The grounds of Clonard Monastery in Belfast are about to undergo an “aesthetically pleasing” transformation, as the decades-old barbed wire on top of the exterior walls are to be replaced with a pallet-style fence. The barbed wire, which was added to the walls during the Troubles in order to protect the Redemptorist community who live…
Award-winning British writer Jimmy McGovern has revealed that he wanted to portray priests in a positive light in his latest hit show as a tribute to hard-working clerics. Broken – which is currently airing on BBC television – tells the story of Fr Michael, a priest working in a deprived community who works to help…
Over 1,000 British doctors and medical students have publicly opposed efforts to persuade the British Medical Association (BMA) to back abortion up to birth. Ahead of the association’s annual representative meeting, the doctors and students have signed a letter to Dr Anthea Mowat, the doctors’ union representative body chairwoman, warning that plans to decriminalise abortion…
Time is running out to solve Venezuela’s problems, two former Latin American leaders have announced, calling for the international community to follow the Vatican’s lead in tackling the crisis. Speaking in the Vatican, Bolivia’s former president Jorge Quiroga said that President Nicolas Maduro’s attempts to “put a group of his friends in what is called…
Campaigns by the ethnic Gorkha people for a separate homeland in the Darjeeling area of eastern India are based in real grievances, according to the local Church. The area has witnessed violent clashes since June 8, and although Darjeeling’s Bishop Stephen Lepcha said: “The Church is not directly involved in the protest,” he has added,…
Recognising that “all people are born with inherent equal dignity and worth and have a fundamental right to life” is at the heart of human rights, the Vatican’s UN nuncio has said. Speaking to Latin American leaders at the Organisation of American States’ general assembly, Archbishop Bernardito Auza voiced concerns over how “the right to…
The reported desecration of a Catholic chapel in the Philippines by terrorist gunmen has been condemned “in the strongest terms possible” by Cotabato’s Cardinal Orlando Quevedo. About 300 members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, an ISIS-affiliated group known as BIFF, attacked Pigcawayan town on June 21, displacing about 1,700 people and destroying religious images…
Zambia’s president is guilty of intimidating opponents and silencing the media, according to the head of the Zambian Catholic bishops’ conference and other religious leaders in the east African country. Describing the country as being at a crossroads as it faces “many challenges related to governance, the muzzling of people’s freedoms and human rights violations”,…
Dear Editor, The recent media and political reports about the young pregnant mother detained under the Mental Health Act 2001 show a large lack of knowledge of what suicidal ideation is and how mental health law works around it. If any person arrives to A&E in an actively suicidal state they are assessed quickly and…
Encountering Jesus by Pat Collins CM (New Life, £10.99; orders@goodnewsbooks.co.uk; ISBN 978 1 90362312-1) The author will be known to many readers not only for his earlier books, but as one of those who helped in recent years to establish the Alpha Course in Ireland. He is a founder member of the New Springtime evangelising…