Few topics have drawn as much attention online of late than Donald Trump’s seemingly inexorable path towards becoming the Republican candidate in next year’s US presidential election. What Catholics think of this isn’t entirely clear. A solid place to look for data on the subject is fivethirtyeight.com, where last month Catholic blogger Leah Libresco pointed…
A high-profile body set up to advise Pope Francis on preventing abuse is under threat unless the Vatican releases further funding, it has been claimed. Baroness Nuala O’Loan has described as “very disturbing” claims that Vatican officials have been slow to release funding for the Pontifical Council for the Protection of Minors. Irishwoman Marie Collins,…
The attempted eviction of over a hundred families from a west Dublin estate is “a timely reminder” of what is at stake if the housing crisis goes untackled, a leading campaigner has said. “This is what we’ve been saying, that we’ve been warning for two years,” Focus Ireland’s Mike Allen told The Irish Catholic, continuing,…
Northern Protestants are embracing the debt they owe to Patrick, writes Greg Daly There were no shortage of eyebrows raised this January when Belfast councillor Ruth Patterson told the BBC’s William Crawley that St Patrick was “a former Protestant”. Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster’s Talkback show, Ms Patterson, a member of the Democratic Unionist Party…
Claims by EU politicians that it cannot cope with the Mediterranean migrant crisis have been dismissed as “rubbish” by special UN envoy Peter Sutherland. Irishman Mr Sutherland, a former Attorney General, who now serves as the UN special representative for migration said it was “utterly excessive” to claim that it would be “impossible for a…
Leading homeless campaigners have welcomed the prospect of the creation of a cabinet minister with sole responsibility for housing in the next government, but have cautioned that such a move would be “lip service” if introduced in isolation. “If there’s a cabinet minister and that’s all, then that would be window dressing,” Focus Ireland’s Mike…
The memory of a lifetime’s work of one Irish nun won’t be forgotten, writes Greg Daly Jennie O’Sullivan was 98 when she returned from Japan, having spent 75 years teaching English there as Sr Paschal, a member of the Infant Jesus Sisters who had educated her as a child in Drishane, Co. Cork. She died…
This year’s ‘Good Pagan’ movie aims to unite believers and non-believers, writes Greg Daly “Nobody knows anything,” proclaims legendary Hollywood screenwriter Bill Goldman time and again in his 1983 classic Adventures in the Screen Trade. “Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work. Every time out it’s…
Greg Daly learns about four centuries of Capuchins in Ireland In early 17th-Century Germany, the Shankill-born Fr Nicholas Archibold was crossing a river in Paderborn when he heard a “demonic voice” tell him that he was “a big man with a little nose”. This annoyed him, according to Dr John McCafferty, director of UCD’s Mícheál…
The Master of the Rotunda Hospital has declined to say whether he believes expectant mothers whose babies have been diagnosed with Down Syndrome should be able to have abortions in Ireland. Asked by The Irish Catholic whether it is his view that women expecting babies with Down Syndrome should be allowed to have abortions in Ireland rather…