Restoration work on the tomb of Jesus in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre will be completed in time for the celebration of Easter Sunday, April 16, it has been announced. Following nine months of refurbishment on the Edicule sitting atop the central site of the Christian world, the National Technical University of Athens, which…
Leading Muslim groups and figures in Egypt have denounced the targeting of Christians by so-called Islamic State (ISIS). As Christians continue to flee the Sinai region after seven murders of community members, leaders of religious and political authorities have issued statements in support of their Christian countrymen and critical of the militants. Among them is…
The Catholic bishops of South Sudan have stressed that they are not taking sides in the conflict currently affecting the nation and causing a growing famine. While continuing to denounce violence on all sides which has now reached depraved extremes, the bishops have been at pains to stress that they are “not against the government”…
The bishop whose diocese includes the parish in Medjugorje has reiterated his belief that no apparitions have ever taken place at the site. In the wake of news that Pope Francis has appointed a special delegate to examine the pastoral situation at the famed Bosnia-Herzegovina site, Bishop Ratko Peri of Mostar-Duvno issued a message on…
China has been accused of increasing its interference in some faiths, including Christianity, in a drive to thwart ‘foreign’ religions. According to a new report, ‘The Battle for China’s Spirit’, from Freedom House, a US-based advocacy group for political and human freedoms, China is increasingly acting against followers of Christianity and Islam while at the…
Pope prays for persecuted Christians The prayer intention of Pope Francis for March 2017 is “that persecuted Christians may be supported by the prayers and material help of the whole Church”. In a monthly reflection on the papal prayer intention, the Apostleship of Prayer notes that Pope Francis has asked for special prayers for persecuted…
The voices led by the Catholic Church in the Philippines against the murderous anti-drug tactics of President Rodrigo Duterte gained an important boost last week. On March 2 the international rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) released the results of its own ‘sample study’ into the phenomenon of extrajudicial killings being laid at the door…
Dear Editor, Following the revelations last week that “significant quantities” of human remains had been discovered at the site of the former mother-and-baby home in Tuam, Co. Galway, one could almost hear the deafening noise of knuckle-cracking that resulted from the universal epidemic of hand-wringing that spread throughout the land. “How could this happen?” some…
Darragh McGann Like any audience, a priest has to know his congregation when delivering a homily, writes Darragh McGann For as long as I can remember I have heard people saying that Mass is boring, as an explanation or an excuse for not attending. I was an altar server for eight years and would often…
Felix M. Larkin Ireland’s Allies: America and the 1916 Rising edited by Miriam Nyhan Gray (UCD Press, €40.00) In August 1886, speaking at a gathering of Irish-Americans in Chicago, Michael Davitt said: “It is very easy to establish an Irish republic by patriotic speeches delivered three thousand miles away, but we could not do it…