Students raised in religious homes are more likely to succeed, regardless of whether they went to a faith school or a not, a new study has found. Research by the UCL Institute of Education found that pupils from Catholic and Church of England families did well due to their upbringing, rather than because of the…
A new pro-life Poster Campaign aims to ensure legislation regarding abortion in the North of Ireland (NI) will be dealt with by Stormont rather than in Westminster, with campaigners saying “the battle is on”. Churches across NI will be contacted by Precious Life who hope they will encourage parishioners to send the group’s postcards to…
People who deny the good work that the Church in Ireland has done are not being fair and instead are being driven by ideology, Bishop Donal McKeown has said. Referring to the Taoiseach’s speech with Pope Francis at Dublin Castle, Bishop McKeown pointed out how Leo Varadkar said “the Church in Ireland has done many…
Honouring a priest shot at point-blank range by the Mafia, Pope Francis has insisted that true happiness and a real change in Sicilian society will come only when people love and care for one another rather than trying to grab as much money and power as they can. “Having always leads to wanting. I have…
The number of homeless people in Ireland is far more than 10,000 according to the CEO of a major homeless charity, and Government figures don’t “recognise the scale of the problem”. Speaking at the launch of Merchants Quay Ireland’s (MQI) 2017 Annual Report, outgoing CEO Tony Geoghegan said the figure of 9,846 in emergency accommodation…
A prominent Dublin priest has defended having congratulated the ‘Yes’ side for having run a successful campaign in the abortion referendum, saying “people don’t listen to sore losers”. Speaking at the Kennedy Summer School earlier this month, Ballyfermot’s Fr Joe McDonald complimented Deirdre Duffy of the Together for Yes referendum campaign for the campaign’s “wonderful…
A Church of England (CofE) archbishop has been accused of hypocrisy after criticising Amazon’s tax practices, despite the church being one of its largest investors. In a homily last week the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, attacked the company for paying “almost nothing in taxes” and “leaching off the taxpayer”. Archbishop Welby also described zero-hour…
Lack of vocations in Ireland is due to orders becoming “sterile” said the Pope during his private address to Jesuits during his visit to Ireland. The text of Pope Francis’ meeting with Jesuits, a regular occurrence during papal trips, was published almost a month after his visit to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families.…
A 350-page document leaked to German media documents nearly 3,700 cases of alleged sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests, deacons and clergy in Germany over a 68-year period. The release of the document caused shock in Germany, with many criticising the German bishops’ conference for its detailed knowledge of the abuse and their silence…
Christians in the US have taken the Trump administration to task for a dramatic drop in the numbers of persecuted Christian and other refugees being admitted into the country, even though administration officials promised last year to help. While administration officials vowed on several occasions to help Christians in the Middle East facing what Vice…
Colm Fitzpatrick
Chai Brady