Carol Glatz To help parishes, groups, individuals and families better prepare for the World Meeting of Families, Vatican organizers are releasing a multimedia series of catechetical materials in five languages online. The Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life announced that starting February 2, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, it would…
Pope Francis apologised to victims of clergy sex abuse, saying he unknowingly wounded them by the way he defended a Chilean bishop accused of covering up abuse by his mentor. Speaking with journalists on his flight to Rome from Lima, Peru, the Pope said he only realised later that his words erroneously implied that victims’…
Hundreds of thousands of people gathered across the US on Friday for the annual March for Life, with this year’s theme being ‘Love Saves Lives’. The march marks the US Supreme courts decision in 1973 to legalise abortion. President Donald Trump made a very public show of support for the campaign with his address to…
Fishermen held a fluvial procession in the southern Philippine city of General Santos in Mindanao to honour the Santo Nino, or the Child Jesus. At least 200 fishing vessels of all sizes took part in the procession, an annual event that started 40 years ago to show thanks to the Lord for the bounty people get…
Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan had a great interest in monasteries and loved to listen to monks chanting Vespers, it was said during her funeral homily. Fr Liam McNamara said that he first met the late musician in 1989 when she was playing a keyboard and singing with the choir of the Church of St Ailbe.…
The decision to invite Scotland’s First Minister of State to speak at a major lecture focusing on Catholic education was defended by a native bishop following criticism from pro-life advocates. The 2019 Cardinal Winning Lecture is held after Catholic education week each year, however this year marks the Centenary of the Catholic Education Scotland Act…
Church leaders in South Sudan and Congo wonder if they have laboured in vain because too often their own people are waging war against each other, a Sudanese priest said during a meeting of hundreds of men and women from dozens of religious orders. The root of the conflict, Fr Maurice Ibiko said, is “the…
All faiths must protect Jerusalem’s current status Christians, Muslims and Jews who are sincere about their faith must be committed to protecting the special character of Jerusalem and to praying and working for peace in the Holy Land, Pope Francis wrote in a letter to the grand imam of Egypt’s al-Azhar University. Only a special, internationally guaranteed statute on the status…
A leading theologian has rejected claims that Catholics are significantly over-represented among trainee primary teachers. The claim follows research from NUI Galway’s School of Education, which found that 90% of surveyed respondents who entered Irish primary teacher education programmes identified as Catholic, with just under half of these attending religious services at least once a…
Fall Out: A Year of Political Mayhem by Tim Shipman (William Collins, £25) Peter Hegarty This year will test Theresa May. She must somehow get a good deal for Britain, the weaker negotiating partner, in talks with an increasingly assertive EU. In an impeccably-sourced account of her premiership Tim Shipman, the political editor of the Sunday…