Police in Northern Ireland are investigating a sectarian hate crime on a Catholic Church in Derry which has been decried as “disgusting” and “disgraceful”. A door of St Mary’s Church in Limavady as well as a standing crucifix on the church grounds were defaced with graffiti which included the names of loyalist paramilitary organisations such…
The Catholic Grandparents Association (CGA) has welcomed Pope Francis’ establishment of a ‘World Day of Prayer for Grandparents and the Elderly’ which will take place for the first time on July 25 this year. Archbishop Michael Neary of Tuam, patron of the CGA, welcomed the move saying the Pope is “highlighting the very important role…
Dozens of people in Kerry have benefitted from spiritual exercises Exodus and Fiat 90, which have proven “absolutely powerful” in helping people thrive during lockdown. Exodus and Fiat 90 are a set of male and female spiritual exercises respectively which aim to strip life back to the basics of prayer, asceticism and community. An extended…
Dublin’s new leader has insisted that how we rise to challenges and opportunities defines who we are as people of faith, writes Michael Kelly Archbishop Dermot Farrell has said he is filled with hope as he takes up his new appointment as archbishop of the country’s largest diocese. Dr Farrell was installed in St Mary’s…
RTÉ has confirmed that it will continue to offer extra religious content until the end of June while the national vaccination programme is implemented. The national broadcaster has aired weekday and Sunday Masses since the first lockdown last March in partnership with churchservices.tv. Commissioning editor of religious content at RTÉ, Roger Childs, commented, saying that…
The Israeli Embassy in Ireland has hit back at a statement by the Vatican’s Holy Land Coordination Group that Israel has a “legal responsibility” to vaccinate Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. In a statement released by the group, which included Irish bishops Dr Noel Treanor and Dr Fintan Monahan, they stated that Israel…
Poland’s constitutional court published January 21 the rationale for its declaration that abortion for foetal abnormalities is unconstitutional three months after it made the ruling. In the highly anticipated ruling on October 22, the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw said that the law introduced in 1993 was incompatible with Poland’s constitution. But the law did not…
The Vatican’s official news agency has vowed to do better after an observant Irish reader spotted they refer to ‘UK bishops’ when they mean just prelates from England and Wales. Vatican News, a news information portal provided by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, was taken to task by a concerned reader of The Irish Catholic…
Stating that Brazil’s federal government displayed contempt for protecting the health of the population and showed criminal conduct, 380 Brazilian Christian religious leaders filed an impeachment request against President Jair Bolsonaro for the crime of shirking his responsibilities. “Faced with the most serious public health crisis in the history of the country and the planet,…
The chairman of the US bishops’ pro-life and international policy committees said President Joe Biden’s memo rescinding the so-called ‘Mexico City policy’ January 28 is a “grievous” action that “actively promotes the destruction of human lives in developing nations”. “It is antithetical to reason, violates human dignity, and is incompatible with Catholic teaching. We and…
Chai Brady
Michael Kelly
Ruadhán Jones