Letter from the UK Charles Collins Britain’s foreign secretary says the world should use ‘Christophobia’ to describe anti-Christian persecution and said the UK’s efforts to help persecuted Christians around the world has not always “matched the scale of the problem”. Jeremy Hunt was speaking last Monday during the presentation of a report he commissioned…
Cardinal Paolo Sardi, who served under five Popes, died over the weekend at Gemelli Hospital in Rome after a short illness. The 84-year-old Piem-ontese cardinal had been retired from his work in the Secretariat of State, where he coordinated the office which edits papal speeches and texts. He most recently had served as pro-patron and…
Bishop Liam McDaid, who has “blessed” people with his “wisdom, sense of humour and compassion”, marked 50 years of service in the priesthood over the weekend. Laity and clergy came from across the Diocese of Clogher to celebrate the Mass of Thanksgiving at St Macartan’s Cathedral on Sunday, July 14. Bishop McDaid, from Bundoran, Co.…
The UN Human Rights Council has approved a resolution to launch an investigation into the violent war on drugs taking place in the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte. Approved last Thursday by a narrow margin, the resolution does not go as far as to create a full commission to examine the matter, but instead authorises…
Inés San Martín Nicaragua and Venezuela are continuing to experience turmoil due to popular opposition to their socialist leadership. Both regimes have been accused by prominent leaders of human rights violations, and international organisations ask their governments to be open to dialogue. Venezuela The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, released…
Cardinal Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo said last week that conditions in Venezuela continue to deteriorate under the country’s socialist government. “We are living in an exceptional and unheard-of situation, which is not the result of war, nor of any armed conflict, or any natural catastrophe, and yet which is having similar consequences. The political regime…
Smyllie’s Ireland: Protestants, independence, and the man who ran the Irish Times by Caleb Wood Richardson (Indiana University Press, $85 hb / $35 Pb and e-book) Ian d’Alton This book is a new take on an old subject. Using as a peg the larger-than-life editor of the Irish Times in the 1930s, 40s and early…
A recently introduced bill in Ohio would add scientific information about the development of the unborn child to the state’s public and charter school curriculum. HB 90, known as the ‘Humanity of the Unborn Child’ bill, would direct the state board of education and department of health to create educational programming that “provides accurate, scientifically verifiable…
The Russian Orthodox Church is debating an end to the practice of blessing large scale weapons, including nuclear missiles. Last month, a committee on ecclesial law met in Moscow and recommended ending the practice of blessing missiles and warheads, and suggested that priests should instead bless only individual soldiers and their personal weapons. According to…
Quentin Broughall reflects on Thomas Merton’s relationship with technology and the internet Always a thoughtful and perceptive observer, the American monk and mystic Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was keenly aware that humans’ relationship with technology represented something that could draw them closer to God or push them farther away: “When it comes to those taking…