Limerick city priests have welcomed the announcement of the creation of 300 new jobs as a “boost for the city and the people”. Uber, an online on-demand car service is to hire 150 people by the end of the year and another 150 when the operation is up and running. It has also signed a…

The Synod of Bishops of the Armenian Catholic Church has elected Bishop Gregory Ghabroyan, 80, as the 20th Armenian Catholic Paticarch of Cilicia. The prelate, now known as Gregory Petros XX Ghabroyan, succeeds Nerses Petros XIX Tarmouni, who died on June 25. The new patriarch was born in Aleppo, Syria, in 1934 and studied in…

The widow of a man who was killed while trying to be a “good Samaritan” has spoken of how her faith has sustained her. Jane Fitzsimons, whose husband Eamon Cronin was tragically knocked down and killed while trying to break up a fight, revealed it was her strong faith that kept her going. “My faith…

The priest who directs the Dominican order’s peace centre in Lahore said that 130 Christians are now facing blasphemy charges in Pakistan. “According to my estimate, there are 130 Christians whose trials are proceeding,” Fr James Channan told Aid to the Church in Need. “But people will be surprised to learn that there are about…

Staff reporter An Irish charity is set to welcome to Dublin this week a group of Kenyan children who are abandoned, orphaned and living with AIDS. Kenyan Orphan Aid will for the tenth time host the youngsters from the Nairobi-based Nyumbani home as part of the charity’s annual holiday project. The 21 children and their…

Pope signs up as first World Youth Day pilgrim Pope Francis officially opened registration for the 2016 World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland at the weekend. Joined by a young man and a young woman, the Pope was handed a tablet where he launched the online registration. “There, I am registered!” he said to cheers from the pilgrims and visitors. “Through this electronic…

The Administrator of a well-known Dublin parish has refused to comment on plans that would see a large green space on the church grounds levelled to make way for a car park. Just weeks after the launch of Pope Francis’ encyclical calling on Catholics to show more care for the environment, Msgr Lorcan O’Brien of…

Cardinal John Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria, has advised recently elected President Muhammadu Buhari to go slowly on his anti-corruption drive so that the public would not term his actions as “persecution”. He said that “the fight against corruption can only succeed where there is transparency, justice and honesty” during a dinner for the group Catholics…

Staff reporter An Irish production company is set to launch a major crowd-funding campaign for a feature documentary on Knock. Underground Films is aiming to raise €70,000 in 40 days to help fund a motion picture on Ireland’s national Marian shrine which is set for the silver screen in Easter 2017. The Dublin based company,…

Ukrainian Church leaders have condemned plans to permit same-sex partnerships under a series of constitutional reforms. “These provisions threaten to plunge the Ukrainian state into the abyss of immorality and sin, to destroy the family as the basic social institution and popularise relationships between persons of the same sex which are unnatural for human beings,”…