Nearly 40% of people in the Republic plan to see Pope Francis when he visits Ireland in 2018, a new poll has found. Conducted by Ipsos/MRBI on behalf of The Irish Times newspaper, the poll is the first since the announcement that the Pontiff will travel to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families. Overall,…
Courtney McGrail
World News in Brief
Turkish coup investigators to look at ‘Vatican link’ Members of the Turkish Commission of Inquiry into the failed July 15 coup attempt have stated their intention to include alleged links between the man accused of instigating the uprising and the Vatican in their investigations. Turkish media have reported comments by commission vice president Selcuk Ozdag…
Ordination of Fr Nejad
Fr Damien Nejad and Raphoe’s Bishop Philip Boyce, OCD at the ordination of Fr Nejad in Letterkenny’s Cathedral of Ss Eunan and Columba on Sunday, December 11. Glasgow-born Fr Nejad’s mother comes from Annagry, where Fr Nejad celebrated his first Mass on the evening of December 11 in the Church of St Mary Star of…
Armagh Reception
Garath Keating, Lord Mayor of Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon District Councils, with parish administrator Fr Peter McAnenly and Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh at a reception for representatives of St Patrick’s Cathedral Parish.
The sums don’t add up
Dear Editor, Like many, I see no theoretical reason for celibacy in the case of secular priests. However, given the low salaries paid, how are the costs of a priest’s wife and family to be met let alone the problem of increasing the scale of property owned by the diocese or parish in order to…
A question of Constitutional rights
Dear Editor, In 2017 or 2018, we can expect to have a referendum on repealing the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution (or the rights of the unborn). While there is an opinion that abortion is acceptable in exceptional circumstances, the questions foremost in my mind must be the following: Why is it an indictable offence…
Celebrating St Barbara
People pray on the feast of St Barbara, December 4 at St Barbara Church in Havana, Cuba. Barbara was an early Christian Greek martyr, whose relics lie today in Kiev, Ukraine. Photo: CNS
The selective silence of President Higgins
Dear Editor, I love reading Mary Kenny’s articles as she is not afraid to say her mind. Having read her ‘Achilles heel’ article about President Higgins and his “seeming reluctance to revisit any past pronouncements on the state of Venezuela and its late leader Hugo Chavez” and the “appalling poverty, hunger, cruelty and injustice” there…
Vatican Roundup
Vatican watchdog will not comment on Amoris Laetitia issue As the row about the Pope’s Amoris Laetitia encyclical continues, the prefect for the Congregation of the Faith (CDF) has said that he cannot respond to the questions – the dubia – posed by four cardinals in a letter to the Pontiff. Speaking during an interview…
Syriac patriarch ‘horrified’ after seeing ‘ghost towns’
Doreen Abi Raad The Syriac Catholic patriarch said he was horrified to see widespread devastation and what he called “ghost towns” during a recent visit to northern Iraq. Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan wrote in an email to Catholic News Service that there was little left in some of the communities that he toured November …