Pope to visit Cuba enroute to the USA in September Pope Francis will visit Cuba on his way to the United States this September, according to Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, who said the Holy Father has “received and accepted the invitation from the civil authorities and bishops of Cuba”. Visiting both countries on the…

Thai Children’s Trust Ireland has sent a message of thanks to readers of The Irish Catholic for their generous response to its Lenten appeal to help feed orphaned and abandoned children on the Thai-Burma border. The Feed a Future campaign asked people to support its nutrition programme by giving a €40 donation, or €1 a…

The Hugh O’Flaherty Memorial Society is inviting nominations for the 2015 Hugh O’Flaherty International Humanitarian Award as part of the 8th annual memorial weekend in honour of the Monsignor, which will take place from Friday October 30 to Sunday November 1 in Killarney, Co. Kerry. Msgr O’Flaherty was dubbed the Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican…

Staff Reporter Independent TD Mattie McGrath (pictured) has said that a Garda Representative Association statement which has called for a ‘yes’ vote in the same-sex marriage referendum is almost unparalleled in its politicisation of the Gardaí. Deputy McGrath made his comments as the association general secretary PJ Stone implied that those who vote no are…

Syria’s crisis is not a civil crisis, but is “a world war on Syrian territory”, according to Archbishop Jean-Abdo Arbach, the Melkite Greek-Catholic Archbishop of Homs, Hama and Yabrud. Interviewed at a conference on the Christian East and the Arab World, Archbishop Arbach said “the whole of the Middle East is in flames” and that…

For the first time in its history, the Archdiocese of Dublin is making documents from its archive digitally available to researchers throughout the world. The documents are taken from the papers and diaries of Dublin priest, Canon Francis Gleeson, chaplain to the Munster Fusiliers in World War I. On the evening before an attack by…

The leader of the Church in Malta has encouraged a priest to continue his pastoral outreach to gay people, and been assured that the priest would follow Church practice and discipline in his ministry. Fr Mark Montebello OP was summoned to meet with Archbishop Charles Scicluna, a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of…

Mourne Abbey ‘won’t be found wanting’ – parish priest

Canadian cities must end their tradition of saying prayers during council meetings, according to Canada’s supreme court. The ruling ends an eight-year legal battle that began when atheist Alain Simoneau and the Quebec Lay Movement lodged a complaint against Jean Tremblay, mayor of the Quebec city of Saguenay, claiming that the tradition of praying at…

Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, the founder and CEO of the global child hunger charity Mary’s Meals, has been named as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world for 2015, in recognition of his charity’s work in setting up school feeding projects in some of the world’s poorest communities.