Dear Editor, I wonder if Laurena O’Donoghue (Letters 12/05/16) is aware of the profound implications for the use of special bread for coelics at Mass? In order to avail of this proposed accommodation one has to refuse the sacred host in the first place as a harmful substance. Is this an oversight which Christ wasn’t…
Dear Editor, The findings of a current survey undertaken by British Social Attitudes shows that, in 2014, 48.5% of Britons say they are of ‘no religion’ – almost doubling the 25% statistic found in 2011. According to an analysis of the survey by St Mary’s Catholic University in Twickenham, the Anglican church in Britain is…
The legalisation of surrogacy would be “the final blow” against the family in Italian law, the head of Italy’s bishops’ conference has said, saying surrogacy “exploits the female body” and profits from the poverty of women. Addressing members of the bishops’ conference, Genoa’s Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco said under a new law civil unions are implicitly…
Dave Feeney from Summerhill College, Sligo, presenting the papal nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown, with a picture of the ancient monastic settlement of Innishmurry, taken by past pupil Ciaran McHugh, at the blessing of the Bishop Christopher Jones Learning Centre, a new art extension for students with autism. Photo: Karl Brennan
The Rising. Ireland: Easter 1916 by Fearghal McGarry (Oxford University Press, £20hb) Joe Carroll This is a special ‘centenary edition’ of Dr McGarry’s book which was first published in 2010 and earned the accolade then as “the finest account yet of the 1916 Rising”. Since then, new books on the Rising are almost overflowing from Eason’s bookshop…
Happiness is not an ‘app’ that can be downloaded, while freedom and our true value can never be bought, Pope Francis has reminded thousands of teenagers. In a homily to a crowd of about 100,000 people gathered for a special Year of Mercy event for youths aged 13 to 16, the Pope urged the assembled…
Religion misused in Brazilian standoff Brazilian Christian leaders have expressed concern about how many members of the country’s Chamber of Deputies invoked religion when voting on April 17 to impeach President Dilma Rousseff. Carlos Moura, executive secretary of the Brazilian bishops’ Justice and Peace Commission, said the commission experienced “an overwhelming feeling of embarrassment and dissatisfaction over the words…
The Archdiocese of New York has rejected allegations that it had been planning to smear the Catholic journalist Michael Voris. Mr Voris, the editor of ChurchMilitant.com, claimed that the archdiocese had been collecting information about his personal life before he became a Catholic “with the aim of publicly discrediting me, this apostolate and the work…
Britain’s House of Commons has voted to declare that a genocide is underway against Christians, Yazidis and others in Syria and Iraq. The vote, by 278 votes to zero, marks the first time the House of Commons has declared a genocide while it was taking place. The motion, moved by Fiona Bruce MP, recognised that…
The four Missionaries of Charity sisters murdered in Yemen last month were models for all Christians, the Auxiliary Bishop of Nairobi has said. Speaking in the Kenyan capital’s Holy Family Basilica at a requiem mass for the souls of India’s Sr Mary Anselm, Rwanda’s Sr Mary Marguerite and Sr Mary Reginette, and Kenya’s Sr Mary…