The Church’s “wobbling” over the question of ordaining women to the diaconate is a scandal, a leading theologian told a symposium at Trinity College Dublin. There “is not now and never has been any doctrinal finding that women cannot be ordained to the diaconate”, said Dr Phyllis Zagano, an expert on women in the diaconate.…
The precarious state of South Africa’s electricity grid, which sees regular “planned and controlled” shutdowns of parts of the grid so as to avoid a national blackout, has led to a “depressed” people an Irish archbishop living there has claimed. Speaking to The Irish Catholic about the controversial “load shedding” practice, Archbishop Liam Slattery OFM…
Dublin diocese has updated its privacy policy to defend itself from lawsuits under the right to privacy and GDPR laws. Some dioceses, including Archbishop Dermot Farrell’s former diocese of Ossory, have faced complaints from individuals alleging their rights were being breached by the dioceses keeping their baptismal certificate after requests for them to be destroyed.…
The recent Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) conference saw delegates criticise “insensitive comments” made by school management bodies expressing opposition to teaching controversial gender ideology. Early March saw the Catholic Primary School Management Association (CPSMA) say that teaching primary school students about transgenderism “would be counterproductive, generating unnecessary divisions in school communities” and that it…
The home of an Aontú election candidate in Newry was targeted with sectarian graffiti, the party announced on Monday. In a statement Aontú said loyalists defaced Sharon Loughran’s property with the words ‘Aontú IRA out’ and ‘UDA’. The incident has been reported to the PSNI. Ms Loughran said: “This has come as a massive shock to…
Minister for Education Norma Foley received hundreds of letters from parents, teachers, school principals and medical professionals over plans to reform sex education in primary and secondary schools. The letters question plans for children to be taught about subjects including masturbation, pornography and consent, according to The Sunday Independent. In one letter a primary school…
Clonard Redemptorist monastery, Belfast – which was at the centre of peace-making efforts during the Troubles – hosted a “recommitment service” on Sunday, April 16. Community leaders, clerics and political dignitaries including US Special Envoy Joseph Kennedy III, joined in tribute to peace workers who were inspired by their faith, 25 years on from the…
One of the top military hospitals in the US says it is reviewing a Catholic pastoral care contract it awarded last month to a Virginia-based firm that specialises in providing government clients with industrial machinery, tactical gear, and janitorial supplies, in addition to chaplains and other religious staff. Franciscan friars at Holy Name College in nearby Silver…
TD Michael Collins has hit back at the HSE for having “smeared” pro-life counselling services, after the HSE described them as “disingenuous organisations”. The Health Service Executive described a “disingenuous organisation” as one that offers “advice and supports that do not include information on abortion services”. In response, Deputy Collins criticised the HSE, saying an…
At least 94 people reportedly have died in a series of deadly attacks on Christian communities throughout Holy Week in Benue state in north-central Nigeria, an ominous sign of escalating violence blamed on Muslim militias in the country’s Middle Belt region. On April 2, armed men reportedly stormed a Palm Sunday service at a Pentecostal church in…
Ruadhán Jones
Chai Brady