Staff reporter Music superstar Justin Bieber has revealed that he has returned to his Christian faith after an “uncomfortable phase” and found solace through a personal relationship with God. The 21-year-old Canadian singer has chosen Purpose for the title of his upcoming album because “I felt like I lost my purpose… and I feel like I…

Those affected by abuse need extra special care – expert Catholics who are too angry, disillusioned or afraid to return to the Church because of clerical sexual abuse need very special care, according to an observer attending the Synod of Bishops. Maria Harries, a member of Australia’s Truth, Justice, Healing Council said in an interview that abuse by clergy has led to a crisis…

A new book has been launched which reveals the faith experience of Irish people living abroad.  The collection of essays ‘Dissonant Voices: Faith and the Irish Diaspora’, edited by Conn MacGabhann, is written by people including Fr Des Wilson, Fr Joe McVeigh and Msgr Raymond Murray and came about from a conference of the same…

A commemorative concert was held in the RDS Concert Hall on Friday to celebrate 200 years since Venerable Mary Aikenhead founded the Religious Sisters of Charity. Among those who attended the concert were President Higgins’ wife, Sabina, former Lord Mayor, Councillor Vincent Jackson and a wide circle of families, friends and benefactors including a large…

Just 200 of the existing 3,300 primary schools would be needed to serve parents who want a non-religious education for their children, it has been claimed. Secretary of the Church of Ireland Board of Education, Dr Ken Fennelly, said figures from the Central Statistics Office, seen by The Irish Catholic, indicated that 27,238 parents with…

Bishop John McAreavey has called on the Government to bring laws on prostitution in the South in line with the law in the North. The Bishop of Dromore warned that failure to do so would result in prostitution becoming a “scourge” in border towns such as Dundalk, Monaghan or Letterkenny. “What you will find is…

A parish appeal in Belfast to raise funds to help alleviate the suffering of refugees fleeing war in Syria has raised an incredible €70,000.  Sparked by frustration at what they saw as a poor political response to the crisis, the Redemptorist community at Clonard Monastery undertook fundraising collections at the end of September, which was…

Attitudes to gay people in Africa are unlikely to change overnight, even though bishops have publicly defended the inherent dignity of people with homosexual tendencies, Accra’s Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle has said. Claiming that negative attitudes against homosexuals have existed for “millennia” in Africa, the Ghanaian archbishop said “it would be a bit deceptive to think”…

Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, currently in Rome for the Synod on the Family, called for prayers throughout the diocese for the Traveller families affected by the “heartbreaking” fire in Carrickmines. Ten people, including children as young as six months, died in a fire at a Traveller site on Saturday morning. The parish priest of the…

Precious Life, the largest pro-life group in the North, has opened a new pregnancy care centre in Belfast. Speaking at the opening of Stanton Healthcare Belfast on Tuesday, Precious Life’s director, Bernadette Smyth said, the centre will “offer a much needed alternative” to the Marie Stope Clinic at no cost “because we believe that women…