Focus Ireland has called for a review of rent limits for rent supplements to ensure vulnerable people are not “disproportionately bearing the brunt of the economic fall-out”. This comes as the maximum rent limits for rent supplement were last amended in 2016. Rents have continued to rise in the five years since then. Director of…
More than 220,000 people left the Catholic Church in Germany in 2020, according to official figures released last Wednesday. The statistics issued by the German bishops’ conference on July 14 showed that 221,390 people exited the Catholic Church last year. The figure was almost 19% lower than that of 2019, when a record 272,771 people departed. But it was…
A two-time survivor of China’s detention camps in Xinjiang described suffering physical and sexual violence at the hands of camp guards, in her July 14 testimony at an international religious freedom gathering in Washington, DC. Tursunay Ziyawudun, 42, of China’s northwest province of Xinjiang, spoke at the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, DC on…
A Vatican prosecutor requested that Fr Gabriele Martinelli, who is accused of sexually abusing a younger student at the St Pius X Pre-Seminary, be sentenced to six years in prison if convicted. At the 11th session of the Vatican criminal trial July 15, Roberto Zanotti, the prosecutor, explained that the recommended sentence for the crimes…
Church officials are studying a reported miracle attributed to an Italian Catholic who died at the age of 21, the postulator of his cause has said. Fr Walter Vinci, Postulator General of the Order of St Camillus, noted that Pope Francis had recognised the heroic virtues of Nicola d’Onofrio on July 5, 2013. Heroic virtue is one…
Vatican’s financial watchdog highlights ‘increasing trend’ in reports to Promoter of Justice The Vatican’s financial watchdog authority reported last Thursday that it received 89 suspicious activity reports in 2020, 16 of which it forwarded to the Promoter of Justice for possible prosecution. In a 52-page annual report, released July 15, the Supervisory and Financial Information Authority…
South African bishops call for an end to violence and looting Catholic bishops in South Africa have called for an end to violence and looting that has led to the deaths of 72 people. People were trampled to death this week amid looting and rioting in the streets of two South African provinces, Gauteng and…
The 19-year-old Monaghan GAA player who was killed in a car accident was remembered as a “shining star”, shining on family and loved ones.
Saying he was acting for the good of the unity of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has restored limits on the celebration of the Mass according to the Roman Missal in use before the Second Vatican Council, overturning or severely restricting permissions St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI had given to celebrate the…
The British government’s decision to ban all Troubles-related criminal and civil actions as well as legacy inquests, has been described as “deeply disheartening” and a “betrayal of trust” by the Primate of All-Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh. He said that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s comments in the House of Commons on Wednesday July 14,…
Ruadhán Jones
Chai Brady