President Joe Biden announced on May 3 he was raising the historically low refugee cap of 15,000 left by the Trump administration, but also warned that his administration may not be able to meet the new number of refugees it is seeking to resettle in what remains of the fiscal year: 62,500. In a statement,…
Mexican Church leaders offered prayers for the victims of a metro line collapse that left at least 23 dead and more than 70 people injured. Bishop Andrés Vargas Peña of Xochimilco – which serves three southern boroughs in Mexico City – offered condolences to the victims, while announcing each priest in the diocese would celebrate…
The Archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, released on May 1, 2021 a pastoral letter in which he insisted that any Catholic cooperating with the evil of abortion should refrain from receiving the Eucharist. “It is fundamentally a question of integrity: to receive the Blessed Sacrament in the Catholic liturgy is to espouse publicly the…
Pope to institute formal ‘ministry of catechist’ While millions of laypeople around the world are recognised as catechists in their parish or diocese, Pope Francis is preparing to formally institute the “ministry of catechist”. The Vatican press office said May 5 that Pope Francis’ apostolic letter Antiquum Ministerium (“Ancient Ministry”), instituting the ministry, would be…
Man charged in 2020 arson at Californian church Authorities announced charges against a suspected arsonist who investigators believe ignited an overnight fire that gutted much of Mission San Gabriel last July. Officials charged John David Corey Jr, 57, with a number of felony counts of arson, as well as possession of flammable material and first-degree…
Chai Brady, Ruadhán Jones and Jason Osborne Catholics across the Republic are breathing a sigh of relief this weekend with the controversial ban on attending Mass due to be lifted on Monday, senior bishops have told The Irish Catholic. The prelates also praised what they described as the “fantastic work” of the army of volunteers…
Irish boxing champion Katie Taylor thanked God after she retained her WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO lightweight titles after her victory over Natasha Jones at the Manchester Arena. After the win on social media, Katie said: “Thanking God for a hard fought victory. Thank you all for the support!” The star has always been very vocal about…
Following a European Commission (EC) ruling that Ireland can’t be trusted to police its own fishing quotas, a Donegal-based priest criticised the Irish Government for failing to defend the fishing sector. The ruling comes as a blow after the Irish fishing sector had already lost €43 million following Brexit negotiations. Fr John Joe Duffy said…
Galway-based businessman Declan Ganley has said he intends to “press on” with his challenge to the restrictions on public worship, despite the return to public Mass on May 10. Mr Ganley’s case was postponed again at its last hearing until May 18. “The bans that were put in place were in our view unconstitutional and…
The generation of human-animal embryos exists in a “legislative vacuum”, a TD has discovered on the back of a parliamentary question concerning the procedure. This comes as a team of American and Chinese scientists recently created a human-monkey embryo by injecting human stem cells into monkey blastocytes, some of which were kept alive for up…
Chai Brady
Ruadhán Jones