People of Faith are underrepresented on TV, but a new US comedy show about a man who tries to live in line with Bible values hopes to change that, according to its executive producer Johnny Galecki. Mr Galecki, 42, who plays physicist Leonard Hofstadter on The Big Bang Theory, says Living Biblically, which premiered on CBS on February…
Iraqi Catholic leaders are urging Christians to remain steadfast this Lenten season as they encounter challenges of the so-called Islamic State›s legacy. In a Lenten pastoral letter, Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad urged Iraqi Christians to pursue unity with other Christians at this sacred time with “open hearts”. “Many Christians today live in…
Christians in China’s central Henan province have been banned from displaying religious couplets over Chinese New Year. Government officials visited villages and towns to deliver notices ordering people not to follow a practice that has become a tradition during the festival. Local Catholics are concerned that a new round of religious oppression is aimed at the province. With black…
The Rev. Billy Graham, a fiery Baptist preacher who was easily the most famous evangelist of the 20th Century and for decades one of the world figures most admired by Americans, died earlier this month at his home in Montreat. He was 99. He had suffered from Parkinson’s disease for many years, although he continued…
The widespread practice of Catholics receiving communion in the hand while standing up is part of Satan’s attack on the Church, the head of the Vatican department dealing with liturgy has said. In the preface to a book on the subject, Cardinal Robert Sarah lamented the lack of reverence for the Blessed Sacrament, saying this…
The Family Tree: Reflections for the World Meeting of Families 2018 by Anna Burke (Veritas, €7.99) Emily Keyes The World Meeting of Families, which comes to Dublin in August, is an international event occurring every three years that uses prayer, celebration and catechesis to stress the importance of family life in society. In preparation Anne Burke…
Richard Fitzgerald has spent a lifetime looking through his camera lens with a dedicated eye. His latest book is Dark Ireland: Images of a lost world. Richard says: “the photographs in this book happened because of my upbringing in rural Ireland; it is a world I knew intimately before emigration was forced upon me. In the years following my departure, I became…
Dictatorland: The Men Who Stole Africa by Paul Kenyon (Head of Zeus, £17) Peter Hegarty Many millions of Africans have lived under tyrants, endured long years of oppression, and watched in enraged impotence as the dictators squandered public money on the erection of grandiose monuments to themselves. What explains the rise of strongmen in so many…
Dear Editor, Bishop Sorondo’s recent statement: “Right now, those who are best implementing the social doctrine of the Church are the Chinese” focuses fresh attention on the said “social doctrine”. Does the said “doctrine” embrace the detention of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, forced abortions, a regime that ties religion to extremism and terrorism, subjecting…
A festival for the whole family One of Dublin’s most inclusive and creative community events, The Five Lamps Arts Festival, will be shining a light on the north inner city’s unique arts, culture and social life. The Festival centres around and takes its name from the ‘Five Lamps’ – a decorated lamppost with five lanterns…