Irish missionary Sr Cyril Mooney, whose work enabled thousands of disadvantaged girls in India to receive proper education, has died in Kolkata at the age of 86. Sr Mooney was an “eminent educational reformer, social worker and friend of the poor”, according to Chief minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee. “Her contribution to State welfare…
Legislation to criminalise so-called “conversion therapy” practices in Ireland is unnecessary and could impede patients suffering with gender dysphoria from getting medical help, according to doctors with the National Gender Service (NGS). Responding to an announcement by the Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman that he would bring forward legislation in the coming weeks with a view…
Catholics in Honduras prayed for the victims of a horrific massacre in a women’s prison – an attack underscoring the power of the country’s criminal gangs and their control over correctional facilities. Many Catholic clergy expressed outrage while demanding an overhaul of the country’s prison system. “Tragedy repeats itself,” tweeted Bishop Ángel Garachana of San…
US firm PublicSq recently announced that it will offer employees a bonus if they have a baby or adopt a child. This comes as a number of companies in the US continue to pay their employees time off or travel expenses to get an abortion in the wake of last year’s overturning of Roe v.…
More than half of the global population lives in a country in which state or non-state actors actively persecute people for their religious beliefs, according to the 2023 Religious Freedom in the World report. Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic charity, published the report, which put 28 countries in the “red” category for…
An Irish judge has noted as a sign of a lack of remorse the fact that a man guilty of the manslaughter of his elderly aunt neglected to say the act of contrition in her ear as she lay dying. 59-year-old farmer Michael Scott of Portumna in Co. Galway has been jailed for six years…
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he will speak with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega about releasing a jailed Nicaraguan bishop currently serving a 26-year prison sentence. Speaking to reporters in Rome June 22, a day after meeting with Pope Francis, the Brazilian president, commonly referred to as Lula, said there is “no reason…
Fr Mark Condon has been appointed diocesan vocations director for the Diocese of Ossory, as Bishop Niall Coll released his first clerical appointments. In addition to appointing a vocations director, the bishop of Ossory appointed a new director of ecumenism, Fr Brian Griffin, and vicar general, Fr Daniel Carroll. Meanwhile, three of Bishop Coll’s priests…
Earlier this month the story of a 24-year-old French man named Henri, who is being called the “backpack hero,” went viral for stopping a knife attack at a playground in southeastern France by chasing the attacker with a backpack. Henri was in the town of Annecy during a pilgrimage visiting France’s cathedrals when he witnessed the attack.…
The summer solstice was a scorching day in the golf club of Birr, Co. Offaly this year. A golf team tournament was held to raise awareness for vocations to the diocesan priesthood, called ‘Play for Vocations.’ This event was part of the ‘Year of Vocations’ to the diocesan priesthood that was instituted two months ago…
Ruadhán Jones