The Sunday Gospel Fr Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap. Today’s Gospel (Matthew 22:1-14) is a parable about an invitation to a wedding, not just any wedding, but the royal wedding of the king’s son. In Michelangelo’s famous fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the finger of God is reaching towards Adam drawing him into…
Dear Editor, I was getting a little bit concerned about our former president Mary McAleese. It had been several weeks since I had heard her quoted predicting the demise of the Catholic Church. She was clearly keeping her powder dry for a few weeks to maximise publicity for a new book. Her training as a…
EXCLUSIVE Chai Brady, Jason Osborne and Ruadhán Jones Three times as many priests have died in Ireland at the height of the coronavirus pandemic compared to the same period over the last three years, The Irish Catholic can reveal. The figures were most stark when comparing April to previous years, with 36 deaths this year…
Catholic leaders and academics have voiced their support following President Donald Trump’s nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the vacant seat on the US Supreme Court. Tributes to the Catholic judge and nominee followed Ms Barrett’s official presentation in the White House Rose Garden Saturday evening, after a week of speculation that she was…
The chairman of the US bishops’ pro-life committee applauded President Donald Trump’s signing the ‘Born Alive Executive Order’ to ensure babies born alive receive care. The order, which Mr Trump signed the evening of September 25, means “babies born prematurely or with disabilities receive a basic medical assessment and appropriate care as required by our federal laws”, said Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann…
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has highlighted the uncertainty surrounding staff cuts and the provision of safeguarding courses due to Covid-19 in a letter to mark Dublin Diocesan Safeguarding Day 2020. Dr Martin said that the archdiocese of Dublin must consider how best to maintain safeguarding as a priority while facing the challenges Covid-19 presents. “You will…
Researchers at an Australian think tank have found that re-education camps for Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region have expanded in the past year, despite government claims that most detainees had been released. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute said in a September 24 report that it had “identified and mapped more than 380 suspected detention facilities in the…
Expert children’s bookseller and debut author, Lorraine Levis releases a manual for parents and educators to help children develop a love of reading Of everything in this book, the opinion I express here could be one of the most controversial … I think children should play more video games. I hope you will stick with…
The Identitarians: The Movement against Globalism and Islam in Europe by José Pedro Zúquete (University of Notre Dame Press, £32.00/$39.00) Frank Litton We live in an age of adjectives. While going back over past controversies, it is hard not to note how often adjectives are deployed to deflect, or halt argument. The commentariat are less concerned…
Germany’s Catholic bishops agreed this week to a uniform system for compensation payments to abuse survivors. Bishop Georg Bätzing, president of the German bishops’ conference, announced the agreement September 24 at the end of the bishops’ plenary meeting in Fulda, central Germany. Under the new system, survivors of abuse by Church workers will be entitled…