Priest threatened in Mexico in area of increasing violence A priest involved with social and environmental causes in southern Mexico was threatened by gangs, the latest in a wave of increasing violence gripping the communities served by the Diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas. Fr Matías Rodríguez Jiménez was threatened by five individuals on…
While Pope Francis and bishops around the world will consecrate themselves and all humanity to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, they will include the phrase, “especially Russia and Ukraine”. In the text of the Pope’s prayer sent to chanceries around the globe so that bishops can join the Pope March 25, a key passage for…
Irish Catholics have a special onus to “fight even harder” to defend embattled Christians in the Middle East because of Ireland’s history of persecution. Multi award-winning war reporter and senior fellow at Yale University Janine di Giovanni told The Irish Catholic that Christian communities face an existential threat across Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine,…
Irish religious are in contact with the Irish Government to offer housing and support for Ukrainian refugees, saying they will do whatever they can. The Association of Leaders of Missionaries and Religious of Ireland (AMRI) are in dialogue with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY), who are co-ordinating the housing of…
Italy’s central region of Lazio, which includes Rome, is offering up to €2,000 to couples who choose to marry there, as part of its ‘In Lazio with love’ scheme. The regional authorities have allocated €10 million in funds as part of their plans to support companies and services in the badly affected “wedding supply chain”…
The Primate of All-Ireland joined with government leaders in the North of Ireland who issued a state apology to abuse victims, saying courage and perseverance brought their stories to light and “uncovered the enormity of harshness and brutality” they experienced. Archbishop Eamon Martin said on Friday: “On behalf of the Catholic Church in Ireland, I repeat…
Attendance at Sunday Mass is going to become an “essential expression of faith” after Easter Sunday, the Irish bishops’ conference have announced. It is more than two years since the Sunday obligation – the duty of Catholics to attend Mass on Sunday – was temporarily lifted at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March…
Four men accused of terrorist conspiracy after the murder of the French Catholic priest Father Jacques Hamel in 2016 have been convicted. “Justice is done,” Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen said after the verdict on March 9. “[The court] has discerned the good from the bad as much as possible, it has judged and for the good…
A public consultation on whether to introduce exclusion zones around abortion clinics in Northern Ireland has found that only 13 of the 6,412 submissions from members of the public supported the bill. This works out as 0.2% of the total submissions. Despite the strong opposition to the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Bill, MLAs voted…
Nordic Catholic bishops have issued an open letter expressing alarm at the direction of the German ‘Synodal Way’. In the March 9 letter, they cautioned against “capitulation to the Zeitgeist” and “impoverishment of the content of our faith,” reported CNA Deutsch. While acknowledging the challenges facing the Catholic Church in Germany, they said that “the orientation, method, and…
Ruadhán Jones
Chai Brady