Warnings that worshippers at the closing Mass for the World Meeting of Families run a risk of contracting infectious diseases have been overstated, a leading doctor has said. Dr Jack Lambert, consultant in infectious diseases in Dublin’s Mater Hospital, told RTÉ Radio it was “very unlikely” that pilgrims to the August 26 Mass in the…
A campaign to get The Irish Catholic columnist Maria Steen to throw her hat into the ring and run for President is gaining momentum online. While the petition calling for the respected commentator to run for president has reached over 1,250 signatures, the flattering gesture may fall flat according to trusted sources. The page entitled…
Pope Francis’ attempts to address abuse in the Church have been disappointing, the former head of the Irish Church’s child protection board has said. Commenting on claims that the Pope has utterly failed to tackle the issue, Ian Elliott, who headed the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church, agreed, saying: “He has…
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 Before and since the Eighth Amendment was repealed the decision to opt out of providing abortion by way of conscientious objection, without repercussion, has…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,…
Greg Daly
Chai Brady
Colm Fitzpatrick