Priest pleads with bishop for more exorcists in Ireland Strange occurrences and even demonic possession have caused a leading Irish expert to call on Church leaders to appoint a team of exorcists to cope with what he sees as a rising tide of evil in the country. While for many exorcisms of those possessed…
Greg Daly and Chai Brady Bishop of Limerick Brendan Leahy has praised Cranberries’ frontwoman Dolores O’Riordan as an artist of deep spirituality after her sudden death in London on Monday. He said her “rise to stardom gave a huge amount of belief to young people locally at the time. She was a true child of Limerick; talented, honest,…
Catholics in Belgium are concerned the country’s euthanasia law is being abused to kill patients without legal checks and safeguards. Auxiliary Bishop Jean Kockerols of Mechelen-Brussels said “not just the Church’s hierarchy, but doctors and medical professionals as well” were concerned. The Belgian Church’s Cathobel news agency published an article saying the Federal Euthanasia Control…
The vice president of the German bishops’ conference has urged a debate on whether Catholic clergy should bless same-sex unions. “I’m concerned with fundamental questions of how we deal with each other; although ‘marriage for all’ differs clearly from the Church’s concept of marriage, it’s now a political reality,” said Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabruck.…
A war of words has broken out between the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) leadership team and priests from the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin, after Fr Gerard Breen, secretary to the diocese’s council of priests, wrote saying the council “strongly disagreed” with a card the ACP sent to clergy advising them on what to…
In Brief Right-wing Hindu students clashed with police in central India after they tried to storm a Catholic-run college to conduct a Hindu religious rite, according to Church sources. About 800 students from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) group were charged by police after trying to gain access to St Mary’s College in…
A Chinese priest involved with the country’s underground Catholic Church has been missing ever since government officials took him just after Christmas for “re-educating”. Fr Lu Danhua of Lishui Diocese of China’s eastern Zhejiang province was the only priest of the diocese, and took over from Kenneth Roderick Turner of Scarboro Foreign Mission Society from 1948…
The Vatican has named a Colombian bishop to be the trustee of the scandal-plagued Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, a Catholic movement based in Peru. The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life appointed Bishop Noel Londono Buitrago of Jerico, Colombia, trustee of the group, the Vatican press office announced. Pope Francis, the…
A group of bishops from around the world is visiting the Holy Land to remind Christians there that they are not forgotten by their fellow Christians, Derry’s Bishop Donal McKeown has said. Bishop McKeown is visiting Israel and the Palestinian Territories as part of an international delegation of bishops from Europe, North America and Africa.…
In Brief Church leaders in the Middle East are intensifying efforts to combat US President Donald Trump’s decision to declare Jerusalem as Israel’s capital as well as plans to move the US embassy there. “The two-state solution is accepted by all the world, including the Vatican. It corresponds to the legitimate resolutions passed by…
Chai Brady
Greg Daly