"The Holy Father should not have received that individual." Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, who served as personal secretary to the former Pope for 39 years, commenting – in a new book, I Lived with a Saint – on a 2004 meeting between the late Pontiff’s meetings and disgraced Legionaries of Christ founder Father Marcial…

Opposition to the Pontiff is growing, writes Michael Higgins

Paul Keenan and Cathal Barry Parishes across Ireland are mounting massive fundraising efforts for the Philippines as Irish missionaries there say more aid is urgently needed. In the wake of super-typhoon Haiyan, some 10 million people are directly affected and more than 5 million people left homeless. The death toll is expected to be in…

It’s long been called the ‘Francis effect’ and now, thanks to a new survey, its positive results are being measured for the first time. Since his election in March, Pope Francis has been the focus of much attention for his warm and engaging style of leadership, leading to debates as to whether this would translate…

A newly established confraternity for Irish clergy hopes to support clerics in their lives and ministry, the group’s chairman has said. Established during a meeting of priests in Knock, Co. Mayo in late October, the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy is based on successful bodies already working for the wellbeing of priests in Australia, the United…

One of the survivors of the October 3 migrant boat sinking off the island of Lampedusa has been arrested after other migrants identified him as a member of an African trafficking gang. Identified in reports as a Somali, the unnamed man is alleged to have been one of a number of men who tortured and…

‘There is still so much needed’

A Christian convert who received a 10-year prison sentence for abandoning Islam has been released less than a year into his sentence. Mostafa Bordbar was arrested last December 27 during a Christmas celebration with other Christians and in June sentenced for undermining national security in founding Christian house churches. In handing down the 10-year penalty,…

Fr Jerome Murphy-O’Connor OP, who died in the early hours of November 11 in Jerusalem, has been described as a “colossus” in biblical scholarship. The Cork-native spent more than 45 years working and researching in the Holy Land. Born in 1935, he was acknowledged as one of the foremost New Testament scholars in the world,…

South Africa – A Catholic priest is recovering after a man whom he earlier helped attacked him and left him for dead in the city of Pretoria. Fr Craigh Laubscher of St John Fisher Catholic Church had just left his church when he was set upon by the man. The priest was severely beaten and…