One of Spain’s most famous churches does not belong to the Catholic Church, local authorities have ruled. According to a report from Córdoba city council’s secretary general, Valeriano Lavela, the city’s mosque-cathedral, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, the ownership of which the diocese of Córdoba paid €30 to register in 2006, is…
UN should remove obstacles for HIV and AIDs sufferers The Vatican has called in the United Nations for more attention to systemic obstacles that prevent people living with HIV and AIDs from vindicating their rights to health care, treatment and support. Addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Msgr Richard Gyhra said “among the challenges experienced by member states is the…
Dear Editor, As the debate around Catholic schools rumbles on, the Church should surely be doing more to quash unnecessary concerns? As research recently conducted by The Irish Catholic proved (IC 11/02/2016), Catholic schools are far from oversubscribed, let alone turning away children who don’t hold baptismal certificates. In fact, many Catholic schools, particularly in…
Dear Editor, With the recent awards season (Oscars, BAFTAs etc.) I propose we strike a medal and award it to The Irish Catholic TV/radio critic, Brendan O’Regan. His tireless dedication in having to listen to hours of guff, propaganda and filth that most of our broadcasters spew out on the airwaves, deserves some recognition. Recently…
Dear Editor, How wonderful to read your report that male classroom assistants are having a positive influence on the exam results achieved by boys in St Paul’s High School in Bressbrook, Co. Armagh (IC 10/03/2016 ‘Classroom ‘father figures’ behind exam results boost’). It reminded me of the phrase ‘one good adult’ and the positive influence…
Dear Editor, Dr Eamon Phoenix’s dismissal as “simplistic” attempts to link the Rising centenary with dissident violence in the North (IC 10/03/2016) is both reassuring and persuasive. Even in 1966, at a time when Catholics in the North were denied some basic civil rights, the Rising’s 50th anniversary provoked little republican violence, the destruction of…
Dear Editor, We are only a few months into the ‘Year of Mercy’, but I think it is already safe to say that it has been a huge success. So many other special years have passed with little effort being made in the Irish Church to publicise or mark them in anyway. This jubilee year…
Dear Editor, As Mother Teresa is to be canonised this September and with the forthcoming threat to the Eighth Amendment in Ireland, it is timely to remind people what she said in the Noble Lecture having been awarded the Noble Peace prize in 1979. “I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because…
Dear Editor, While it is right to comment and praise the good things a TD has done for his/her community, such as Mary Kenny’s praise of Jimmy Deenihan (IC 03/03/2016), given that he voted for the 2013 abortion act, does this not now undo those good works, since abortion is never good for community nor…
I Follow St Patrick by Oliver St John Gogarty Oliver St John Gogarty, poet and surgeon, was a close associate of Arthur Griffith in Sinn Féin. He was appointed a senator in the first Senate of the Irish Free State. His memorable book, I Follow St Patrick, is an evocation of Ireland’s national saint through the places in…