November is not my favourite month. I don’t mind the darker evenings so much but the prospect of walking the dog on cold, dark mornings does little to cheer me. The new year will be well on its way before I find myself walking in the light again. That is not a great prospect but…
In Brief Defense of the unborn, racial division and immigration were the prominent topics of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops this week. The Church in the US has at times been a part of the problem of racism despite fighting it for many years, according to one bishop. Bishop George Murry, head of the…
In Brief Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminister, backed the Patriarch of Jerusalem in his campaign to preserve the place of Christians in the Holy Land as it exists now. Greek Orthodox Patriarch, Theophilos III, warned Cardinal Nichols that the current ‘Status Quo’ agreement that protects land tenure in Jerusalem is at risk, as a…
In Brief A diocese in northern Vietnam has begun construction of a church dedicated to Dominican martyrs, replacing the ruins of an earlier one destroyed during a US air raid in 1967. Bishop Joseph Vu Van Thien of Hai Phong celebrated a special Mass to begin the construction of the new church at the Hai…
In Brief Pakistan will issue 50,000 commemorative 50 rupee coins in honour of German-born Catholic nun and physician Sister Ruth Martha Pfau who dedicated her life to eradicating leprosy in the country. Known as Pakistan’s Mother Teresa, Sister Pfau died in Karachi on August 10 at the age of 87. She was given a state funeral, an honour…
Worried about your kids’ texts? There’s an app for that! Parents worried about their children sending and sharing inappropriate texts and images may have a helpful answer in the form of a new app. The Oyoty app, developers claim, detects when pictures show too much exposed flesh, when texts use abusive or bullying language, and…
In Brief A 3D virtual tour of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem – the site of Jesus’ tomb – will open next week in the National Geographic Museum in Washington DC. The tour opened on November 15 and will continue until August 15 next year. Academic dean and theology professor at St John’s Seminary in…
Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo being presented with a cross by Fr Kieran Mc Dermott, Administrator of St Mary’s Pro Cathedral, Dublin, at his solemn liturgical reception as Papal Nuncio to Ireland, which was attended by members of the Diplomatic Corps with Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin welcoming Archbishop Okolo to the pro cathedral. Pic: John McElroy.
Murtaí Óg: Murtaí Óg Ó Súilleabháin (c. 1710-54): a life contextualised by Gerard J. Lyne, (Geography Publications, €25.00) Here once again this author writes with authority about his local area. His The Lansdowne Estate in Kerry under the agency of William Steuart Trench, 1849-72 was a classic account of an Irish landlord’s agent in the…
In Brief Last month thieves in France robbed and desecrated ten churches in the Diocese of Annecy, in the France’s Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region. The perpetrators are believed to be two men who gained access by forcing open the church doors with a crow bar. In Sainte Marie Madeleine de Morzine parish, the criminals broke open and desecrated…
Bairbre Cahill