Three years after taking in 2-year-old Inimffon Uwamobong and her younger brother, Sister Matylda Iyang finally heard from the mother who had abandoned them. “Their mother came back and told me that she (Inimffon) and her younger sibling are witches, asking me to throw them out of the convent,” said Sister Iyang, who oversees the…
Toddlers could hardly contain their excitement as they danced in the church aisles to the Holy Missionary Choir’s Christmas songs during a celebration that was a bright star of hope for Iraqi Syriac Catholic refugee families. While the little ones are too young to know their ancestral roots, Christmas memories for their parents are those…
Art teacher defends Vatican’s much-maligned nativity scene Since it was unveiled last Friday, the Vatican’s nativity scene in St Peter’s Square has elicited diverse reactions on social media, many of them strongly negative. “So the Vatican presepe has been unveiled….turns out 2020 could get worse…” wrote art historian Elizabeth Lev in a post that went viral on…
Religious schools must accept ‘gender identity’, LGBT activists tell Biden A leading LGBT activist group is calling for the Biden administration to create accreditation regulations of religious schools that would enforce acceptance of so-called transgender rights. The pro-LGBT Human Rights Campaign (HRC) issued its list of policy priorities for the incoming Biden administration, The Daily…
Dear Editor, As all Christians know the birth of the baby Jesus is the reason for the festive season. Indeed without Christ there would be no Christmas. However, our society has now become so secular that Jesus is increasingly not invited to his own birthday party. How can so called Christians send a secular Christmas…
Some of our regular reviewers select the book or books they most enjoyed or were impressed by over the course of the last year… TJ Morrissey SJ The most interesting book of the year for me was Paul: A Biography, by Tom Wright (SPCK Publishing, £19.99). The author is recognised as one of St Paul’s…
Pope Francis’ “hugely significant” declaration of 2021 as ‘The Year of St Joseph’ has been “warmly welcomed” by Fr Richard Gibbons of Knock Shrine. Fr Gibbons said that the announcement is especially significant in the context of the pandemic. Fr Gibbons said that St Joseph “invites us to place all our prayers and intercessions in…
Antrim GAA kicked off St Vincent de Paul’s Christmas fundraising appeal with a traditional music evening raising £8,307.38 from an original target of £5,000. In previous years their Christmas #SaffronAid Appeal has been supported by clubs across the county providing St Vincent de Paul with 5,000 shoeboxes but, due to the pandemic, the traditional form…
When we no longer see the natural world as something to be nurtured; the powerful seize and extract all they can from it while putting nothing back, writes Pope Francis In times of crisis and tribulation, when we are shaken out of our sclerotic habits, the love of God comes out to purify us, to…
Bishop Donal McKeown has launched a year-long celebration to mark St Columba’s 1500th birthday with Mass at the church named for the saint in Long Tower, Derry. Children from local schools joined remotely. In his homily, Bishop McKeown urged people to see St Columba as a role model. He pointed out that the main Christian…