A statue of an archbishop that was decapitated outside the cathedral in Tipperary was restored and then blessed on December 17. The vandals who targeted the statue of Archbishop Patrick Leahy, which is based outside the front of the Cathedral of the Assumption in Thurles, were not caught. Despite an investigation launched after the attack…
Football fans on the European continent have been faithfully flying flags for Our Lady and one of the Church’s great saints, St Ambrose of Milan, during recent football games. Images of the flags went viral on social media after the games, with many commenting favourably on the public displays of affection for the Faith. The…
Letter From Rome H.L. Mencken once famously quipped that love is like war, in that it’s easy to begin but very hard to stop. Had Mencken plied his journalistic trade in the internet age, he might well have added rumours to that list, which are notoriously easy these days to put into circulation and virtually…
Eduardo Campos Lima With an unprecedented rise in 2023 in the number of immigrants crossing Central America in an effort to reach the United States and Canada, the bishops of the region are urging local governments to establish adequate programs to deal with them and to ensure their safety. The migration crisis was the main…
Pope Francis condemned the Israeli military’s killing of two Christian women taking shelter at a Catholic parish in Gaza, as well as an attack on a convent, describing the IDF’s actions as “terrorism”. The Pope’s comments came after praying the Angelus in St Peter’s Square, December 17, as Francis decried the December 16 attack on…
Christoph Arens (KNA) In the end, the Vatican budged after all. Many German catholics had not expected its decision, announced shortly before Christmas, to allow the blessing of homosexual and remarried couples. Some reform minded catholics called it a Christmas present. For Irme Stetter-Karp, president of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), the decision…
A Catholic priest can bless a gay or other unmarried couple as long as it is not a formal liturgical blessing and does not give the impression that the Catholic Church is blessing the union as if it were a marriage, the Vatican doctrinal office has said. The request for a blessing can express and…
Paris (KNA): A cockerel is once again watching over Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. At the weekend, the archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich, blessed the figure, French media reported. The golden cockerel filled with relics was then placed on the 96-metre-high spire above the nave of the church. A cockerel, the heraldic animal of the French…
Jerusalem (KNA): Representatives of almost all Christian churches have prayed for an end to the war and for hope at an ecumenical prayer for peace in Jerusalem. High-ranking representatives of the Catholic, Armenian, Coptic, Anglican and Protestant Churches attended the service on Wednesday evening. In hymns and intercessions, the Christians prayed for God’s help for…
Parishioners across Ireland have been urged to use the festive period to encourage their friends and neighbours who have been away from the sacraments, to come to Christmas Mass and experience anew the sense of community.
Chai Brady
John L. Allen Jr.