Staff Reporter An Irish priest has been tapped by Pope Francis to take over the Vatican’s dialogue with the worldwide Anglican Communion. Fr Martin Browne OSB, a monk of Glenstal Abbey, will shortly take up the appointment in the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity The Irish Catholic can reveal. It is a key time…
Staff reporter The number of Catholic marriages in the North returned to near pre-pandemic levels in 2021, statistics from the Registrar General’s annual report show. Some 2,205 Catholic marriages took place in Northern Ireland in 2021, significantly more than the 844 in 2020 and on par with the 2,216 in 2019. Catholic marriages made up…
Staff reporter Europe has been warned to be “careful” to ensure member states, respect access to abortion following the election of Italy’s likely new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Ms Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party won the most votes in Italy’s snap-election on Sunday, with Ms Meloni saying they would “govern for everyone” and wouldn’t betray…
Staff reporter Senator Ronán Mullen launched an Oireachtas essay competition on the theme “Parliamentary Politics Matter” for second-level students in Leinster House, September 22. Speaking at the launch, Senator Mullen warned that Ireland faces a time when “many people are wondering about the quality of our politics and the future of democracy itself”. He hoped…
Staff Reporter The Sisters of Mercy will maintain their presence on the board of trustees of Mary Immaculate College, the sisters have told The Irish Catholic. A spokesperson for the sisters confirmed that the order will continue its almost 125-year involvement in the Catholic third-level institute. It comes as speculations circulated that the sisters, who…
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Vatican News reported. While the Vatican press office issued no statement regarding Cardinal Parolin’s September 22 meeting, the Russian foreign ministry tweeted a video of the two officials shaking hands and exchanging…
Chai Brady, Ruadhán Jones and Jason Osborne Catholic schools have welcomed moves in the budget to ease the cost-of-living crisis. The Government announced on Tuesday that schoolbooks will now be provided by the State at a cost of €43m which is expected to save families €100 per child. There is also more funding for special…
The dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua has expelled the Religious Sisters of the Cross, thus continuing its attacks against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua. “Today, victims of the harassment and threats of the dictatorship, the Religious Sisters of the Cross (founded in Mexico) who had been in Matagalpa for years doing spiritual work…
In the aftermath of the fire that gutted a church in Cameroon, Bishop Aloysius Fondong of the Diocese of Mamfé entered the ruins to retrieve the Blessed Sacrament and found the sacred Hosts and the ciborium containing them to be intact. On the night of September 16, armed men set fire to St Mary’s church…
Strong education key to ‘better world,’ cardinal tells UN summit During a UN education summit, the Vatican’s secretary of state reiterated Pope Francis’ pre-pandemic call that education is “one of the most effective ways of making our work and history more human”. Addressing the final day of the Transforming Education Summit September 19, Cardinal Pietro…