The Filipino Church will continue to stand with the country’s tribal communities who are victims of abuse, persecution, and extrajudicial killings, according to Manila’s auxiliary bishop Broderick Pabillo. Dr Pabillo had been asked to “actively intervene to end the militarisation of the areas where the tribal communities live”, and for the Church to facilitate the…

Thousands gathered at Our Lady’s Shrine, in Knock, over the weekend for the National Eucharistic Congress, when over 40 workshops and talks were delivered on the theme ‘Christ, our Hope’. While reflecting on the fruits of the 2012 International Eucharistic Congress, the national congress also served as spiritual preparation for next year’s international gathering, to…

The Melkite Archbishop of Aleppo has described the exodus of Christians from the Middle East as apparently “apocalyptic and fatal”. Insisting that he remains confident because of his trust in God’s promises, Metropolitan Jean-Clément Jeanbart described the “exodus of Christians” as “a form of deportation, condemning our faithful to a humiliating exile and our 2000-year-old…

Catholics need to take responsibility for reaching out to people who feel alienated from the Church, a major faith conference has heard. Addressing participants at the annual Faith and Life Convention in the Diocese of Down and Connor at the weekend, Fr Alan McGuckian SJ said the Church in Ireland had witnessed many people “drift…

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, has been dropped from a criminal investigation. An Italian investigating judge has ruled that the Vatican’s lead organiser of Philadelphia’s World Meeting of Families had been “completely un-involved” in a scheme to buy and then profit from the sale of a 14th-century Italian castle.…

A leading third level Catholic college has opened a new studio classroom exhibition featuring art work produced by children from local primary schools. The exhibition at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick features artwork from students of St Mary’s Primary School, Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School and Presentation Primary School. The focus of the studio classroom…

An ecumenical pilgrimage of Catholics, Anglicans, and other Christians by the border between North and South Korea has prayed for peace and reconciliation on the divided peninsula. The pilgrimage, organised by the Taizé Community, celebrated vespers at Paju’s Church of Repentance and Atonement near Panmunjeom, the village on the 38th parallel where the 1953 Korean…

Bishop Kevin Doran has announced that the Diocese of Elphin has begun to plan for an “exciting” new development for Catholic second level education. The bishop unveiled plans for a new amalgamated second level school in Athlone which will cater initially for 500 students with the hope of expanding to 800 over a five-year period.…

Pope Francis has called the cover-up of abuse by bishops a “terrible thing”, explaining that this was why he had earlier in Philadelphia said that “the crimes and sins of the sexual abuse of children must no longer be held in secret”, pledging “the promise of accountability for all”. The Pope was speaking during an…

However, a moral theologian has described the issue of as “a distraction”