The pace of the Irish Government’s response to religious orders wanting to donate land for housing “doesn’t match what is wanted in a crisis”, Sophia Housing have said. Tony O’Riordan, CEO of the charity that helps religious orders to donate land for housing, told The Irish Catholic that orders show “extraordinary” generosity and good will,…
Marilyn Rodrigues The second assembly of Australia’s plenary council closed at the weekend after two days of catching up and passing almost all of the motions in its guiding document, including a revised version of the section on the equal dignity of women and men in the Church. Members were noticeably tired after a long week,…
Better faith formation and more investment in lay ministries is needed as a “top priority” in Dublin Diocese parishes have said. All 197 parishes around Ireland’s largest diocese have been meeting over the past month as part of the ‘Building Hope’ report, to discuss the rationalisation of resources and new parish partnerships. As part of…
Christian mechanic Ashfaq Masih has been sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan after allegedly saying that Jesus Christ is the only true prophet. Reading out the 12-page judgment July 4, Khalid Wazir, additional session judge of the Lahore High Court, sentenced Mr Masih to death and fined him 100,000 rupees (€1,246). Mr Masih, 34,…
It wasn’t his opponents but his chaotic, rule-breaking nature that pulled him down in the end, writes David Quinn When Bill Clinton was American president, the issue of character loomed large. Was a man with such an obviously flawed character a suitable person for arguably the world’s most important job? The answer came to depend…
The second assembly of Australia’s plenary council ran from July 3-9. A plenary council has wide-ranging power, and Australia has gone through an extensive process to get to this point. Here are some key questions and answers. Q. What was the plenary council? A plenary council is a gathering of the local Church; it has…
Senator Sharon Keogan has criticised an Oireachtas report that calls for Ireland to regulate international surrogacy, calling it “biased”. The Joint Committee on International Surrogacy recommended that an existing bill, the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill 2022, be amended to include international surrogacy. The committee added that the commissioning parents should be allowed to apply…
The agenda for the Second Assembly of Australia’s Plenary Council was disrupted July 6 after more than 60 of the 277 members staged a protest over issues regarding women in the Church, including the defeat of a motion to formalise support for the ordination of women as deacons. A sense of crisis among plenary members, lay…
Shannon Campbell The View “Nemo dat quod non habet.” That was the advice of our Chaplain, Fr Dominic McGrattan, when I first took up my position as chaplaincy director. As a former lawyer he’s known to throw out the odd legal maxim. Not being a Latinist myself, he thankfully supplied a translation and “no one…
Liam Fitzpatrick Community members removed paramilitary UDA and Paratroop Regiment flags erected outside St Comgall’s chapel and school in Antrim, with some fearing a potential increase in sectarian tension around July 12. Sinn Féin MLA Declan Kearney, representative of South Antrim, called the situation “provocative, insensitive and a clear attempt at intimidation” in a statement…
Ruadhán Jones
David Quinn