US President Donald Trump has released a letter addressed to “pro-life leaders and activists” indicating his intention to advance legislative and administrative priorities against abortion if he is elected to a second term. “As I seek re-election this November, I need your help in contrasting my bold pro-life leadership with Joe Biden’s abortion extremism,” Mr Trump’s…
Pro-life advocates have been asked to create a flag for the movement which is open to pro-life designers around the world. Irish pro-life group The Life Institute has partnered with the Pro-Life Flag Project, an initiative aimed at facilitating the creation of a universal, freely-reproducible pro-life flag. Niamh Uí Bhriain of The Life Institute said…
Bishop Donal McKeown has said that correcting someone is meant to help people, “not nourish my spiritual ego”. In a homily delivered in St Eugene’s Cathedral, Co. Derry, over the weekend, Bishop McKeown spoke about Church community and the challenges of a culture that does not forgive. He said: “John the Baptist, Jesus and the…
Pamela Seal The entire five-parish region of the Diocese of Lake Charles was impacted by Hurricane Laura’s brutal wrath of destruction as the Category 4 storm made landfall along the Gulf Coast in the early morning hours of August 27. But through it all, Bishop Glen John Provost never left the diocese. Churches and rectories…
Catholic leaders in the US have welcomed the news that one of the world’s biggest vaccine producers has decided to discontinue a polio vaccine derived from an abortion foetal cell line. Sanofi-Pasteur will instead use an ethical animal cell line in the production of its polio vaccine. The company, among the three largest vaccine manufacturers…
Ed Condon Next month, the 2018 Vatican-China deal expires. Those close to the negotiations, both in Rome and in Beijing, now confidently predict a one-year extension to the two-year deal to be agreed. But while the last two years have failed to deliver any measurable progress on the Vatican’s priorities, the status quo of all-dialogue-and-no-delivery…
A group of Catholics in southern India has accused Bangalore Archdiocese of being party to a multi-million dollar financial scam linked to overseas donations. Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore denied the allegations and said he was ready to face any probe. All Karnataka Catholic Christian Association (AKCCA) accused the archdiocese-owned Asha Charitable Trust of misappropriating some three billion…
Conversations with René Girard. Prophet of Envy edited by Cynthia L. Haven (Bloomsbury Academic, £65.00 hb/£21.99 pb and Kindle) Frank Litton René Girard (1923-2015), the French literary historian and philosopher long resident in the United States, has been described as one of the 20th Century’s most original and important thinkers. It is hard to disagree, for his…
The Ideal Diplomat: Women and Irish foreign affairs, 1946-90 by Ann Marie O’Brien (Four Courts Press, €45.00/£40.00) Joe Carroll Josephine McNeill was the first woman to head an Irish diplomatic mission abroad when appointed Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to the newly-opened legation in the Hague in 1949. Three years later in a letter to Seán Nunan,…
Pope Francis calls for solidarity at first audience with pilgrims after lockdown In his first Wednesday audience with pilgrims since Italy’s lockdown, Pope Francis has called for solidarity to reawaken unity and bring God’s love to a suffering world. “In the midst of crises and storms, the Lord challenges us and invites us to reawaken…