Happiness is not an ‘app’ that can be downloaded, while freedom and our true value can never be bought, Pope Francis has reminded thousands of teenagers. In a homily to a crowd of about 100,000 people gathered for a special Year of Mercy event for youths aged 13 to 16, the Pope urged the assembled…

Staff reporter The final tranche of reports from the national safeguarding board is expected to be released next week, The Irish Catholic understands. The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) has now completed reviews of safeguarding practice and procedures in almost every Church body that comes under its authority. The few exceptions…

Religion misused in Brazilian standoff Brazilian Christian leaders have expressed concern about how many members of the country’s Chamber of Deputies invoked religion when voting on April 17 to impeach President Dilma Rousseff. Carlos Moura, executive secretary of the Brazilian bishops’ Justice and Peace Commission, said the commission experienced “an overwhelming feeling of embarrassment and dissatisfaction over the words…

The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) has expressed hope that new child protection guidelines may help improve damaged relations between priests and bishops. The independent safeguarding watchdog, the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC), has been rolling out new standards and more detailed guidelines are expected next month. The new standards…

The Archdiocese of New York has rejected allegations that it had been planning to smear the Catholic journalist Michael Voris. Mr Voris, the editor of ChurchMilitant.com, claimed that the archdiocese had been collecting information about his personal life before he became a Catholic “with the aim of publicly discrediting me, this apostolate and the work…

Archbishop Eamon Martin pictured with the boys from the Palestrina Choir of St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral after the 1916 Rising State commemoration ceremony at Arbour Hill in Dublin at the weekend. photo: CNS

Britain’s House of Commons has voted to declare that a genocide is underway against Christians, Yazidis and others in Syria and Iraq. The vote, by 278 votes to zero, marks the first time the House of Commons has declared a genocide while it was taking place. The motion, moved by Fiona Bruce MP, recognised that…

A prominent priest-sociologist has warned that a number of anti-Catholic media commentators are damaging the public’s opinion of the Church. Jesuit Fr Micheál Mac Gréil told The Irish Catholic that he was “very worried about the atheistic proselytisation going on in Irish society today”. “I believe that proselytising is now not on the side of…

The four Missionaries of Charity sisters murdered in Yemen last month were models for all Christians, the Auxiliary Bishop of Nairobi has said. Speaking in the Kenyan capital’s Holy Family Basilica at a requiem mass for the souls of India’s Sr Mary Anselm, Rwanda’s Sr Mary Marguerite and Sr Mary Reginette, and Kenya’s Sr Mary…

The Archbishop of Dublin has called on the people of the city to form a “strong alliance” against gangland violence and to co-operate with the Gardaí to “break the chain of hate and evil”. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin was speaking in the wake of the separate shooting of two men in Dublin on Monday night, in…