MPs risk “crippling devolution” if abortion laws are imposed on the North of Ireland, according to a group of community leaders from the region, a prominent pro-life group has said. At a special event at Westminster on July 18, MPs heard from seven women and political representatives who do not want the current abortion law…
A “shared future” between different religious communities in the North of Ireland is only possible if we “include everybody” Derry’s bishop, Donal McKeown, has said. The comments come in the wake of criticism the bishop received by DUP MP Gregory Campbell, after he spoke about the ongoing sectarian rioting taking place across Derry leading up…
Pro-life taxpayers will have to foot the bill for abortions under new proposals approved by the Government this week, despite having a conscientious objection to the killing of unborn children. Minister for Health Simon Harris secured Cabinet approval on Tuesday. He also announced controversial plans to create so-called ‘safe access zones’ around clinics providing abortion…
A number of parishioners and a priest have been left ‘upset’ and ‘traumatised’ after being subjected to an onslaught of sectarian abuse outside a Catholic church in Scotland. Parish priest Canon Tom White was allegedly spat on twice and called “Fenian scum” as well as a “paedophile” by supporters of the Orange Order outside Glasgow’s…
The Church needs to “go back to basics” if it wants to continue the work of Christ in a “more secular society” and “different place” today, Waterford and Lismore’s bishop has said. Writing in the Irish Examiner, Dr Alphonsus Cullinan said: “With the emergence of a more secular society and the decline in the Church’s…
Lay-led services are going to be the future of the Church in Ireland given “declining numbers of clergy” across the island, an Irish priest has said. Speaking in relation to the controversy surrounding the Eucharistic service led by Minister Josepha Madigan at Dublin’s Mount Merrion, Limerick priest Fr Eamonn Fitzgibbon said “it is encouraging that…
Colm Fitzpatrick examines if lay-led services are the future of Irish Catholicism In light of a prominent politician taking the lead at a Saturday night Eucharistic service after the parish priest failed to show up to offer Mass, questions have been raised as to what parishioners should do in such situations, and how they…
Colm Fitzpatrick asks whether phones should be banned in schools If you had said 40 years ago that someday children will be walking around with small portable electronic devices whereby they could communicate with their peers, create their own personal profiles, and find the answer to any question with just the tap of a…
Asylum seekers need to be properly integrated into society, both at a “psychological and emotional level” a Dublin-based priest has said. The comments come after new Government policy will allow asylum seekers in Direct Provision to work with greater ease and seek their own accommodation. It is understood that around 3,000 people will be eligible…
A leading theologian in the forefront of calling for liberal reforms in the Church has criticised what he has described as “incendiary” remarks by former president Mary McAleese. US-based Prof. Massimo Faggioli, an expert on Vatican II, said Mrs McAleese’s comments that infant baptism breaches human rights are unhelpful. “Making incendiary remarks has usually the…