The executive summary of the ACP review of the Murphy Report

Iran – Four Christians have been sentenced to flogging after police discovered them consuming wine during a communion service at their house church. Behzad Taalipasand, Mehdi Reza Omidi, Mehdi Dadkhah and Amir Hatemi will receive 80 lashes each for the offence, despite the constitutional protections supposedly offered to non-Muslim worship in Iran. Commenting on the…

Process ‘loaded against Catholic education’

Brunei – The south-east Asian sultanate has introduced elements of sharia law into its Penal Code. Announcing the introduction, over the next six months, of punishments such as stoning for adultery, hand amputation for thieves, and flogging for a host of misdemeanours, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah said: “By the grace of Allah, with the coming into…

President Higgins praised Trócaire on state visit to in El Salvador

Kenya – Christian leaders have vowed to continue to pray at their places of worship despite the recent slaying of two pastors, one of them in his church as he read his Bible. The two killings, in and near to the port city of Mombasa have been blamed on Islamic extremists, and were possibly carried…

False impression given that religious schools better funded

The Philippines – A Catholic youth group has hit on a novel way to fundraise for churches struck by an earthquake on October 15. YouthPinoy has begun to sell dolls named in honour of the local Saint Pedro Calungsod and is turning the proceeds over for the reconstruction of some 10 damaged churches in the…

Fr Gerry Campbell ran Dublin marathon for Trócaire

France – The country’s Constitutional Council has ruled that mayors do not have a right to claim conscientious objection against performing gay marriage ceremonies. The ruling is a blow to a group of mayors which appealed to the council in the wake of threats by France’s Interior Ministry to imprison, for five years, those refusing…