Two missionaries and an Irish chaplain based in the US have been named in the Presidential Distinguished Service Awards. The awards recognise those who have served Ireland with distinction and those who have actively contributed to Ireland in a sustained manner.  Sr Miriam Duggan of the Franciscan Sisters is being awarded for her charitable work…

Pope Francis has led renewed calls for an end to anti-Christian persecution.  Leading his weekly Sunday audience in Rome, the Pontiff celebrated the life of newly-beatified Lebanese martyr Syriac Bishop Flavien-Michel Malke but then departed from his scripted address to issue a call to the international community to act on the continuing persecution of Christians.…

One of the most high profile stars of US basketball has credited his Christian faith in supporting him through lows in his playing career. Following a less than glorious season with the Houston Rockets, Jeremy Lin revealed that his failures had brought him closer to God. “God has used all of these setbacks to slowly…

The government of the Indian state of Karnataka has announced it is to compensate 12 Christians who fell victim to Hindu radicals during a wave of violence in 2008. In September 2008, over 20 Protestant churches across the state were attacked and ransacked by members of the Sangh Parivar, an umbrella group for extreme Hindu…

The Primate of All Ireland has said that real growth and change in the Irish Church will not come from the bishops but from the ground up. Speaking to about 250 young adults at a youth conference organised by the Legion of Mary in Dublin at the weekend, Archbishop Eamon Martin said the three biggest…

Christian-backed schools in Israel are set to remain closed when the autumn term begins due to an ongoing funding crisis. In an announcement from the Secretariat of Christian Schools in Israel, which provides education to some 33,000 pupils, despite a positive meeting on the issue with Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin last week, schools are set…

A decree by Pope Francis that all priests will be able to absolve those who seek forgiveness after having procured abortions has been welcomed by one of the leaders of the Association of Catholic Priests. Declaring that “it’s a simple fact that confession is a forgotten sacrament nowadays”, Fr Gerry Alwill, parish priest of Inishmagrath,…

American abortion provider Planned Parenthood is facing a fresh scandal following claims that it failed to report a suspected case of sexual abuse to the authorities. As the group continues to suffer fall-out from video exposés of its trade in foetal body parts, an online news outlet in Alabama has revealed documents it says show…

Ireland urgently needs to decide what kind of country it wants to be, according to the director of Social Justice Ireland. “If we don’t plan for an integrated future, we’ll get a disintegrated future,” Fr Sean Healy told The Irish Catholic. “At one level Irish people are aspiring to European levels of service with American…

A lawyer representing hard-pressed Christian communities in the Chinese province of Zhejiang has been arrested. Zhang Kai, of Beijing’s Xinqiao Law Firm, had travelled to Zhejiang to work fulltime in assisting communities directly affected by a drive to remove crosses and demolish church properties. Since late 2013, the campaign has affected some 1,200 church properties.…