Pro-life campaigners in the North have called on people to push the SDLP to explain why they have suspended three councillors who abstained from voting in a motion that called for women not to be intimidated by “harassment” from anti-abortion campaigners. The Belfast City Council vote, calling for councillors to condemn any such harassment across…

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…

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…

Irish parishes will need to adjust to the reality that the declining number of vocations to the priesthood here will mean more African priests taking up the mantle, Ireland’s former papal nuncio has said. Speaking to The Irish Catholic as he prepared to leave for his new posting in Albania, Archbishop Charles Brown said that the decline…

Ireland will see its first Blessed in 17 years with the date set for the beatification of Fr John Sullivan SJ in May. The beatification of Fr Sullivan will take place in St Francis Xavier’s, Gardiner Street, Dublin, on Saturday, May 13. Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregations for the Causes of Saints will…

Seriously ill children from rural Ireland could die en route to the proposed new national children’s hospital in the heavily-congested city centre of Dublin, a bishop has warned. Bishop Phonsie Cullinan, the Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, is backing a grassroots campaign to urge the Government to move away from the current proposed site at…

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,…

The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have offered to house a family of refugees at their retreat centre in Cork. Fr Michael Curran MSC, leader of the Myross Wood community, is currently working alongside the Irish Red Cross to put the suggested relief plan into action. Myross Wood House has already been inspected by an…

Pope Francis’ decision to switch Vatican oversight for shrines and sanctuaries to the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelisation has been welcomed by the priests who run Ireland’s principal shrines. Until this weekend, shrines and sanctuaries came under the jurisdiction of the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy, but on Saturday, April 1, the Pope transferred them…