Farm deaths leave ‘cavern of darkness’ Farm deaths and accidents leave a “cavern of darkness” for those they affect, Bishop Denis Nulty said during an ecumenical prayer gathering on June 25. Accidents cause “devastation to families and farms”, the bishop of Kildare and Leighlin said at the 10th ecumenical remembrance service in Abbeyleix. “The more…
A number of years ago I was giving a retreat to priests in the USA. Most of them had been born in Ireland and had spent all of their priesthood in various dioceses. They are what used to be known in the Church in America as FBIs (foreign born Irish), to distinguish them from those…
Papal peace envoy journeys to Moscow Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi met with a Kremlin foreign policy adviser during the peace mission he is making to Moscow on Pope Francis’s behalf. Archbishop Giovanni d’Aniello, the apostolic nuncio to Russia, told reporters June 29 that the mission Pope Francis entrusted to Cardinal Zuppi “is to identify and…
Catholics in Honduras prayed for the victims of a horrific massacre in a women’s prison – an attack underscoring the power of the country’s criminal gangs and their control over correctional facilities. Many Catholic clergy expressed outrage while demanding an overhaul of the country’s prison system. “Tragedy repeats itself,” tweeted Bishop Ángel Garachana of San…
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he will speak with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega about releasing a jailed Nicaraguan bishop currently serving a 26-year prison sentence. Speaking to reporters in Rome June 22, a day after meeting with Pope Francis, the Brazilian president, commonly referred to as Lula, said there is “no reason…
The summer solstice was a scorching day in the golf club of Birr, Co. Offaly this year. A golf team tournament was held to raise awareness for vocations to the diocesan priesthood, called ‘Play for Vocations.’ This event was part of the ‘Year of Vocations’ to the diocesan priesthood that was instituted two months ago…
400-year-old church emerges from the waters in Mexico Due to an intense heat wave and drought that has spread throughout various parts of Mexico, a more than 400-year-old Catholic church has completely emerged from the waters in the state of Chiapas. The church of the disappeared town of San Juan Quechula, dedicated to the apostle…
Barb Fraze A bishop in north central India urged Catholics throughout the nation to spend time before the Blessed Sacrament for seven days to help end the worsening ethnic violence in Manipur, a state in the country’s northeast, bordering Myanmar. The situation “is worsening day by day in Manipur … it’s literally burning,” Bishop Chacko…
Ireland’s newest bishop has said that the synodal path inaugurated by Pope Francis is an opportunity for the Church to become more participatory. Speaking after his ordination in St Mel’s Cathedral in Longford on Sunday, Bishop Paul Connell, new Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnois, said: “Placing our faith and trust in God involves, above all,…
The Sunday Gospel, Deacon Greg Kandra Jer 20:10-13 Ps 69:8-10, 14, 17, 33-35 Rom 5:12-15 Mt 10:26-33 How is your Ordinary Time going? After the intensity of Lent and the jubilation of Easter we may think this period is relatively uneventful, but think again. On the 12th Sunday of a time we call “ordinary,” we find ourselves…