Mags GarganOver 1,000 young people, who are currently participating or have received the Pope John Paul II Award in the last ten years, gathered at Knock Shrine on April 5 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the award. When the award was launched in Derry in 2006 by the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazarotto, it was…
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Out and About
Courtney McGrailKerry diocese celebrates Ceiliúradh na nOg Over 350 students, representing 14 post-primary schools from throughout the diocese, attended the Ceiliúradh na nÓg celebration day in the Brandon Hotel in Tralee, Co. Kerry. The students presented their projects which they carried out over the academic year. The purpose of Ceiliúradh na nÓg is to develop the…
Are Francis and Trump at odds over Syria too?
John L. Allen Jr.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made waves this week with a blistering statement about reports that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had used chemical weapons in a recent attack on a rebel stronghold, calling it “brutal, unabashed barbarism.” Tillerson’s rhetoric raised eyebrows, given that just last week, during a visit to Turkey, Tillerson had said…
Church backs major new youth evangelisation series
Greg Daly
The Church has thrown its support behind an ambitious new film series aimed to energise young Christians and help them tackle doubts they might have about their Faith. The eight-part NUA film series was launched at Dublin’s Gonzaga College last month ahead of the release of census figures that show significant declines in numbers of…
Catholics in Congo face new violence
Congo’s bishops say Catholics are facing a new wave of violence following the collapse of a Church mediation plan, and in some places Church leaders have fled to the forest. In late March, the bishops abandoned attempts to arrange a government-opposition power-sharing settlement and, within days, violence erupted in eastern Congo. “The militias are continuing…
Keeping the spirit of St John Paul II alive
Award participants from Scoil Bhríde, Mercy Secondary School, Tuam, Co. Galway at the 10th anniversarycelebration of the Pope John Paul II Award in Knock Shrine. Photo: Stephen Latimer.
Number of Catholics continues to grow
The number of baptised Catholics in the world grew to 1.285 billion an increase of 1% year on year according just released Vatican statistics. The latest statistical yearbook reports that the countries with the most Catholics account for almost 56% of the world’s Catholic population. The top 10 Catholic populations are (in order): Brazil, Mexico,…
Dropping census figures show strength of Catholic identity
The most striking thing about the 2016 census is how it points to the resilience of Irish Catholic identity, a leading Church number-cruncher has said. According to the census, Catholics now make up 78.3% of Ireland’s population, down from 84.2% five years ago, with the number of Catholics in the country having dropped by 132,000,…
Priest faces embezzlement charges
A priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia responsible for a retirement home for priests faces charges of embezzling more than $535,000 (€503,000) from that same home. Msgr William Dombrow, 77, was charged by the US District Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia April 5 with four counts of wire fraud in a scheme he is alleged to…
NI bishops asked for clarity on coffin flags
A group of former republican prisoners has asked the bishops to clarify the rules around placing Irish tricolours on coffins inside churches during funerals in the North. Flags and paramilitary trappings have been banned since the former Bishop of Derry, Dr Edward Daly took the decision in 1987 when shots were fired over the coffin…