Bishop Donal McKeown has defended bishops against the Association of Catholic Priests’ (ACP) claims that they are targeting priests, saying that both he and the bishops he knows “are trying to ensure that they do the best for their priests”. Speaking on Good Morning Ulster alongside ACP priest Fr Roy Donovan, Bishop McKeown responded to…
Chai Brady and Brandon Scott Farmers must be supported in their transition to more sustainable farming methods and the fact consumers want food as cheap as possible must be addressed, according to the bishop of Kilmore diocese. Bishop Martin Hayes, who attended COP26 in Glasgow and is the episcopal coordinator for Laudato Si’ – the…
The Pope met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Vatican last week, where the Secretariat of State stressed the need to restart direct dialogue to achieve a two-state solution with Israel, while also recognising the need for peaceful coexistence among the various faiths. Addressing the meeting between the two leaders, a Vatican statement announced…
Frank Browne Many of our parishes across the country have been busy undertaking Confirmation ceremonies for all those young people who have been waiting for up to two years. Our parish ministry team in Ballyroan thought about how we could make the sacramental preparation meetings and ceremonies both meaningful and an enjoyable experience for our…
200 parish churches in the Archdiocese of Dublin will now be equipped with with “tap-and-donate” card machines. The installation of card machines in parish churches was previously mooted and subsequently trialled by the archdiocese in 2019, with a spokeswoman for the archdiocese saying that “later this year [2019] we plan to roll out the ability…
Texans have voted to prohibit the state from taking any action that would prohibit or limit religious services. SJR 27, otherwise known as Proposition 3, is an amendment to the state’s constitution that bars “the State of Texas or a political subdivision from enacting, adopting, or issuing a statute, order, proclamation, decision, or rule that…
A report compiled by Korea Future, a non-profit organisation whose mission is to investigate and document human rights violations in North Korea, has exposed details relating to the detention and torture of North Korean Christians in the past decade including all documented human rights violations that occurred as recently as 2019. The report is the…
A report on the handling of abuse cases in Germany’s Archdiocese of Munich and Freising is unlikely to be published before January 2022. Westpfahl Spilker Wastl, the law firm compiling the report, announced the delay last week. The Munich law firm said that the delay was caused by “new findings obtained in the recent past”…
The bishops will undertake a pilgrimage to the International Eucharistic and Marian Shrine in Knock this Sunday in memory of those who have died in Ireland during the pandemic and their families. All 26 dioceses will be represented at the pilgrimage to the National Marian Shrine and there will be a special reflection given to those who…
As the Catholic archbishop of Palermo paid a visit to the Sicilian city’s largest cemetery on All Souls’ Day, he passed through a tent filled with stacks of coffins and blessed the 800 bodies still awaiting burial. “Palermo needs new cemetery spaces where we can bury or cremate our dead, to keep them with dignity,…