Minister for Health announces the allocation strategy for COVID-19 vaccines The strategy prioritises those over the age of 65 living in long-term care facilities, frontline healthcare workers who are in direct patient contact and those aged 70 and over. Minister Stephen Donnelly also announced that there should be no barrier to people accessing a vaccine,…
Dear Editor, It was sad to hear of the closing of Clonard Monastery Confraternity for Men who are now losing ‘their sense of identity and belonging’ as Catholics. Will this leave the Catholic Church with no outreach to men at all? Men in our congregations have become almost an endangered species and as for young…
Benedict XVI has not lost his voice says Archbishop Gänswein Archbishop Georg Gänswein has denied media reports that Benedict XVI has lost his voice. The Austrian Catholic news agency Kathpress reported December 4 that Benedict XVI’s personal secretary had confirmed that the 93-year-old Pope emeritus was still able to speak clearly. Reports had circulated in…
Chai Brady and Jason Osborne Healthcare chaplains have said they hope the roll-out of the coronavirus vaccine will be the beginning of a new era of hope for patients and the wider community. A nurse in Belfast became the first person on the island of Ireland to get the vaccine on Tuesday – the feastday…
Rather than cease operations in the face of this pandemic, Youth 2000 increased our ministry with young people writes Róisín O’Rourke One summer several years ago, I attended one of my first Youth 2000 retreats down in Clonmacnoise. It was Saturday evening during the healing and reconciliation service and I had received the Sacrament of…
The Vatican announced December 7 that Pope Francis will travel to Iraq in March 2021. He will be the first Pope to ever visit the country, which is still recovering from the devastation inflicted by the Islamic State. The four-day papal trip to Iraq March 5-8 will include stops in Baghdad, Erbil and Mosul. It…
We should urge both health authorities and pharmaceutical companies to make available vaccines in no way tainted by abortion and tissue collection, writes Dr Helen Watt Covid-19 vaccines have been hailed as the cavalry appearing on the skyline to save us all from a pandemic that, in combination with alarmed responses, has devastated countries around the…
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered an investigation into the forced conversion of women and girls from the country’s religious minorities, drawing praise from Christian aid groups. Christian Concern International Christian Concern, a group that advocates for persecuted Christians, said December 3 that many of the victims of forced marriages in Pakistan are minors,…
The Catholic leaders of the Holy Land are demanding an investigation into an attempted arson attack at a basilica located near the Garden of Gethsemane. The Basilica of the Agony, located on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem next to the Garden of Gethsemane, is also known as the Church of All Nations. It houses…
Letter from Jordan Dale Gavlak The worsening coronavirus pandemic and economic conditions in Syria are further deepening poverty and hardship for Christians, who find themselves trapped in a political stalemate, religious freedom advocates say. “The situation is becoming worse, people are calling me every day and asking for help. I speak with people in Aleppo,…