Staff reporter The HSE-run pregnancy helpline My Options is “leading vulnerable women toward abortion”, a study from Students for Life has shown. Katie Fenton of Students for Life warned the helpline is “failing women in crisis pregnancies” by not offering continued-pregnancy practical support. Students for Life investigated how My Options counsellors interact with callers between…
Staff reporter For the first time in almost two years, The Irish Catholic Christian Solidarity Pilgrimage to the Holy Land will go ahead next month. The February 16-24 trip looked uncertain due to Covid-19 concerns. However, Israeli authorities announced that the borders of the Holy Land would reopen to pilgrims in time to facilitate the…
Priests of the Kilmore Diocese have told The Irish Catholic they feel left in the dark after being told by the diocesan administrator that they should not speak about Bishop Martin Hayes’ leave of absence. The bishop wrote to the clergy in early December saying that he was taking a number of weeks leave on…
A “very real demographic winter” stands behind the Pope’s recent controversial comments on pets, prominent economist Ray Kinsella has said. The Pope provoked an outraged reaction last week when he criticised the replacement of children with dogs and cats in many couples’ lives. “The other day, I was talking about the demographic winter that we…
Bishop Wilybard Lagho of Malindi continued to call for calm in the Kenyan coastal region of Lamu, but said land disputes were behind the latest attacks, which have left at least seven people dead. The bishop told Catholic News Service there is credible evidence that the attacks are being perpetrated by local gangs with an…
Staff reporter Dublin’s Filipino community continues to celebrate devotion to Santo Niño de Cebú this week in St Joseph’s Church on Berkeley Road in Dublin. The devotion revolves around an image of the Christ Child widely venerated as miraculous by Filipino Catholics. The image itself is the oldest Christian artifact in the Philippines, originally a…
Sayed Wardak, 32, spent five years as a translator for the US Army in Afghanistan. In 2016, after nearly a year of hiding from the Taliban and in fear for his life, Mr Wardak and his wife, Sairah, immigrated to the United States. Knowing first-hand the perils of life in Afghanistan, and the challenges of…
Debates around keeping schools open during Covid should focus on “the activity of education”, said a diocesan Catholic schools’ representative. Given the difficulty in teacher supply, “the structured plan to actually deliver education” must be considered, said Alan Hynes of St Senan’s Education Office, which assists schools in the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly and…
Kansas State University footballer Landry Weber recently turned heads when he announced that he’ll be going “pro” in a different direction: he’s planning on entering the seminary and being ordained a priest following his college days. “‘He’ll be entering the priesthood when his college career is finished’ said announcer Tom Hart on Kansas State wide…
The Missionaries of Charity congregation has been forced to shut Nirmala Shishu Bhawan, a home for orphaned, destitute and abandoned children in Uttar Pradesh state, after its lease expired. The Defence Estates Office demanded $250,000 from the nuns for trespassing. The closure came on the heels of the federal government’s refusal to renew the congregation’s…
Chai Brady
Ruadhán Jones