Bishop Fintan Gavin visited Upper Mayfield parish, Cork, as it marked the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Church of Our Lady Crowned, June 11 and 12. Bishop Gavin celebrated all three Masses, including the intentions of the parish community, all those who received the sacraments over the years, the benefactors both living, and…
The UK government announced June 16 that it is imposing sanctions on the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office said in a June 16 statement that Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia was being “sanctioned for his support and endorsement of Putin’s war”. The announcement came after European Union member states failed…
Medical Matters One of the newest viruses to hit our shores (Monkeypox) arrived to Ireland this May and to date has infected about one dozen people. First recognised in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease affected monkeys kept for research, the virus has remained endemic to Africa. In fact, the first human case…
Italian bishops ease pandemic restrictions Italy’s bishops updated their pandemic prevention guidelines, easing many restrictions as new cases of Covid-19 continue to decrease after large spikes in January and February and as the severity of the disease diminishes. In a statement released June 15, the leadership of the Italian bishops’ conference said that, since the…
Jason Osborne and Ruadhán Jones Faithful from across the 26 dioceses gathered in Athlone Saturday as the Church in Ireland convened for the national pre-synodal assembly. The purpose of the meeting was to move towards developing the final national synthesis that represents the results of the listening and discernment of the Faithful during the first…
Even before Pope Francis stages his latest consistory on August 27, inducting 20 new members into the Catholic Church’s most exclusive club, the event has managed to make news – in this case, not so much for the new cardinals who’ll be there, but the one erstwhile cardinal-designate who won’t. This past Thursday, the bishops’…
NASA to recruit scientists for UFO hunt NASA is officially joining the hunt for UFOs. The US space agency has announced a new study that will recruit leading scientists to examine unidentified aerial phenomena – a subject that has long fascinated the public and recently gained high-level attention from Congress in the US. The project…
Pope Francis gave the editors of 10 Jesuit magazines a glimpse into how he makes decisions, background on one of his more controversial comments about the war in Ukraine and insight into what he sees as the refusal of some bishops to accept the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. Meeting in May with the…
Donations to the annual Peter’s Pence collection, which supports the work of the Roman Curia and funds the charitable activity of the Pope, held steady in 2021, but the total still was significantly lower than in 2018, the Vatican said. Peter’s Pence donations and income from investments totalled €46.9 million in 2021, while the expenses…
Thomas Morrissey SJ The Rise and Fall of Christian Ireland by Crawford Gribben (Oxford University Press, £25.00/€29.00) The author has produced a readable and impressive work of scholarship and organisation, which endeavours to trace the rise and fall of religion in Ireland from 8,000BC to the present day. The advent and progress of Christianity is presented…
Dr Kevin McCarroll
John L. Allen Jr.