The slow divestment of Catholic schools is down to local demand and not the Church, a senior official in the Department of Education has said. The reconfiguration of school patronage is a “slow burner”, Mr Hubert Loftus told the Joint Oireachtas Committee for Education and Skills. However, he added that this “is not necessarily because…
American actor Shia LaBeouf has appeared in a viral clip in which he speaks about how there aren’t enough joyful depictions of Christ on the cross. “You know, the story of Christ is that God became man for our betterment,” Mr LaBeouf, 36, says in the clip, continuing, “so that means he is the ultimate…
The Catholic Church in Sydney bid farewell to its former archbishop, Cardinal George Pell, in a funeral at times solemn, reverent, defiant and sorrowful, shot through with wry Australian humour, and attended by mourners from all walks of life. The cardinal remained a sign of contradiction until the very end, with protesters’ shouts of “George…
Archbishop Eamon Martin has paid tribute to Deacon Martin Barlow, who died recently aged 54. Deacon Barlow, who was one of the first married men to be ordained to the diaconate in Armagh, died just four weeks after being diagnosed with cancer. His funeral Mass was held on Monday in St John the Baptist Church,…
A Belgian television station has rediscovered a 20-minute video in which Fr Georges Lemaitre, considered the father of the Big Bang theory, explains what the origin of the universe may have been like. Fr Lemaitre was a Belgian astrophysicist known for being the first academic to propose the theory of the expansion of the universe…
“Tragically, religious freedom for many is increasingly under assault around the world,” Rep. Michael McCaul said at the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit, which took place in Washington, DC, last week. Faith leaders from across the world – including Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and others – gathered at the summit to address the ongoing persecution…
Irish healthcare services would be “much better” if there were more of the Catholic ethos today, an independent senator has said. Responding to the revelation that 95% of parents whose babies are diagnosed with Down’s syndrome at the Rotunda Hospital choose to have an abortion, Senator Rónán Mullen said that “something has happened in our…
The Laudate Festival was celebrated for the fifth time in Dublin archdiocese this week. A diocesan celebration of Catholic primary schools that brings children, schools communities, families and parishes together to praise God and take time for reflection, a choir of hundreds of children from 25 Catholic primary schools in the archdiocese led singing as…
Anglicans and Catholics in the US are continuing to discern “the Spirit at work” in each other, a number of ecumenical experts told OSV News. Over the past several years, the US Catholic Conference of Bishops and the Anglican Church in North America have moved from an initial “meet and greet … to really looking…
Some 14 schools in the North received the ‘Spirit of Catholic Education’ award, January 30, recognising their commitment to promoting the Catholic ethos. The awards, organised by Down and Connor, paid tribute to the schools for their “inspiring work”, a statement from the diocese said. “These schools are receiving the award in recognition of their…
Ruadhán Jones