The place of faith in the media in an age of ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’ is to be the focus of an event at Dublin’s University Church next week. ‘Good News: media and Faith in a Secular Age’ – which will be held on Thursday, November 14 – will include input from journalists Anne…
Christians are “morally obliged” to welcome the stranger, the Archbishop of Tuam has said as residents on Achill Island, Co. Mayo, protested a direct provision centre planned for the island. Archbishop Michael Neary also said that he, nor the local Church, had been advised by any plans by the Department of Justice. Locals said they…
Over 200 people attended the blessing of a new shrine commemorating the victims of two atrocities during the troubles in a Belfast parish in a “deeply moving” event. Fr Patrick McCafferty PP of Corpus Christi Parish said the blessing of the shrine to St Teresa of Calcutta moved many people to tears. The event took…
Primate of All-Ireland Archbishop Eamon Martin has led tributes to his outgoing Church of Ireland counterpart Dr Richard Clarke. Dr Clarke announced at the Armagh Diocesan Synod at the weekend that he would step down as Anglican Primate of All-Ireland in February. Archbishop Clarke, aged 70, has drserved as a bishop in the Church of…
Proposals regarding the framework governing abortion, now under a six week consultation in Northern Ireland have been dubbed by pro-life groups as “catastrophic”. The current consultation will allow the public to share their views until December 16 regarding how the new laws should operate. Pro-life groups are encouraging people to make their voice heard and…
The UCD U-turn on sending a representative to St John Henry Newman’s canonisation wasn’t based on the Government’s last minute decision to send someone, but to avoid an “insurrection” by past and present academics of the university according to an Irish magazine. With the “more senior, elder academics mobilising, the scene was set for academic…
To help mark this year’s Week of Witness (25 November-December 1) in support of persecuted Christians around the world, Aid to the Church in Need (Ireland) has released a short film which follows how a commission from Archbishop Eamon Martin for a devotional statue to St Oliver Plunkett, that would also lead people to see…
Fr Seán Cassin’s charity says debt and fear keeps worried families quiet An Irish priest and anti-trafficking campaigner focused on Vietnam has said that the deaths of 39 people in a lorry in Essex is only the tip of the iceberg and the tragedy has exposed the inhumanity of the criminals and the desperation…
Bishop Tom Deenihan has called on fellow members of the hierarchy to prioritise the handing over of some Catholic schools to the State to defend the Catholic nature of remaining schools. “I believe that the State needs, from both a practical and political viewpoint, movement from the Church in relation to divesting,” Dr Deenihan told…
The final document of the Amazon synod has caused “mixed” reaction among the faithful, as it calls for the Pope to consider the ordination of married priests and women for diaconal ordination. Theologian Dr John Murray, based in DCU, said although allowing married priests in isolated South American communities would be “practically useful”, it should…
Chai Brady