The Pioneer Association has launched a fundraising appeal to raise €100,000 in advance of the withdrawal of the Irish Jesuits at the end of this year. The Pioneers Total Abstinence Association of the Sacred Heart was founded in 1898 by a Dublin Jesuit, Fr James Cullen, to address the damage being caused by excess alcohol.…
The Church of the Philippines has rejected an invitation from the national police to become part of President Duterte’s murderous campaign against drug dealers. Following the call, issued by police chief General Ronald dela Rosa, the Filipino bishops’ conference insisted that it supports “whatever strategy there is, for as long as there’s no killing and…
Staff Reporter A ‘me first’ mentality lies at the range of social ills, including a reported rise in racist incidents, a leading priest-campaigner on immigration has said. Describing racism as an side-effect of an ‘every man for himself’ approach to society, Fr Alan Hilliard told The Irish Catholic, “Whether we like it or not, our…
Ireland’s most senior Churchman has expressed the hope that an end to the political impasse in the North will be the legacy of Martin McGuinness who has died aged 66. Archbishop Eamon Martin also paid tribute to Mr McGuinness as a “man of prayer”. The archbishop said that he had “no doubt” that Mr McGuinness’…
Eight Christian aid workers kidnapped in South Sudan have been freed unharmed. The eight members of the US-based Samaritan’s Purse charity were reportedly snatched by armed gunmen on March 13 in the central Mayendit area. Despite subsequent claims by the county’s military that the aid workers were being held for ransom, no such demand was…
The “heartbroken” family of Derry footballer Ryan McBride is being supported in their grief by the community’s “spirituality of presence”, according to their parish priest. The hugely respected Derry City captain died suddenly on Sunday when he went for a nap after training. He leaves his father Lexie, sisters Colleen, Siunin and Caitlain, his grandfather…
The Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations has urged the international community to forge an enduring peace for Syria. As the conflict in the Middle Eastern nation reached its sixth anniversary in March, Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic told a sitting of the UN in Geneva that “six years of ongoing conflict indicate the failure…
Taoiseach’s Enda Kenny’s St Patrick’s Day comments in the White House have been welcomed by chaplains to the Irish community in the US. Speaking alongside US President Donald Trump the day before St Patrick’s Day, Mr Kenny said of the saint: “He too of course was an immigrant. And though he is, of course, the…
The latest news is as grim as any emanating from the bloody battlefields of the Middle East currently dominating airtime with the international media. But this is Africa and, more specifically, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Thus, as embedded journalists in Iraq warned us to prepare for the worst as mass graves turned up amid…
Staff Reporter The Pope’s representative in Ireland has said that revelations about scandals in the Church should trigger a “deeper conversion” within Irish Catholicism. Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown said that “the life of the Church on this Earth is not the story of perfection, it is always a mixed story of triumph and failure;…
Mags Gargan
Greg Daly
Paul Keenan