Fatima (2020) will be released in cinemas across the island of Ireland and on all digital platforms Friday June 25, after a series of delays due to Covid. The film, about the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima in 1917, will be shown in five cinemas in Co. Cork and two in Dublin, as well…
Supreme Court ruling seen as victory for religious liberty
As a consequence of the US Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling June 17 in Fulton v. Philadelphia, faith-based and other agencies across the country may not be forced by a government agency to violate their deeply held beliefs against placing children in households led by same-sex or cohabitating adults. In a decision seen as a victory…
Mary McAleese is wrong on the reception of children into the Church
Only if spiritual communion with God were a bad thing would infant Baptism be a bad thing, writes Dr Gaven Kerr Former president Mary McAleese has again taken aim at the issue of infant Baptism. In a recent address, she indicated that she believed that the practice of infant Baptism within the Church is problematic…
Catholic bishops to consecrate Middle East to the Holy Family
Catholic bishops will consecrate the Middle East to the Holy Family on June 27. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem announced details of the act of consecration, which will take place in the Year of St Joseph, in a June 11 letter to his brother bishops. Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa indicated that it would take place during…
Pope to grandparents – ‘you are needed’
Writing to his peers, Catholics who have reached a venerable age like he has, Pope Francis told older Catholics that God is close to them and still has plans for their lives. “I was called to become the Bishop of Rome when I had reached, so to speak, retirement age, and thought I would not…
Supreme Court upholds health care law’s individual mandate
In a 7-2 decision June 17, the US Supreme Court dismissed a challenge to the Affordable Care Act, saying the states that sued over the law did not have the legal right to do so. In the case, California v. Texas, the plaintiffs – 18 Republican states and two individuals – argued that the law’s…
Bioethics centre condemns mandatory Covid vaccination for healthcare workers
The UK’s Anscombe Bioethics Centre has hit out against the UK government’s proposal to make the Covid-19 vaccine mandatory for care home staff and other healthcare workers. The Anscombe Bioethics Centre is the national Catholic bioethics centre for the United Kingdom and Ireland, and is based in Oxford. In a statement, Director David Jones said…
Fans mourn Colombian priest who helped reduce violence at stadiums
A Colombian priest who dedicated years of his life to reducing violence at soccer stadiums died in Bogotá, where he was mourned at a church by hundreds of parishioners, including some wearing jerseys of the city’s two biggest soccer clubs. Msgr Alirio López, 66, was one of the first public personalities in Colombia to address…
The courage to build again on the ruins
Up From the Ashes: A Syrian Doctor’s Story of Sacrifice and Hope by ‘Dr A’ with Samara Levy (Hodder & Stoughton, £16.99/€19.99) Anthony Redmond This is a truly incredible and inspiring story of a Syrian Christian doctor who decided to stay in his country and help as many people as he could after the horrific war…
Vatican Roundup
Pope: Don’t forget workers left on to the margins by pandemic Pope Francis addressed an International Labour Organisation (ILO) summit last Thursday, calling for dignified working conditions and support for workers on the margins of the labour market still affected by pandemic losses. “In 2020, we saw an unprecedented loss of employment all over the…








