No quick “fixes” or organisational change will renew the Catholic Church in Germany, Pope Francis has said, maintaining that what is needed is a spiritual renewal and Gospel transparency. In a letter to “the pilgrim people of God in Germany”, published by the Vatican, the Pope said efforts to eliminate tension solely by “being in…
A global programme to raise awareness among nurses of human trafficking has been welcomed by Bishop Denis Brennan of Ferns, who represents the Irish bishops in an international anti-trafficking alliance. The initiative, a partnership between the International Council of Nurses, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, HSE and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland,…
Over 100 singers and musicians from around the country attended the 50th Annual Irish Church Music Association’s summer school in St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, last week on the theme ‘Rejoice and Sing’. This year the Irish Church Music Association’s 50th summer school was preceded by a two-day jubilee conference being held in partnership with the National Centre…
The Vatican City State tribunal has ordered the opening of two tombs in a small Vatican cemetery at the request of the family of Emanuela Orlandi, a young woman who disappeared in 1983. Emanuela Orlandi, a Vatican City resident and the daughter of a Vatican employee, disappeared in Rome on June 22, 1983, when she…
The Editor-in-Chief and US CEO of the UK-based Catholic Herald have left the company against the background of disagreements with board members over the magazine’s November 2018 American expansion. July 4 saw longtime Herald Editor-in-Chief Damian Thompson announce on Twitter that he and the magazine’s “new owners” did not agree on the company’s “future direction”,…
Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka rapidly declined in June, showing the severe economic impact of the Easter bombings on the Indian Ocean island nation. The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority said there were 63,072 tourist visits to Sri Lanka last month, a drop of 57% compared with June 2018, when the number was 146,828. The…
France’s Catholic Church pronounced a priest guilty of sexually abusing multiple Boy Scouts over several years and defrocked him last week, an unusually strong move that reflects France’s growing reckoning with clergy sex abuse. The ruling by a Church tribunal was the latest development in a case with repercussions that reached the highest levels of…
Francis gives St Peter’s bone fragments to Orthodox leader Pope Francis has unexpectedly given a reliquary containing what are believed to be bone fragments of St Peter to Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew, an ecumenical gesture that has generated controversy among some Catholics. The Pope took the reliquary from the chapel in the papal apartments, where Pope…
Kentucky death penalty protocol ‘unconstitutional’ A Franklin County Circuit judge ruled last week that Kentucky’s death penalty regulations are unconstitutional because they fail to provide for an automatic stay of execution for intellectually disabled inmates. The Catholic Conference of Kentucky and Fr Patrick Delahanty, retired chair of the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty,…
Pro-life organisations in the North have sharply criticised a vote in the House of Commons to introduce widespread access to abortion throughout Northern Ireland. Tuesday evening saw British MPs voting 332-99 in favour of an amendment to a bill connected to the Northern Ireland Executive Formation bill. The amendment was tabled by Labour MP Stella…
Greg Daly
Colm Fitzpatrick