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…

Irish bishops have emphasised the need for the Government to use every effort to protect religious minorities from persecution, following the latest bombings targeting Christians in Egypt. Bishop John McAreavey, Chair of the Bishops Council for Justice and Peace, said the bombings at two Coptic Christian churches in Cairo on Palm Sunday were “clearly a…

‘Friends of Cuan Mhuire’, a new nationwide network to support people in recovery from addiction, opened a centre in Tralee, Co. Kerry last week. Bishop Ray Browne, who made the initiative one of the special projects for the ‘Year of Mercy’ in the Diocese of Kerry, said he hopes that the new centre at 11…

Catholic schools and religious education experts have criticised State proposals to remove religious education as a core element in Ireland’s primary school curriculum. Under a consultation document issued by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, no space is explicitly set aside in school curriculum for religious education, in contrast to the current curriculum, introduced…

An iconic statue of the crucified Christ has been reinstated outside a church on Belfast’s Falls Road. The 20-foot ‘Passion of Christ’ figure fell from the cross outside St Paul’s Church in February. Clerics and parishioners acted quickly to move the statue and used a trolley to take it from the scene. A spokesperson for…