If Christian bakers were guilty of discrimination for refusing to make a pro-same-sex marriage cake, the law itself is at fault, the North’s Attorney General has said. Attorney General John Larkin was speaking on the second day of Daniel and Amy McArthur’s appeal against a May 2015 decision by Belfast’s County Court which found that…
Greg Daly
A questionable curriculum
Experts in religious education are uneasy about a proposed new primary school course in religions and ethics, Greg Daly discovers
An Accidential Christian
Greg Daly writes of how the abduction of a Jewish boy in mid-19th Century Rome helped the demise of the Papal States
Ireland urged to lead fight to save persecuted Christians
Irish lawmakers have been urged to take the lead in pushing for Islamist persecution of Christians and other minorities in the Middle East to be formally declared as a genocide. Fianna Fáil foreign affairs spokesperson Brendan Smith told The Irish Catholic that politicians and governments cannot use the excuse that they are unaware of the…
Euro 2016 need not be divisive – ACCORD
This summer’s European Championships could lead to tensions between couples but difficulties can be headed off in advance, a leading Catholic marriage counsellor has said. Commenting on warnings from Relationships Ireland that Euro 2016 could prove a breaking point for already troubled relationships, ACCORD’s Mary Johnson told The Irish Catholic that while the Catholic marriage…
Final set of safeguarding reports released
The final tranche of reports from the national safeguarding board has been released, in advance of the introduction of new guidelines to aid Church bodies in safeguarding practice and procedures. Thirty bodies were reviewed in the final tranche, with five orders still active in ministry and with some contact with children being reviewed under the…
Hopes new abuse guidelines can heal bishop/priest relations
The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) has expressed hope that new child protection guidelines may help improve damaged relations between priests and bishops. The independent safeguarding watchdog, the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC), has been rolling out new standards and more detailed guidelines are expected next month. The new standards…
Nuns blocking maternity hospital move claim denied
The St Vincent’s Healthcare Group (SVHG) has rejected suggestions that an order of religious sisters is obstructing plans to relocate the National Maternity Hospital. In an article headed “Nuns obstruct maternity hospital plan”, The Sunday Times reported at the weekend that the SVHG, which is owned by the Religious Sisters of Charity, will not allow…
Martyrs of charity
The deaths of seven French monks 20 years ago are as mysterious as their lives are inspirational, writes Greg Daly Three years before he was killed in 1996, the Trappist monk Fr Christian de Chergé wrote a letter which Milan’s Cardinal Angelo Scola has described as “one of the most beautiful pages ever written in…
Claim funding failures placing children at risk
Reluctance to fund necessary services is endangering Ireland’s vulnerable children, a leading child protection expert has said. Commenting on the number of children known to the social care system without being properly investigated, Shane Dunphy told The Irish Catholic that “there are almost 30,000 open cases which have been referred and accepted as in need…