A Hungarian bishop has challenged Pope Francis’ appeal for Catholics to open their communities as sanctuaries for refugees from the Middle East. Szeged-Csanád Bishop Laszlo Kiss-Rigo, whose diocese in southern Hungary is experiencing some of Europe’s heaviest migrant flows, denies that most of those arriving are refugees. “This is an invasion,” he said, “they come…

Bishops back Indian strikes India’s Catholic Church supported some 150 million workers on a nationwide strike that shut down factories, banks, traffic and government offices on September 2. “The Church is in solidarity with striking workers because we are concerned about their welfare,” according to Jaipur’s Bishop Oswald Lewis, head of the Indian bishops’ labour office, adding that…

Mags Gargan and Greg Daly Parishioners across Ireland are preparing to welcome refugees fleeing Syria, Iraq and North Africa in answer to Pope Francis’ appeal to European parishes and religious communities to offer shelter to migrant families. Taking up the Pontiff’s urgent plea, Bishop Noel Treanor of Down & Connor has put in place a team to assess available…

Pope Francis’ visit to Cuba is a sign of his closeness to the nation’s people at a time they “breathe the air of hope” that relations with the US will improve, according to Guantanamo-Baracoa’s Bishop Wilfredo Pino Estevez. “It’s not easy to live at odds with your next door neighbour,” Bishop Pino wrote in a…

A popular singing priest is set to wow X Factor judges Down Under this weekend after making it through the auditions to the live finals. Fr Rob Galea (32), originally from Malta, ministers in St Kilian’s in Bendingo, Victoria in Australia.  No stranger to big performances, the priest plays for an average of 200,000-500,000 people each year…

Fr Jacques Mourad and about 270 Christians and Muslims taken hostage by jihadi militias in southeast Syria are alive, and are in a “stable and secure” condition, according to local sources, who say Church leaders are conducting negotiations through mediators in an attempt to obtain the captives’ release. The Syrian priest was kidnapped on May…

Longford’s iconic St Mel’s Cathedral, which was almost destroyed by a devastating fire in 2009, has attracted over 100,000 visitors since the restored building was once again opened to worshipers last Christmas. Only a burnt out shell was left of the 19th Century cathedral when a fire took hold in the early hours of Christmas…

The Cremisan Valley Wall is “the last nail in Bethlehem’s coffin” according to the Catholic centre for human rights working under the patronage of Jerusalem’s Latin Patriarchate. A 90-page report by the centre, according to the Patriarchate, analyses the implications of the separation wall built by Israeli authorities in the valley, largely on Palestinian land…

Bill Carney, who the 2009 Murphy Report accused of having abused at least 32 children, has died in prison while awaiting trial for 34 sexual assaults between 1969 and 1989. Ordained in 1974, Mr Carney was laicised in 1992, almost a decade after the first complaints were made about him and his pleading guilty to…

At least two American presidential hopefuls have backed Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who has been jailed for contempt of court after refusing to register same-sex marriages. Ms Davis, who served as Rowan County’s deputy county clerk for 25 years to November last when she was elected county clerk, stopped issuing marriage licenses in…