Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons has said that the Catholic Church is right to say abortion is a sin, because it harms women. The Cork-based actor, who is married to Irish actress Sinead Cusack, said that while he believed “that women should be allowed to make the decision”, that he also believed the Church is correct…

Post-synodal apostolic exhortation due on April 8 Pope Francis’s eagerly awaited post-synodal apostolic exhortation on love in the family will be released on the morning of Friday, April 8, the Vatican has announced. The panel of speakers at the press conference, at which Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) will be released, include Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, general secretary of the Synod…

Paranoia as a result of the clerical sex abuse scandals is “hampering” priests from engaging fully with society, a prominent psychotherapist has warned. Kevin Egan, who has lectured in All Hallows College in psychology and pastoral theology, told The Irish Catholic that “the main thing that blocks mission in the Church today is paranoia or…

Pope Francis has met with the traditionalist Society of St Pius X, a group that separated itself from the wider Church decades ago in opposition to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. The Vatican confirmed the weekend meeting between the Pontiff and Bishop Bernard Fellay, Superior General of the Society in a sign that…

Bernadette Smyth Abortion is a criminal offence in Northern Ireland, governed by sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and section 25 of the Criminal Justice Act (NI) 1945. The core purpose of this law is the protection of the unborn child. Ever since the Family Planning Association of Northern…

Kenyan election cannot be ‘a matter of life and death’, say religious leaders Kenya’s religious leaders have denounced the formation of militias ahead of next year’s general election. “We appeal to all politicians with their vested interests to cease making elections a matter of life and death for Kenyans,” the Inter Religious Council of Kenya, which comprises the country’s Catholic bishops’ conference as well as the leaderships…

The Archbishop of Armagh has called for “the shocking increase in levels of childhood poverty” in the North to be a priority in the upcoming Assembly election. Archbishop Eamon Martin led a delegation from the Northern Ireland Catholic Council on Social Affairs (NICCOSA) for the first official meeting between representatives of the Catholic Church and…

Poland’s Catholic bishops have called for a permanent ban on abortions in the country to mark the 1,050th anniversary of Poland’s  conversion to Christianity in the year 966. “Each person’s life is protected by the fifth commandment, do not kill. So the attitude of Catholics is clear and unchanging,” the bishops’ conference said. “In this…

A Derry priest has accused certain elements of the media of adding to the pain of the woman who lost five family members when their car slipped off Buncrana pier, Co. Donegal. Fr Paddy O’Kane, parish priest in the family’s hometown of Ballymagroarty in Derry, has visited Louise James every day since the accident on…

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has called for an honest appraisal of the Church in modern Ireland after some 1916 commemorations have shown that fair historical debate is being hindered by false impressions of the role of Catholicism. Referring to the recent RTÉ series Rebellion which re-enacted the events of the 1916 Easter Rising, the archbishop said…