The principles of Humanae Vitae, Blessed Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical on the regulation of birth, have been “ignored for too long”, Elphin’s Bishop Kevin Doran has said, with the Church needing to present them “in a fresh way, in contemporary language and in an appropriate context”. Opening a Nazareth Family Institute-organised conference in Dublin to…
Prayers are being offered after almost 100 people have been confirmed dead after a magnitude-6.9 earthquake struck Indonesia’s Lombok Island on August 5, a week after another powerful quake killed more than a dozen people. The country’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency said more than 200 people were injured in the latest quake, which also jolted…
A failure of DUP leader Arlene Foster to see Pope Francis later this month would promote negative images of unionism as well as enhance “fear and smallness of mind”, a prominent Protestant minister has said. Dr Ken Newell, a former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland who played a significant role in the peace process,…
Baroness Nuala O’Loan has refuted the claims of Ireland’s Health Minister that conscientious objection is “for individuals, not institutions”, and that he should consider the need to protect hospitals from coercion. Before and since the Eighth Amendment was repealed the decision to opt out of providing abortion by way of conscientious objection, without repercussion, has…
China’s nine major religious organisations want all religious sites across the country to raise the national flag on special days to reflect patriotism and sinicisation. But some Catholics claim the initiative aims to force religious people to be patriotic. “Is it necessary to train believers to hold the ritual of raising the national flag and to…
A devout Irish man has joined the production team of a New York play which explores Elvis Presley’s Christian upbringing and struggle with faith. Louth native John Aidan Byrne says the story “made a deep impression with me as I examined my own positive Catholic upbringing and faith journey”. The King, the Final Hours, a new off-Broadway play, is…
Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, has apologised for failing to be more transparent about a pastor removed from ministry and sent to treatment last year because the priest had developed “an emotionally inappropriate, non-sexual relationship with a 19-year-old male which involved alcohol”. He sent Fr Charles Townsend, pastor of St Peter Parish in Lincoln,…
Homeowners are being encouraged to invite elderly people who may have mobility or other issues to their houses to watch the papal Mass in a group setting. Pope Francis’ Mass in the Phoenix Park on August 26 is set to be an historic event for all involved, but with many elderly people unable to attend,…
Building on the development of Church teaching against capital punishment, Pope Francis has ordered a revision of the Catechism of the Church to assert “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” and to commit the Church to working toward its abolition worldwide. The catechism’s…
An Irish priest who was diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease (MND) in February, has completed a 550km journey from the top to the bottom of Ireland raising almost €220,000 to aid research into the condition. Dublin-based priest, Fr Tony Coote said the disease was a “very degenerating and difficult illness” but rather than complain about…
Colm Fitzpatrick
Chai Brady