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…

Three Indian missionaries have been invited to serve in the Diocese of Waterford & Lismore this year, as Irish vocations continue to decrease. Two priests with the Heralds of Good News, a missionary society founded in India, will begin their ministry in Ireland in October and a third will follow after Christmas. Bishop Phoncie Cullinan…

Christians must neither seek refuge in conservatism or fundamentalism as though everything was better in the past nor reject everything that seems old-fashioned thereby “relativising all the wisdom accumulated in our rich ecclesial heritage” according to Pope Francis. Speaking by video message to participants in Buenos Aires at the Second International Congress of Theology, on…

Representatives from Knock Shrine and the Eucharistic Congress have officially launched the programme for the National Eucharistic Congress (NEC) which takes place later this month. The congress is a major gathering of the Catholic Church in Ireland at the National Marian Shrine in Knock, Co. Mayo, over the weekend of September 26-27. Under the theme…

A multi-agency task force headed by the Taoiseach or Tánaiste is needed to tackle Ireland’s homelessness crisis, a leading charity has said.  “The Taoiseach says there needs to be more joined up thinking, but I think his comments were more to do with local authorities, homeless agencies, etc,” Francis Doherty, Communications and Advocacy Manager of…

Irish anti-euthanasia campaigners will be joining with disability rights organisations in a protest outside Britain’s Houses of Parliament to coincide with a parliamentary debate on assisted suicide.  Dr Kevin Fitzpatrick, director of Hope Ireland, told The Irish Catholic he would be joining ‘Not Dead Yet UK’, tomorrow [Friday] “together with many other organisations promoting the…