The Irish Church faces “collapse” if the Faithful don’t do “something daring and immediate”, according to the former abbot of Glenstal in Limerick in his new book. In Crimson and Gold – Life as a Limerick, Dom Mark Patrick Hederman OSB says there is a “famine in the land”. “People all over this country, and,…
The Brussels-based commission representing the Catholic bishops of the European Union is backing tougher steps to combat hate crimes, but warned that current EU proposals could violate religious freedom and have a “chilling and self-censoring effect”. “Hate crimes are more and more common and are cause for increasing concern – a grave phenomenon to be…
In what has been described as a “Biblical ordeal”, a US lobsterman escaped after being swallowed by a humpback whale. Michael Packard, 56, of Provincetown, Massachusetts, was diving off Cape Cod when he was swallowed by the whale for between 30 and 40 seconds, only to be spat out with nothing more than a suspected…
To Kidnap a Pope: Napoleon and Pius VII by Ambrogio A. Caini (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, £ 20.00 / €24.00) Frank Litton Of all the themes in European history, the relationship between Church and state, religion and politics, has had the greatest impact in making Europe what it is. With the French Revolution,…
Clergy, women religious and laypeople pledged to strengthen existing networks and build new partnerships to fight human trafficking in West Africa during a five-day conference. Recognising that the coronavirus pandemic has not slowed the work of traffickers who force young people into prostitution, pornography, erotic entertainment and forced labour, more than two dozen participants agreed…
God is Not a White Man: And other revelations by Chine McDonald (London: Hodder & Stoughton, £16.99 / €19.70 ) Kevin Hargaden Have you ever noticed the way tights are marketed? The hosiery section of Marks and Spencer is an unlikely place to experience a revelation, but God can use any means to illuminate us. Dispatched…
Fr Pádraig Ó Cochláin “Is ait an mac an saol” is an old Irish saying, meaning that life is strange. I was released from hospital recently and am now on the road to recovery from Covid-19, a mysterious virus which seems to have originated in China, in late 2019. Many people by now have been…
Fundamental theological principles provide the framework for any doctrinal questions over the discovery of extra-terrestrial beings, a theologian claimed in a lecture on June 5. While the Church does not have any specific teachings on extra-terrestrial life, theologians can speculate on the existence of these beings and their nature due to the “underlying principles” which…
Another church in Kayah state, a Catholic stronghold in eastern Myanmar, was damaged by indiscriminate shelling by the military. Military fire hit Our Lady, Queen of Peace Church in the village of Doungankha the morning of June 6. Church leaders said there were no casualties as people had fled to relatives’ homes and into the…
A June 7 US Supreme Court decision ruled that hundreds of thousands of immigrants with a temporary immigration status cannot apply for a more permanent way to remain in the country if they first entered without authority to do so. The unanimous ruling applies to those with Temporary Permanent Status, popularly known as TPS –…