The lack of stable government and uncertainty around Brexit are contributing to a climate of uncertainty in which young people in the North can be drawn into paramilitary and other criminal activity, a Belfast-based priest has said. “We need politicians to resolve their present disagreements and this impasse. We need stable government here again,” Fr…
Bishops and other Catholic Church education interests have expressed their dismay and opposition to the current proposals outlined by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), which could weaken the status of religion in the primary school curriculum. The NCCA proposed to have two categories of time allocation, 60% for a minimum State curriculum…
A programme called ‘The Family Tree’ has been launched in conjunction with Catholic Schools Week, and aims to encourage participants to learn more about family and its importance. Developed by the Society of African Missions (SMA) the four-week programme emphasises that although families are unique, they all have the same roots and branches. Using the…
The annual Divine Mercy Conference – which regularly attracts thousands of people to Dublin’s RDS – is to step it up a gear this year with the addition of a special programme aimed at attracting younger Catholics. Hosted in St Paul’s Church, Arran Quay, Dublin, on Friday February 16, the event aims to highlight the…
With the World Meeting of Families 2018 (WMOF2018) fast approaching the countdown has begun as parishes make plans to celebrate the historic occasion from August 21 to 26, now just months away. It’s been just under 40 years since a Pope has visited Ireland, and hopes are high that Pope Francis will be able to…
Hopeful Hopkins, essays by Desmond Egan (The Goldsmith Press, €20.00) Noel Barber SJ In these essays, Desmond Egan sets himself a clear goal: to correct the image of Fr Gerard Manley Hopkins as a “sick and self-lacerating person” and to present “the energetic, witty and hope filled” person that existed alongside the “physically frail, hypersensitive, nervous…
Pope Francis emphasised that remembering the Holocaust helps us overcome “so many deplorable forms of apathy towards our neighbour” in a speech at a conference in Rome. Addressing participants of the Rome International Conference on Responsibility of States Institutions and Individuals in the Fight against Anti-Semitism in the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe…
Pope Francis has recognised the martyrdom of a bishop, seven trappist monks and 11 other religious men and women killed by extremists in Algeria in the 1990s. The 19 men and women died between 1993 and 1996, while Algeria was locked in a 10-year-long armed conflict between government forces and Islamist rebel groups; the conflict…
A US cardinal has called for prayers for the victims killed and injured in a pair of school shootings in Kentucky and Texas. After the second shooting in two days, Cardinal DiNardo, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Christians experience the pain of the family and friends of the victims “as if…
American singer Joy Villa who made a clear pro-life statement at Sunday’s Grammy Awards ceremony in New York, when the 31-year old appeared in a customised white gown upon which she had hand-painted the image of a foetus radiating rainbow colours, accessorised with a small white bag bearing the message ‘Choose life.’