Gerard Gallagher By the time we get to October many of our conversations cite how tired we are of the routines of life. Some people look forward to mid-term. Others just want to survive till the Bank Holiday. As we all begin to reconnect with the new normal in a life with less restrictions, it…
Pope Francis appeals for countries to achieve net zero carbon emissions Pope Francis and various religious leaders from across the world appealed last Monday for countries to “achieve net zero carbon emissions as soon as possible”. The plea was made on October 4 in a joint message signed in the Vatican’s Hall of Benediction. The…
Star Trek’s Shatner to ‘boldly go’ with Blue Origin Blue Origin has confirmed that William Shatner, who starred as Captain James T Kirk in the original Star Trek series, will fly aboard the company’s next crewed rocket on 12 October. The company also announced the identity of the remaining passenger, Audrey Powers, the company’s vice…
Cardinal hospitalised with Covid after attending Eucharistic Congress Cardinal and President of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe, Angelo Bagnasco, has been hospitalised with Covid after travelling to the International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest. The cardinal, 78, had been fully vaccinated since May. He tested positive for Covid upon his return to Italy…
Dear Editor, We are being lectured ad nauseam that the truly dark period of our recent history has been superseded by an enlightened and liberal era. However, the hall marks of social behaviourism in this secularised paradise making for daily media reportage presents an unpleasant and disturbing reality. Children, according to a Garda report were suspects in…
Euthanasia is “anathema” to the palliative care movement according to the chief executive of the Irish Hospice Foundation (IHF) Speaking before an IHF forum which ran from Tuesday to Wednesday this week, Sharon Foley said she could not see assisted suicide happening in Irish hospices. Speaking to The Irish Times, Ms Foley said: “The palliative…
Further attacks on northern Nigeria’s Christian population continue to traumatise the region’s Christians, many of whom are becoming resigned to the fact that their safety is no longer guaranteed. The latest onslaught was compared to a ‘massacre’ against native people by a local Catholic priest, many of which are Christian. An estimated 49 people, including…
An independent commission set up to measure the extent of abuse committed by Church members has estimated that over 3,000 paedophiles, out of a total of 115,000 priests, were actively engaged in ministry with the Church between 1950 to the present day. The 2,500-page report, which was commissioned by the French Catholic Church in 2018,…
Crimson and Gold: Life as a Limerick by Mark Patrick Hederman (Columba Books, €19.99hb/£17.99hb) John F. Deane Dear reader: I presume you are an Irish Catholic; I am an Irish Catholic; I am reviewing a book on Irish Catholicism by an Irish Catholic for The Irish Catholic. And are we not all anxious, in the present,…
Cardinal Alexandre José Maria dos Santos, the first cardinal born in Mozambique, has died at the age of 97. The Catholic leader is remembered for advocating peace amid Mozambique’s bloody civil war which raged between 1977 to 1992, during which he aided refugees and victims of violence as the founding president of Caritas Mozambique. Pope…