Abdi Tari Ali Letter from Somalia I was on my knees fixing IV drips to patients’ arms as they lay on the ground in a makeshift treatment centre in the town of Luuq in Gedo Province, southern Somalia. I have treated cholera before, but I have never seen anything like this in terms of volume…

Three seminarians of the Pontifical Irish College, Rome, were ordained deacons on Easter Tuesday by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, at the Church of Saint Alphonsus on the Via Merulana in Rome. Rev. James Daly (57), originally from Midleton, Co. Cork, a former parish pastoral worker and teacher, and Rev. Robert Smyth (32), from Knocklyon…

John Reid Fianna Fáil is hopeful that the persecution of Christians in the Middle East will be condemned as a genocide, in a new Dáil motion due to be put before the house before the summer. Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Fianna Fáil’s spokesman on Foreign Affairs, Darragh O’Brien, said that he is in regular…

A pilgrimage in memory of Sr Clare Crockett, who was killed in an earthquake in South Amercia in 2016, will raise funds to rebuild the school where she was killed. Sr Clare, a member of the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother, died a year ago this week trying to evacuate children to…

Staff Reporter Bishop Francis Duffy has expressed his shock and sadness at desecration of a Longford church. It was discovered on Easter Sunday morning that St Michael’s Church, Shroid, in Longford parish was broken into and the tabernacle stolen. The church had not been in use over the Easter period when all parish ceremonies took…

A return to ‘structured dialogue’ between the Government and Church leaders would be of great value as society becomes more pluralist, it has been claimed. The Lisbon Treaty places an obligation on the EU to have a regular dialogue with religious and non-confessional organisations on EU policies and legislative proposals. Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern set…

Sr Jean Quinn, Daughter of Wisdom, has become the first Irish woman to be appointed to the post of Executive Director of Unanima International, based at the United Nations in New York. Unanima International is a non-government organisation and its work focuses on supporting women, children, migrants (especially those effected by poverty) and the environment. It has…

Skellig Michael rockfall “deeply worrying” The Office of Public Works (OPW) has described the serious rockfall which occurred on a roadway used by guides and OPW staff on the Christian monastic site of Skellig Michael as “deeply worrying”. Grellan Rourke, the OPW’s senior conservation architect for Skellig Michael said that while some winter storm damage…

Not even the GAA can outdo the Catholic Church when it comes to membership in Ireland, according to the Bishop of Limerick. Commenting on the Census figures during an Easter ceremony in St John’s Cathedral in Limerick, Bishop Brendan Leahy said: “Despite everything, we have discovered that 78% of our population still declare themselves Catholic.…