Complaints made against pro-life billboards have been rejected by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after the billboards were found to be accurate. Pro-life campaigners, Both Lives Matter (BLM), displayed two billboards claiming that ‘100,000 people are alive today because of our laws on abortion’ in Northern Ireland. There were 14 complaints made about the claim,…
An American writer-artist duo are seeking to raise $7,500 (€6,350) to complete production of a comic book about Skellig Michael. The Last Monks of Skellig Michael by Philip Kosloski and Michael Lavoy, with help from veteran comic artist Jim Fern, tells the story of an adventurous boy who leaves a monastic school on the mainland…
Grandparents are responsible for passing on faith values that will enable children to cope with sources that are “hostile to faith and spiritual values”. Archbishop Michael Neary spoke at a special mass organised by the Grandparents Association last week on the feast day of Sts Joachim and Anne in Tuam, Galway. “We have a responsibility…
Over a thousand young people are expected to attend a Catholic youth festival in Roscrea later this month, conference organisers say. The summer festival at Cistercian College will be a weekend of faith, fun and friendship, according to Youth 2000’s Brian O’Driscoll, who told The Irish Catholic: “The weekend offers a fantastic weekend of faith…
Clergy at Portlaoise parish were “amazed” as over €16,000 was raised for Trócaire’s emergency East Africa appeal – five times more than they would receive in a normal week. The parish usually get €3,000 each week from their offertory collection, but this was far surpassed by the collection held late last month. Msgr John Byrne…
Bishops in Kenya have urged citizens to vote peacefully as an election on August 8 looms – while a drought ravages the nation. Historically elections in Kenya have been extremely violent, with over 1,000 people killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in 2007 and 2008. The Chairman of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop…
The martyrdom of a French priest who was killed by Islamist extremists has brought the Muslim and Christian communities closer together, according to Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen. On the anniversary of the terror attack last week the archbishop said the event “transformed” him. Fr Jacques Hamel was killed at the age of 85 when…
Chinese authorities have ordered journalists not to describe an outspoken retired cardinal as the ‘emeritus’ bishop of Hong Kong, but to use ‘former’ instead. Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun was outspoken in his disdain for the ruling Communist Party, and raised issues regarding political freedom, human rights and religious persecution. He expressed a willingness to get…
Human trafficking is “brutal, savage and criminal,” Pope Francis said, but often it seems like people see it as a sad, but normal fact of life. “I want to call everyone to make a commitment to seeing that this perverse plague, a modern form of slavery, is effectively countered,” the Pope said on July 30,…
Meeting migrants makes you realise they are human beings, and they “have suffered much” according to the Director of Caritas Internationalis. Michael Roy says that listening to the stories of migrants and refugees should help people transcend prejudice. “You may be afraid of migrants as a large group of people coming in, but when you…
Colm Fitzpatrick