Dear Editor, Breda O’Brien and Greg Daly’s articles on Pope Francis’ ruling that henceforth Catholics should regard the death penalty as ‘inadmissible’ (IC 9/8/2018) show just how natural a development this is in Catholic teaching, and show too how absurd it is that a handful of vociferous Catholics are complaining about this. Absurd? What other…
Pat O’Kelly Enthusiastic reviews greeted Co. Tipperary soprano Jennifer Davis following her recent Covent Garden debut as Elsa of Brabant in Wagner’s Lohengrin. Latvian diva Kristine Opolais was the scheduled Elsa in this new production that opened in June, but she withdrew from the staging relatively close to opening night. Jennifer Davis, who is…
The Notebook Fr Vincent Sherlock I met him in a hotel in Rome. “What do you think of Rome?” I asked him. “I don’t like it,” he replied, “it’s too hot and I find it hard to get used to the food”.w He told me he was there because his daughter was getting married…
10 commandments for driving to Knock Mayo County Council has issued ‘10 Commandments of Road Safety’ for pilgrims planning on joining the Pope at Knock Shrine later this month. With 45,000 people due to join Pope Francis at the shrine on August 26, Mayo council has encouraged people to travel to Knock by public transport, but have advised the 91%…
Matthew Carlson explores the rise and recession of Belfast’s Poor Clares Nuns are often portrayed in popular media as frail, silent and hidden away from the rest of the world, but the profound story of one religious order in Ireland has flipped that paradigm on its head. The Poor Clares in Belfast were a…
The principles of Humanae Vitae, Blessed Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical on the regulation of birth, have been “ignored for too long”, Elphin’s Bishop Kevin Doran has said, with the Church needing to present them “in a fresh way, in contemporary language and in an appropriate context”. Opening a Nazareth Family Institute-organised conference in Dublin to…
Prayers are being offered after almost 100 people have been confirmed dead after a magnitude-6.9 earthquake struck Indonesia’s Lombok Island on August 5, a week after another powerful quake killed more than a dozen people. The country’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency said more than 200 people were injured in the latest quake, which also jolted…
Paul Jeffrey A US physician who has won accolades for his service in a war-torn corner of Sudan said he has just done what any missionary is called to do. “I’m a lay missionary. We’re supposed to show the face of Christ to people, but how can you do that if you take off when…
China’s nine major religious organisations want all religious sites across the country to raise the national flag on special days to reflect patriotism and sinicisation. But some Catholics claim the initiative aims to force religious people to be patriotic. “Is it necessary to train believers to hold the ritual of raising the national flag and to…
Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, has apologised for failing to be more transparent about a pastor removed from ministry and sent to treatment last year because the priest had developed “an emotionally inappropriate, non-sexual relationship with a 19-year-old male which involved alcohol”. He sent Fr Charles Townsend, pastor of St Peter Parish in Lincoln,…