Staff Reporter A Kilkenny priest is keeping a document that connects actor George Clooney to Ireland under lock and key until the film star comes to visit this summer. Fr Nicholas Flavin confirmed to The Irish Catholic this week that he was in possession of the baptismal record of the Oscar winner’s great-great-grandfather, Nicholas Clooney, who…

Staff Reporter The NI Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) has won High Court permission to challenge the law in the North to allow abortion in cases of rape, incest or “serious malformation” of a foetus. A judge in Belfast granted leave on Monday to seek a judicial review of the organisation’s claims that the North’s current…

The Vatican has named both Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin as the Irish Church’s representatives to October’s global meeting of Catholic bishops. The Vatican also named Archbishop-designate Kieran O’Reilly of Cashel and Emly as substitute. The Catholic Communications Office said that he “will only travel and participate in the…

The Holy See’s delegation to the United Nations has warned that Christians face “extinction” in some regions of armed conflict, with Christian women and girls particularly vulnerable. Msgr Janusz Urbanczyk, the Chargé d’Affaires of the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the UN, voiced concern about the “continued lack of attention” given to protecting women…

Catholic and Orthodox patriarchs called for an end to financing terrorists and suggested that borders be closed when necessary to prevent their movement. The leaders also appealed for the creation of a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem, based on a long-standing proposal for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis and pleaded…

Philippine Catholic leaders called for the peace process to move forward between the country’s largest Muslim rebel group and the government, days after a deadly encounter between fighters of the two sides in the country’s south. The 12-hour battle on January 25 happened during a crucial stage in peacebuilding efforts between the rebel Moro Islamic…

A Dominican friar, exiled from his friary in Mosul by the Islamic State last year, is working to preserve Christian manuscripts through digitisation to ensure the memory of Iraq’s Christian past survives. Iraqi native, Fr Najeeb Michaeel, OP, founded the Centre for the Digitisation of Oriental Manuscripts in 1990 to foster the collection and recording…

Homeless people in Rome will soon be able to head to the Vatican for a free shave and haircut. According to the Italian news agency ANSA, haircuts and shaves will be available to those less fortunate on Mondays. In Italy, barbershops are traditionally closed on Mondays, allowing for volunteer barbers to donate their time. The…

Pontifical council consider challenges for women Violence against women, cultural pressures regarding women’s physical appearance, attitudes that subjugate women or that ignore male-female differences and the growing alienation of women from the Church in some parts of the World are themes the Pontifical Council for Culture is set to explore. The council has chosen to discuss the theme, ‘Women’s Cultures:…