Staff Reporter The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) has been forced to amend a media statement after inaccurately describing members of the permanent diaconate as laypeople rather than clerics. In a press release issued last week, headed ‘Association of Catholic Priests Statement on the Permanent Lay Diaconate’, the ACP leadership committed themselves to backing Fr…
Attempts to compel priests to reveal information about abuse learned in Confession would be legally unsustainable and probably contrary to Ireland’s Constitution, a leading expert on constitutional law has said. “If you’re given an undertaking at some point and then act to your detriment as a result of that undertaking, the law shouldn’t turn around…
A Franciscan missionary priest has been posthumously honoured by the Zimbabwean Government for his contributions to achieving independence in the country and his subsequent charitable work there. Fr Paschal Slevin, who died in Dublin on May 1 this year at the age of 83, was given the highest honour reserved for foreigners, The Royal Order…
Dublin’s first Cycle of Light in aid of NCBI The National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI) will hold its first ‘Cycle of Light’ event on August 25. This event will see 100 people cycle into the darkness of night for sight loss. From 8.30pm until dark participants will cycle from Dalkey to Howth…
US Catholics have called for peace in the aftermath of violence in Charlottesville, in which three people died and dozens were injured. Catholic bishops, a cardinal and several Catholic organisations made the appeal following clashes between pacifists, protestors and white supremacists in the Virginian town. A white nationalist rally was organised in reaction to Charlottesville…
Catholic bishops in Kenya have called for calm as violent post-election protests led to over 20 people being killed, including a nine-year-old girl. The protests have ignited anger in slums across Nairobi and Kisumu after Raila Odinga, the main opposition candidate, lost against President Uhuru Kenyatta. Mr Odinga has travelled through slums saying the government…
The former president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and of her order, the Sisters of charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM), has died age 82. Sr Helen Maher Garvey entered religious life when she was just 17 and subsequently earned a doctorate in organisational development in Columbia University in New York City.…
A Venezuelan cardinal rejected the possibility of foreign intervention in the country following US President Donald Trump’s threat to pursue a military option. “The crisis we Venezuelans are suffering is so serious that now an external problem arises: the threats of a military option by President Trump,” Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino of Caracas said. He…
Pope Francis called for an end to violence against Christians following deadly attacks in two African countries. The Pope led pilgrims in prayer for the victims of a deadly shooting last week at St Philip’s Catholic Church in Ozubulu, in Nigeria. He also prayed for Christians killed following an attack at a mission in Gambo,…
Pope saddened by Catholics who despise others God did not choose perfect people to form his Church, but rather sinners who have experienced his love and forgiveness, Pope Francis has said. The Gospel of Luke’s account of Jesus forgiving the sinful woman shows how his actions went against the general mentality of his time, a…
Greg Daly
Colm Fitzpatrick