US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made waves this week with a blistering statement about reports that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had used chemical weapons in a recent attack on a rebel stronghold, calling it “brutal, unabashed barbarism.” Tillerson’s rhetoric raised eyebrows, given that just last week, during a visit to Turkey, Tillerson had said…

Congo’s bishops say Catholics are facing a new wave of violence following the collapse of a Church mediation plan, and in some places Church leaders have fled to the forest. In late March, the bishops abandoned attempts to arrange a government-opposition power-sharing settlement and, within days, violence erupted in eastern Congo. “The militias are continuing…

The number of baptised Catholics in the world grew to 1.285 billion an increase of 1% year on year according just released Vatican statistics. The latest statistical yearbook reports that the countries with the most Catholics account for almost 56% of the world’s Catholic population. The top 10 Catholic populations are (in order): Brazil, Mexico,…

A priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia responsible for a retirement home for priests faces charges of embezzling more than $535,000 (€503,000) from that same home. Msgr William Dombrow, 77, was charged by the US District Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia April 5 with four counts of wire fraud in a scheme he is alleged to…

The Church has thrown its support behind an ambitious new film series aimed to energise young Christians and help them tackle doubts they might have about their Faith. The eight-part NUA film series was launched at Dublin’s Gonzaga College last month ahead of the release of census figures that show significant declines in numbers of…

The most striking thing about the 2016 census is how it points to the resilience of Irish Catholic identity, a leading Church number-cruncher has said. According to the census, Catholics now make up 78.3% of Ireland’s population, down from 84.2% five years ago, with the number of Catholics in the country having dropped by 132,000,…

A group of former republican prisoners has asked the bishops to clarify the rules around placing Irish tricolours on coffins inside churches during funerals in the North. Flags and paramilitary trappings have been banned since the former Bishop of Derry, Dr Edward Daly took the decision in 1987 when shots were fired over the coffin…

Modern Masses have caused disaster, devastation and schism in the Church, the head of the Vatican’s liturgy department has said. In an address sent to a conference in Germany, Cardinal Robert Sarah, who heads the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, said the Church is currently undergoing a “serious crisis” underestimated by…

Unfounded claims of abuse remain a grave fear for many Irish priests, while clergy often distrust their bishops, according to the minutes of two meetings of the Association of Catholic priests last month. Safeguarding was a central issue at the ACP South meeting, which considered the rights of clergy when faced with allegations. “Solicitors feel…

The bells of St Brigid’s Church in Ballintrillick, Co. Sligo, rang 108 times to mark the funeral of Ireland’s oldest person last week, with each chime marking a year of her life. Elizabeth Gallagher, who was buried on March 28, became the oldest person in Ireland last December, and was “very proud” of the fact,…