A new website aims to make available to Catholics and researchers a collection of photographs of the Shroud of Turin by a scientific photographer who was part of a research project that spent more than 100 hours conducting tests on the shroud. The Shroud of Turin is a linen cloth 4.4m long by 1.1m, which shows the…
Clergy have denounced a 10-year ban from ministry of a paedophile priest, saying it is “bizarre” and “abhorrent” that he wasn’t dismissed from the clerical state completely. It has been reported that the Legion of Christ announced the Vatican has banned an Irish priest from public ministry for 10 years for the sexual abuse of…
Using the Pope’s encyclical on the environment to inform prayer and liturgy is “a proposal that the bishops can take up”, particularly as the language appeals to young people, the Bishop of Down and Connor has said. Speaking to The Irish Catholic during a conference on Laudato Si’, hosted by the Society of African Missionaries…
South Korea’s Constitutional Court has ruled an abortion ban in the country to be unconstitutional, receiving mixed responses from Korean citizens. Seven of the nine justices on the court voted to repeal the law on April 11, ordering it to be revised by 2020. Two of the justices dissented. The law, which was established in…
Catholic and Orthodox leaders have condemned the bulldozing of memorial crosses at a site of communist-era mass executions. Media reports said at least 15 protesters were arrested in early April when police cordoned off an area of the Kuropaty Forest, outside Minsk in Belarus and bulldozers moved in to demolish about 70 15-foot crosses, which…
Pope kneels and begs before Sudanese leaders At the end of a highly unusual spiritual retreat for the political leaders of warring factions, Pope Francis knelt at the feet of the leaders of South Sudan, begging them to give peace a chance and to be worthy “fathers of the nation”. “As a brother, I ask you to remain in peace. I…
Archbishop ‘humbled’ over papal appointment Archbishop Eamon Martin has said he is “humbled” that Pope Francis has appointed him as Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Dromore, which took immediate effect on April 15. “I am humbled by Pope Francis’ request and grateful for his confidence in me. It will be an honour for me to serve the people,…
The commission investigating the historic treatment of unmarried mothers and their children in religious-run care homes has dismissed claims that an underground burial plot was in fact a sewage tank. When news of the common grave on the grounds of the former State-regulated home run by the Sisters of Bon Secours in Tuam, Co. Galway,…
After the devastating fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris April 15, Romans and tourists could not help looking at St Peter’s Basilica and wondering, “what if?” But Maj. Paolo De Angelis, head of the Vatican fire department, told the Italian news agency ANSA on April 16 that the structural differences between Notre Dame and…
Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung of Seoul reiterated the Church’s stance on abortion after South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled that the country’s abortion ban is unconstitutional. The country’s top court called on April 11 for a legislative change to partially allow a mother to choose to terminate a pregnancy in its early stages. While some women’s…
Chai Brady