The North’s Minister of Education has praised Catholic school principals for their “vision and commitment to changing education” and their campaign against academic selection. Education Minister, John O’Dowd, was speaking at the annual conference of the Catholic Principals Association (CPA) in the Waterfront Hall in Belfast on Friday. He told the over 300 people at…

Staff Reporter The Pope’s much anticipated exhortation following the Synod of Bishops on the Family is expected to be published by the end of the month. The key document, which will contain official Church teaching, is expected to address controversial issues such as whether divorced and remarried Catholics can receive Communion. Pope Francis has said that…

The bishop responsible for overseeing the area in which four Missionary Sisters of Charity were murdered on Friday, March 4 has said he is sure they died as martyrs.  “For me there is no doubt that the sisters have been victims of hatred – hatred against our faith”, Bishop Paul Hinder, who serves as apostolic…

The principal of one of Ireland’s largest Catholic post-primary schools has credited male classroom assistants for the impressive exam results achieved by boys in his school. St Paul’s High School, Bessbrook in Co. Armagh, has almost doubled the amount of “good” GCSE passes by boys in just two years. In 2013, 36% of boys at…

Maronite bishops welcome ecumenical embrace The embrace in Cuba between Pope Francis and the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill and their subsequent Joint Declaration represent “an ecumenical and prophetic step”, the bishops of the Maronite Church have said. Recognising how the February 12 encounter had been “prompted by a shared sense of responsibility”, the Maronite bishops thanked Pope Francis for…

Archbishop Eamon Martin poses for a post-Confirmation selfie photo with pupils from St Patrick’s Primary School in Donaghmore, Co. Tyrone.

“We are the pro-life generation,” Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, said to a pro-life rally in Washington, DC, on March 2. “We are here to stand up for the rule of law. We are here to defend Texas. We do not want the Supreme Court to overturn a very…

Leading homeless campaigners have welcomed the prospect of the creation of a cabinet minister with sole responsibility for housing in the next government, but have cautioned that such a move would be “lip service” if introduced in isolation. “If there’s a cabinet minister and that’s all, then that would be window dressing,” Focus Ireland’s Mike…

Ability to ‘see’ can dissolve racism – Ghana cardinal The Zulu way of greeting, in which people greet others by saying “Sawubona”, meaning “I see you”, points a way towards how we can dissolve racism, Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, has said. Speaking at ‘Black and White in America: How deep the divide?’, a conference…

The late Nancy Reagan was a “very quiet and unassuming person”, the priest who accompanied the Reagans during their 1984 visit to President Ronald Reagan’s ancestral home has said. “I met her twice,” Fr Éanna Condon told The Irish Catholic, “the first time in the rose garden of White House a couple of years before…