A barrister has lodged High Court proceedings against Health Minister Simon Harris TD and Senator Catherine Noone over tweets he has described as defamatory. Benedict Ó Floinn BL claims that following a panel discussion on RTÉ Radio’s Saturday with Cormac Ó hEadhra the politicians tweeted comments that were defamatory, disparaging and damaging to his professional…
The second anniversary of the death of the young Derry nun, Sr Clare Crockett, who died in an earthquake in Ecuador, was marked this month with the release of a film about her remarkable life. The 33-year-old Servant Sister died when the school building she was in collapsed on April 16, 2016, but her positive…
Ecuadorian bishops have expressed their “deep concern” and “sorrow” at the killing of two journalists and their driver who were kidnapped after crossing their country’s border into Colombia. A statement from the Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference has called for an end to violence and injustice by armed political and social groups following the “violent murder” of the team of…
The decision by Inclusion Ireland to join the Together for Yes campaign to remove the Eighth Amendment from the Constitution is a betrayal of those that it claims to represent, a disability rights group has said. Inclusion Ireland, the National Association for People with an Intellectual Disability, announced on April 13 that it was joining…
Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Rai appealed to world leaders to stop the war in Syria and to work for comprehensive peace through diplomatic means. “As the great powers are beating the drums of a new war against Syria, we regret the absence of a language of peace from the mouths of senior officials in our world…
Citing “alarming concerns” related to an ongoing investigation, Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto has joined bishops from other dioceses across Canada in withholding funds from the overseas development agency of the Canadian bishops’ conference. At least eight dioceses have suspended financial support to Development and Peace following preliminary results of a probe that found some…
A pro-life group has begun a new online campaign called “12 weeks” to inform the electorate about the humanity of the unborn in preparation for the upcoming May referendum to remove the Eighth Amendment. Save the 8th will show social media users a video of a scan of an unborn baby at 12 weeks gestation…
The father of a 23-month old boy who has been at the centre of a life support battle privately met with the Pope today, pleading for “asylum” in Italy so that his ill son may receive alternative medical care, rather than be euthanised. Tom Evans and his partner, Kate James, are battling with Alder Hey…
Making the sign of the cross is to mark ourselves as Christians, and it is something we should do often to remind ourselves that we belong to God, Pope Francis said today. “The cross is the badge that shows who we are: our speaking, thinking, looking, working [we are] under the sign of the cross,…
Voters who support abortion in so-called limited circumstances must know that what they hope for with repealing the Eighth Amendment and what they’d get are two entirely different things, a pro-life lawyer has said. Speaking at the Love Both campaign launch today in Dublin, Caroline Simons said: “If the Eighth Amendment is repealed, Ireland will…
Colm Fitzpatrick