High profile anti-vaccination advocates have hit out at this newspaper after it reported a story stating that priests and theologians said “parents are morally obliged to vaccinate their children”. Most outrage stemmed from the fact that some vaccines were developed from cell lines descending from aborted foetal tissue Irish journalist Gemma O’Doherty wrote on Twitter:…
Pope Francis will declare Blessed John Henry Newman, the 19th-Century English cardinal, a saint on October 13. The English theologian will be canonised during a Mass at the Vatican along with a Swiss laywoman, an Indian nun, an Italian nun and a nun known as the “Mother Teresa of Brazil”. The date for the canonisation…
Bishops in the Ivory Coast have warned of a new civil war in the run-up to 2020 elections, unless urgent action is taken to ease communal tensions and withdraw weapons in West African state. “A general climate of fear now reigns throughout our population, linked to recurrent intercommunal conflicts, issues of insecurity, illicit forest occupation…
Google has admitted that it “blacklisted” a significant number of videos on YouTube ahead of last year’s abortion referendum, and interfered with search results. This newspaper was also directly affected by the interference. Voters who searched for certain terms had the results of their searches manually altered by Google, ensuring that videos chosen by the…
Encouraging lay leadership will be a key task for tomorrow’s clergy, Bishop Larry Duffy has said. Speaking at the ordination of Fr Kevin Connolly in St Macartan’s Cathedral, Monaghan, Bishop Duffy said that as a priest Fr Connolly would be called to spend time with Jesus, pondering his life and message and celebrating his presence…
Congo’s bishops said territory in the east of the country is being ceded to violent extremists, who are using the lack of government control to massacre civilians and plunder resources. “We do not understand why the Democratic Republic of Congo’s armed forces, backed by the United Nations Stabilisation Mission, have not managed to neutralise these…
Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s remains have been transferred from the Archdiocese of New York to Peoria, Illinois, after three years of litigation, clearing the way for the former archbishop’s sainthood cause to go forward. Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria announced that Sheen’s remains had been transferred from St Patrick Cathedral, New York, to the Cathedral…
In a world that is becoming ever “busier”, books provide a gateway to evangelisation, Ossory’s Bishop Dermot Farrell has said. His comments come after he was appointed as chair of Ireland’s leading religious publisher and retailer Veritas. “It is good to be working [with] everyone at Veritas who for the past 120 years have been,…
Under persistent heavy rain and a grey overcast sky, the annual Corpus Christi Procession assembled after the 2.00pm Polish Mass, at St Conleth’s Parish Church, Kildare, to make its way down to St Eustace’s Dominican Grounds for Solemn open-air Benediction. Nothing deterred the enthusiastic participation of the congregation. Under an exquisitely embroidered antique canopy provided…
The security of Christians in Northern Iraq remains “tenuous” and will require close attention in the future, the US State Department’s religious freedom ambassador has told members of Congress. While the situation is “far better in Northern Iraq right now” for Yazidis and Christians, who in 2016 were recognised by the State Department as genocide…
Colm Fitzpatrick