Four Irish families will travel to the UN in Geneva next week to launch a global campaign aiming to end the use of the term ‘incompatible with life’ and to seek better care for families whose children are diagnosed with a life-limiting disorder in the womb. Tracy Harkin from Cavan, Sarah Nugent from Laois, Grace…

Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, who has died aged 97, has been honoured in death by a host of American luminaries. “His deep and abiding faith in a loving God, and in the power of our shared humanity, led him to join the first-ever United States Civil Rights Commission, and join hands with (the Rev. Martin…

A new initiative in a Co. Tyrone parish is reaching out to people ‘where they are at’ by offering faith discussions in a local pub. Fr Ryan McAleer and Bosco McShane of the Siolta Retreat team launched ‘Faith on Tap’, based on the ‘Theology on Tap’ programme popular in the US, in McAleer’s pub in…

An archbishop in Central African Republic has likened the people of his country to Israelites wandering in the desert, and urged them to use the pope's planned autumn visit to escape from their “prolonged crisis”. In a Lenten pastoral letter, Bangui’s Archbishop Dieudonne Nzapalainga, president of the national bishops’ conference, said that “the harsh ordeal”…

The Church has to work harder to let parishioners know the good work that is being done to ensure a safe environment for children, a leading priest-psychologist has said. Speaking at the first conference of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI), Msgr Stephen Rosetti explained that last year…

Just weeks after the Latvian government announced new security measures, including the reintroduction of conscription, Catholic leaders have expressed concerns about possible Russian aggression. Speaking on behalf of Latvia’s bishops’ conference, Msgr Paul Klavins said NATO forces have given Latvians a “sense of greater protection” but added that many doubt how NATO’s collective defence guarantee…

A live musical event, run by the Dublin archdiocese for teenagers, saw over 2,000 young people from schools all over Dublin perform liturgical music this week. Emmanuel is a live concert series where young people learn new and old Church music and hymns and then perform live with an orchestra in front of large audiences…

Iraqi Christians attend Mass at a church in Baghdad. Pope Francis has said Catholics are "praying urgently that the intolerable brutality" Iraqi and Syrian Christians are suffering "may end as soon as possible."  

A delegation representing the ‘Save our Dominican church’ campaign in Drogheda will present a petition of 22,000 signatures to the international headquarters of the Dominican order in Rome next month. Irish Dominican authorities announced in September that they were planning to withdraw from five communities across Ireland because of falling numbers and the ageing profile…

Book claims Pope Francis’ revolution ‘may disappoint’ The Pope is engaged in a “radical revolution” that may disappoint both progressives and traditionalists, according to Cardinal Walter Kasper’s new book Pope Francis – Revolution of Tenderness and Mercy. Describing how the Holy Father distanced himself from such extreme positions in his final address at October 2014’s…