Category: News

Zimbabwe honours missionary priest

A Franciscan missionary priest has been posthumously honoured by the Zimbabwean Government for his contributions to achieving independence in the country and his subsequent charitable work there. Fr Paschal Slevin, who died in Dublin on May 1 this year at the age of 83, was given the highest honour reserved for foreigners, The Royal Order…

Out and About

Dublin’s first Cycle of Light in aid of NCBI The National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI) will hold its first ‘Cycle of Light’ event on August 25. This event will see 100 people cycle into the darkness of night for sight loss. From 8.30pm until dark participants will cycle from Dalkey to Howth…

Catholics call for peace after condemning Charlottesville white nationalist violence

US Catholics have called for peace in the aftermath of violence in Charlottesville, in which three people died and dozens were injured. Catholic bishops, a cardinal and several Catholic organisations made the appeal following clashes between pacifists, protestors and white supremacists in the Virginian town. A white nationalist rally was organised in reaction to Charlottesville…

Kenya’s election results spur violence

Catholic bishops in Kenya have called for calm as violent post-election protests led to over 20 people being killed, including a nine-year-old girl. The protests have ignited anger in slums across Nairobi and Kisumu after Raila Odinga, the main opposition candidate, lost against President Uhuru Kenyatta. Mr Odinga has travelled through slums saying the government…

Celebrated former president of religious order dies

The former president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and of her order, the Sisters of charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM), has died age 82. Sr Helen Maher Garvey entered religious life when she was just 17 and subsequently earned a doctorate in organisational development in Columbia University in New York City.…

Christians killed in Africa receive Pope’s prayer

Pope Francis called for an end to violence against Christians following deadly attacks in two African countries. The Pope led pilgrims in prayer for the victims of a deadly shooting last week at St Philip’s Catholic Church in Ozubulu, in Nigeria. He also prayed for Christians killed following an attack at a mission in Gambo,…

Vatican Roundup

Pope saddened by Catholics who despise others God did not choose perfect people to form his Church, but rather sinners who have experienced his love and forgiveness, Pope Francis has said. The Gospel of Luke’s account of Jesus forgiving the sinful woman shows how his actions went against the general mentality of his time, a…

African-American Catholics: ending ‘invisibility’

In the wake of Saturday’s carnage in Charlottesville, Virginia, it’s clearer than ever that American society desperately needs help on race. The Catholic Church has unique resources to deploy, but it can’t afford to allow its own African-American community and leadership to remain “invisible”, as one African-American bishop recently described it. It’s not as if…

New nuncio welcomed to Ireland

Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo, the new Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland, arrived at Dublin Airport on Monday where he was greeted by several Irish bishops including Cardinal Séan Brady. Archbishop Eamon Martin is currently on pilgrimage in Fatima and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin is on summer vacation. Photo: John McElroy