Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize on October 10 and was praised for keeping “the flame of democracy burning amid growing darkness.” Born in Caracas to a wealthy family, Machado co-founded the civil organisation Súmate in 2002 to promote transparency. Her family’s steel business was expropriated in 2010, before she…
In his homily at a packed Sunday Mass in Newman Church St Stephen’s Green, celebrating St John Henry Newman’s Feast Day, Fr Gary Chamberland, CSC, said the conversion of St John Henry Newman “gave him [Newman] no comfort” and Newman didn’t come from Anglicanism for emotional reasons or a sense of welcome. “He came because…
After decades of decline, signs suggest that Ireland’s younger generation might be leading a quiet return to faith. Research from the Bible Society and the recent Iona Institute poll points to a stabilisation and, in some places, a rising of church attendance among Gen Z. Exploring what this means for the future, the Iona Institute…
Czech Catholic bishops welcomed the results of the parliamentary elections on October 3–4, which saw a populist party win the most votes but fall short of a majority, while a far-left coalition that bishops had warned had an explicitly anti-Church platform failed to enter Parliament. The ANO 2011 party, led by billionaire former prime minister…
The US Catholic bishops sharply criticised the Trump administration’s recent approval of the generic abortion drug mifepristone, saying that women and children deserve better care. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug even as the administration is currently investigating the abortion drug for safety concerns. US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert…
Pope Leo XIV released the first major document of his young pontificate on October 9, in which he called upon all the Christian faithful – especially Catholics – to “make their voices heard,” in decrying the sinful structures that contribute to poverty and make life for the poor even more miserable than it already is.…
The Archdiocese of Seoul announced that it has received authorisation from the Vatican to initiate the beatification cause of the priest who pioneered monastic life in Korea. According to the Vatican news agency Fides, Fr Leo Bang Yu-ryong (1900–1986) will be recognized as a servant of God. With this permission, the archdiocese will be able…
The first cardinal from the southern Philippines has decried what he describes as continued injustice against Muslim Filipinos who dominate part of Mindanao, which, for decades, has been stricken by poverty and war. Mindanao is home to an autonomous Muslim region, the Bangsamoro, where Muslims comprise around 91% of the population. “These injustices are not…
The woman convicted of gun offences who was employed in Catherine Connolly’s Dáil office in 2019 was invited to address an Oireachtas committee in 2024, it has emerged. Ursula Ní Shionnáin – who holds a PhD in sociolinguistics- addressed TDs and Senators on the Oireachtas Committee for the Gaeltacht and the Irish Language and discussed…
After Donald Trump’s praise in Israel, theologians warn against mythologising the US president. The comparison with Cyrus the Great after the hostage release is theologically and politically questionable. Biblical scholars have criticised religious praise of US President Donald Trump in Israel. Irmtraud Fischer, Professor of the Old Testament in Graz, told the Catholic News Agency…