the bishop lacks either intelligence or orthodoxy. Ever since the synod process began in 2014, a vociferous online fringe…
Common sense from Bishop on Brexit
Dear Editor, Derry’s Bishop Donal McKeown seems to be showing far more common sense on Brexit’s reality (‘New Brexit report on Ireland asks crucial questions – Derry bishop’ IC 15/12/2016) than do Britain’s parliamentary members and lords. In welcoming the Lords’ report on Brexit’s possible impacts on Northern Ireland, the bishop rightly says he is…
Where stones and soil speak
Paul KeenanThe Holy Land yielded startling finds in 2016, writes Paul Keenan
The Francis effect
Pope Francis greets a boy as he arrives to lead his general audience in Paul VI hall at the Vatican. Photo: CNS
BBC acknowledges falsely accusing wartime Church of ‘silence’
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has acknowledged that it incorrectly accused the Catholic Church of failing to speak out or act against the persecution of Jews in Europe during World War II. During a BBC news broadcast in July, covering Pope Francis’ visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp, a reporter stated: “Silence was the response…