Four new classrooms for Sligo School

A great opportunity must not be lost by Church infighting, writes John L. Allen Jr.

The Vatican has shrugged off last week’s reports that America’s National Security Agency spied on cardinals during the most recent conclave. In a statement on the issue, revealed in the pages on the Italian magazine, Panorama, spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi of the Holy See press office said: "My response regarding the article on Panorama on…

Celebrations for Westmeath church

Two mass graves containing murdered Christians have been unearthed in a village in Syria. The grim discoveries were made in Sadad, a village some 160kms north of the capital Damascus after soldiers of the Syrian army recaptured it at the end of October from Islamist fighters who had occupied the village since October 21. According…

More than 3,000 men and women leave religious life every year, according to new figures from the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Revealing the figures in Rome on October 29, the congregation’s leader, Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo pointed to the “young age” of the majority of those leaving, and…

Two individual sources have claimed that a pair of Orthodox bishops kidnapped in Syria are alive and have been traced to Turkey. In April, Bishop Boulos al Yazigi of the Orthodox Church of Antioch and Bishop Mar Gregorios Youhanna Ibrahim of the Syrian Orthodox Church disappeared while undertaking a humanitarian mission to Kafr Dael, near…

Controversial Vatican accountant Msgr Nunzio Scarano has been transferred to house arrest from the prison where he has been held since his June arrest in connection with the smuggling of €20 million. The monsignor has denied the charges, but his arrest has resulted in a major investigation into his employer, the Administration of the Patrimony…

India – A court in Orissa has been accused of having a “hidden agenda” after it released 54 Hindus linked to attacks during the 2007-08 outbreak of anti-Christian violence in the state. Despite evidence implicating the suspects to the burning of a Baptist church and homes in the district of Kandhamal at Christmas 2007, the…

The Vatican will host a summit meeting of patriarchs and major archbishops of the Oriental Churches of Syria, Iraq and the Middle East this November 19 to 22. Announcing details of the meeting, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches said it would operate under the theme ‘The Eastern Catholic Churches…