Recommendations given to Health Minister Simon Harris calling for ‘safe access zones’ which would make it illegal to hold vigils outside places that provide abortion have been dubbed “absurd” by the Life Institute. Director of the institute, Niamh Uí Bhriain said the Irish Council for Civil Liberties position on safe access zones is “nonsensical”. “The…
Homo Lapsus: Sin Evolution and the God who is Love by Niamh Middleton(Deep River Books, $US14.99; available through Amazon UK, £11.53) Fr Joseph McCann CM Darwin’s evolution poses the most powerful challenge to belief in God and Creation and Salvation. Evolution explains human existence as a scientifically determined process, so there is no…
Mount Trenchard Direct Provision Centre in Co. Limerick will close at the end of February. It was previously highlighted by Doras Director John Lannon that people in the centre had little access to faith and were living in unsuitable living conditions. On Friday, January 10, 14 residents were transferred to Ennis, Co. Clare with the…
Knock Counselling Centre are launching a programme to help prevent and treat anxiety in young people and adolescents. The ‘Cool Kids’ programme, available for the first time in Ireland, is run over eight to ten sessions and teaches children aged 7-17 and their parents how to better manage the child’s anxiety. Peter Devers, Senior Psychotherapist said: “The programme supports participants in learning about their feelings, worries and anxieties…
Pope prays for Ukrainian plane crash victims Pope Francis has offered his prayers for the souls of the 176 passengers of a Ukrainian International Airlines flight, who died when the plane crashed near Tehran, Iran last week. The crash took place on January 8, approximately 10 minutes after the plane took off from Imam Khomeini…
Notebook Fr Bernard Healy I always tell visitors to Rome that they should rise early on at least one morning to visit St Peter’s Basilica when it opens, because that’s when it attracts pilgrims rather than tourists. So it was that I met an American friend and her family there just as the bells were…
Dear Editor, Fr Ron Rolheiser’s article (IC 09/01/20) about proofs for the existence of God makes an interesting reading. Obviously, proof of the existence of God will not be found on a sheet of paper and so his article is flawed in that respect. God will not be found either among the intellectuals and the…
Through the looking glass Lewis Carroll’s works will be reimagined this January as the Sligo Hospital Musical Society presents their 23rd annual pantomime. This band of talented HSE employees has donated almost €200,000 to local Sligo charities from show proceeds. This year brings their first ever pantomime sequel following on from the successful 2014 Alice…
Mexican priest hospitalised after being shot four times A Mexican priest who had been kidnapped is in hospital in serious condition after having been discovered on the side of a highway with four gunshot wounds. Fr Roly Candelario Piña Camacho, a Piarist priest from the Diocese of Tlaxcala, was found wounded on the side of…
Irish Anglicanism 1969-2019: Essays to mark the 150th Anniversary of the Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland edited by Kenneth Milne & Paul Harron(Four Courts Press, €24.95) Robert Marshall In 1970, to mark the centenary of its disestablishment, a volume of essays edited by Fr Michael Hurley SJ was generously presented by 17 ecumenical essayists…