Kate Quiñones A United Kingdom high court judge upheld the British government’s emergency ban on puberty blockers for minors on Monday, finding the blockers carry “very substantial risks and very narrow benefit”. Advocacy group TransActual challenged the UK’s ban along with a 15-year-old who remains unnamed due to a court order. Justice Beverly Lang cited…
The St Vincent de Paul Society (SVP) in England and Wales is calling on the new Labour Government to take urgent action to tackle poverty. The call comes as new statistics show that, at St Vincent’s centre in Newcastle, the need for their services has almost doubled, from supporting 4,968 people last year to a…
We each have a purpose given to us, writes Katie Fillion I was recently attending a formation course for catechists aimed at working with children between 6-9 years old. One theme that we focused on was the child’s growing capacity for understanding time and history. In the same way that they can remember events from…
Dean Céitinn Following his election as Green Party leader, Roderic O’Gorman has signalled his intention to bring the Hate Speech Bill back into the legislative agenda. This was after months of speculation that the Hate Speech Bill would not proceed and die when this Dáil completed its term. However, renewed calls to proceed with the…
Eduardo Campos Lima An unprecedented wave of violence in Sierra Madre de Chiapas, the mountain region in the southern border of Mexico, has been causing deaths and famine among several communities. Earlier last week, hundreds of people fled to Guatemala. The Diocese of Tapachula, which includes parishes in the mountain communities caught in the middle…
Matt Letourneau “Listen carefully, my son, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart,” the first line of St Benedict’s Rule commands. Listening can be virtuous, but how can you hear God’s soft melody over modern life’s constant clamour? For Cistercian monks, the answer is straightforward: build a colossal…
Courtney Mares The National Eucharistic Congress concluded Sunday with a Mass with tens of thousands of people in an NFL football stadium, where the crowd prayed for “a new Pentecost” in the US Church. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle presided over the closing Mass in Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium on July 21 as Pope Francis’ special…
Fr Benedict McGlinchey “Do you judge them to be worthy?” is a question that the ordaining Bishop asks during the Rite of Ordination to the priesthood. It is unlikely that any newly ordained priest really feels himself worthy of the gift of priesthood that he has received. But that sense of unworthiness sits alongside a…
Michael R. Heinlein What a disappointment it’s been, though unsurprising, to see Catholics offering negative commentary of this summer’s National Eucharistic Congress in the US. Now, I’m not an idealist. Some of the criticism can be warranted. Missteps have been made at the local and national levels. I firmly believe that deeper Eucharistic faith, more…
Matt Letourneau At first glance, Ireland may seem dominated by one religion: Christianity. Although the majority would describe themselves as Christian, Ireland is still filled with people from all walks of life, cultures, backgrounds and faiths. If you dig past Dublin’s Catholic and Protestant roots, you can unearth various beliefs, sects and churches. For instance,…