A Capuchin friar famed for his work with Dublin’s homeless and vulnerable has warned that poverty levels in the capital are comparable to those of 1916.   Speaking to The Irish Catholic this week, Br Kevin Crowley described the situation for the poor in Dublin as“a disaster”.   “In 1916 we had poverty,” he said,…

A High Court case to determine the legal status of a child born through surrogacy who was later discovered to have no genetic link to the commissioning parents highlights the “contested, ambivalent and undecided character of contemporary kinship arrangements”, a specialist in bioethics has said.   Describing the surrogacy case as “tragic”, David Mullins told…

Last week, for a mere 60 hours – fleeting when set against the last 1,500 years  – the tomb of the crucified Jesus lay fully open for the first time within the sanctified confines of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.   With the power to move Christians everywhere, more locally the site’s…

Catholics should remember their duty to visit prisoners, Bishop Denis Nulty of Kildare and Leighlin has said.   Speaking to The Irish Catholic following the Jubilee for Prisoners, during which Pope Francis celebrated Mass in St Peter’s Basilica with over 1,000 prisoners from 12 countries, while he himself had celebrated Mass in Portlaoise and Midlands…

The Church’s leading prelate in England and Wales has criticised his country’s leadership for “trading in fear” around the question of migrants and the Brexit referendum. In an interview with the BBC, Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster said it “what we seem to be living with is a kind of popular leadership which is basing…

Irish Columban Fr Shay Cullen has used the occasion of his receiving the Hugh O’Flaherty Humanitarian Award to call on Ireland to lead by example on human rights.   Addressing the audience at the awards ceremony in Killarney, Co. Kerry last weekend, Fr Cullen said Ireland’s commitment to resettle 4,000 refugees fleeing conflict is “an…

Louisiana court rules in favour of Confessional seal A court in the US state of Louisiana has ruled that a priest is not compelled to report information of a criminal nature received during Confession. The judgement, handed down by the state’s Supreme Court, arose from a case in the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge in…

The Association of Missionaries and Religious in Ireland (AMRI) is inviting all returned missionaries to participate in a seminar to evaluate the skills and tools acquired by them in their years of mission work.   The event aims to offer space for missionaries to dialogue, exchange ideas and discuss challenges they now face on mission…

All churches in the Italian city of Norcia were destroyed in the violent earthquake of October 30, it has been revealed. In an online post days after the quake from the Benedictine congregation of the city, which itself lost the ancient basilica of San Benedetto, Superior Fr Benedict offered an eyewitness account of the current…

Archbishop Kieran O’Reilly of Cashel and Emly leads applause in the renovated chapel of Glenstal Abbey following the abbatial blessing of Abbot Brendan Coffey OSB.