Staff Reporter Parishioners have a “duty” to look out for priests who may be depressed as a result of being over-worked, a leading psychiatrist has warned. Prof. Patricia Casey told The Irish Catholic that priests, particularly since the abuse scandals, are “sometimes seen as not being human and that they are supposed to be like sponges…
A bill to grant legal recognition to same-sex couples and unmarried heterosexual couples has passed through the Italian Senate after months of public debate, following a recent suspension of the legislative process to allow politicians to reflect on the proposed law. The legislation passed after its sponsors removed a controversial clause that would allow for…
Vigilant parishes have foiled an attempt by fraudsters to take advantage of the Trócaire Lenten box appeal. Some homes in two parishes in Co. Offaly were visited by individuals in mid-February claiming to be involved with Trócaire’s Lenten campaign. They delivered Trócaire boxes to the door and left instructions that they would call back after…
Common date for Easter and Christmas a step closer – Greek Orthodox Patriarch Sharing Christmas and Easter together is a common Christian dream, the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Sebaste in Palestine has said, pointing to this as a possible development that could follow from the recent meeting in Cuba of Pope Francis and Moscow’s Patriarch Kirill. “I think there is not a Catholic or an Orthodox who…
Over four nights this week in the Helix Theatre in Dublin over 2,000 secondary school students from the Archdiocese of Dublin have been taking part in the 2016 Emmanuel concert series, a diocesan initiative to teach young people liturgical music.
The Year of Mercy was the focus of a meeting of 14 bishops from the Americas who gathered in Tampa, Florida to discuss how to invite the faithful into what Pope Francis has called “an encounter with Jesus Christ”. Representatives of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Latin American bishops’ council, known as CELAM,…
Last week the Passionist community of the Ardoyne in Belfast opened the refurbished Houben Centre for Peace and Reconciliation in one of the most contentious pieces of ground in the city. The building, originally built as the Boy’s National School in 1914, and more recently a centre for parish activities, is now dedicated to the…
Chinese authorities are continuing their campaign of removing crosses in Zhejiang province, one of the latest being taken from a Catholic Church. Government officials removed the cross of Yongqiang parish’s Zhuangyuan Church just before dawn on February 25, two weeks after Zhejiang’s religious affairs director called for “religious stability” in the region ahead of the…
The late Princess of Wales developed a friendship with an Irish nun who offered her “prayers and support” during the public breakdown of her marriage, a series of letters, newly discovered in Ireland, reveal. Letters and a Christmas card sent by Princess Diana in 1992 to Sr Teresa of the Little Sisters of the Assumption…
American Catholics should take the lead in fighting “the scourge of anti-Islamic prejudice”, a US bishop has said. Speaking against the backdrop of the US’s first Catholic-Muslim National Dialogue, San Diego’s Bishop Robert McElroy warned that the US is witnessing “a new nativism”, which, he said, “the American Catholic community must reject and label for…
Mags Gargan