The Missionaries of Charity congregation has been forced to shut Nirmala Shishu Bhawan, a home for orphaned, destitute and abandoned children in Uttar Pradesh state, after its lease expired. The Defence Estates Office demanded $250,000 from the nuns for trespassing. The closure came on the heels of the federal government’s refusal to renew the congregation’s…
Staff reporter This year began with the full recognition of the Irish language by the European Union for the first time in Ireland’s history as a member state. As an official language of the EU, all documents published by the union will be translated into Irish. Welcoming the decision, parish priest of Arklow and keen…
Changing of the Guard: Jack Marrinan’s battle to modernise An Garda Síochána by Tim Doyle (Currach Books, €20.00 / £17.99) In the 1950s a revolt was stirring in the lower ranks of An Garda. Although a much sought after permanent job, especially in rural Ireland, working conditions were tough, especially for the younger members who…
Presumably, when the prosecutors in the Vatican’s “trial of the century,” pivoting on a failed $400 million land deal in London, rang in the New Year a few days ago, like everyone else, they wished one another a happy 2022. They may have actually said “happier,” because, let’s face it, 2021 didn’t go particularly well…
The controversial law on the minimum pricing of alcohol has been welcomed by homelessness charity founder Fr Peter McVerry who said it is “very positive” but admitted there were downsides to the legislation. Minimum unit pricing of alcohol, enacted on January 4, aims to stop the sale of strong alcohol at low prices, which has…
Actor Max McLean is to be credited with bringing Christian legend C.S. Lewis’ conversion to life on stage and on the big screen, writes Jason Osborne Few contemporary Christian authors or thinkers have gripped the Faithful’s, of all denominations, imagination like C.S. Lewis. The Northern Irishman’s story is increasing in resonance as the decades progress,…
Prison Journal: vol. 2 The State Court Rejects the Appeal by George Pell (Ignatius Press, £14.50 / $19.95) The context in which this journal (one of three) was written is a sobering morality tale. Cardinal George Pell was born in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, on June 8, 1941. He was educated at the Loreto convent school…
Staff reporter A Catholic nurse suffered harassment and discrimination because she refused to remove a small gold cross necklace at work, an employment tribunal ruled. Mary Onuoha, 61, was subjected to “offensive and intimidating” treatment by the National Health Service, her employer, and was unfairly dismissed from her job at the Croydon University Hospital in…
A ransom was paid for the missionaries held hostage in Haiti, said the husband and father of six of the now-released hostages. “There had been a ransom agreement reached with the hostage takers,” said Ray Noecker, whose wife and five children were among the 17 people kidnapped by a Haitian gang on October 16. Mr…
by John Lavenburg Last January when Chris Charles Scott directed a documentary about five French priests that cared for the sick through the 1873 yellow fever epidemic in Shreveport, Louisiana, he never expected that it would have a spot in this year’s Cannes World Film Festival. The expectation, Mr Scott said, was a regional and…
John L. Allen Jr.
Chai Brady