Patrick Kenny “A certain Roman Catholic chaplain…lies in a soldier’s grave in that sinister plain beyond Ypres. He went forward and back over the battle field with bullets whining about him, seeking out the dying and kneeling in the mud beside them to give them absolution, walking with death with a smile on his face,…
New stations blessed at St Feichin’s Mass Eleven priests concelebrated this year’s annual Mass of St Feichin, patron saint of Abbey parish in Co. Galway, for a congregation of over 450. Chief celebrant was Fr John Hickey, CC Abbey parish and the homilist was Fr Pat Conroy PP. Fr Brendan Duggan of Athea, Co. Limerick…
One of US President Donald Trump’s leading Evangelical advisors has asked to meet Pope Francis to discuss a controversial article in a Vatican-approved Italian journal which sharply criticised some trends in Catholic-Evangelical relations. An article in La Civiltà Cattolica last month expressed the view that some American Catholics and Evangelicals are forming a political alliance…
The Knights of St Columbus will send €1.7m for Christians displaced from their homes by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq. In 2014, the Islamic State removed hundreds of families of religious minorities from their homes in Karamdes, a mostly Christian town on the Ninevah Plain in Iraq. Two years later the town was liberated.…
Venezuela’s government has ignored the Vatican’s call to suspend the formation of a new Constituent Assembly, a body tasked with re-writing the country’s constitution. The motion to elect the body, which is capable of overriding the powers of all other government branches, was passed after a referendum last Sunday. This week the UN human rights…
Pope Francis is expected to focus on improving the troubles of about a million Rohingya Muslims when he visits Myanmar (Burma) in the last week of November. The Vatican has acknowledged a possible trip is being studied, but it has said it is too early to confirm. The visit is expected to be announced officially…
A giant robotic spider perched near Notre Dame Cathedral in Canada has drawn shock and criticism from Catholics – to the disappointment of the archbishop. Archbishop Terrence Prendergast said he was surprised by the negative reaction to an artistic initiative after critics called the mechanical spider’s placement “sacrilegious”, “demonic” and “disrespectful” of a sacred space.…
Organised criminals face excommunication A consultation group for the Vatican will consider using excommunication as a weapon against organised crime and corruption. The Mafia and other criminal organisations could be thrown out of the Church if proposals published last week by the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development are followed. The group proposes the…
Though it sounds terrible to say out loud, generally speaking, the death of a Catholic bishop doesn’t really rate as a news story anywhere outside his own diocese. Most bishops aren’t towering public personalities, and besides which, with more than 5,000 bishops in the world and an age profile that skews old, deaths just aren’t…
Miguel Diaz Epluribus unum. This motto appears in the Great Seal of the United States, the seals of top US government officials, and on US coins. While not as explicitly religious as the oft-cited motto, “In God we Trust”, this other foundational American motto not only supplies the building blocks for authentic community and human…
John L. Allen Jr.