Pakistani legislators have moved to curb lynchings and mob violence against minority communities via a bill amending a number of criminal laws. Under the reforms passed by the National Assembly, sectarian violence and forced conversions are outlawed while the deliberate use of words to hurt religious feelings, already an offence punishable by a year in…
An Irish film which follows the adventures of a young 13th-Century monk as he attempts to transport a holy relic from Ireland to Rome has been sold to a US distributor for €1.2million. The deal means that Pilgrimage, directed by Brendan Muldowney, will reach cinema screens later this year. Pilgrimage tells to the story of …
The president of the Conference of German Bishops has said the Pope’s Amoris Laetitia exhortation is “very clear” and new guidelines adopted by the conference on Communion for divorced-and-remarried Catholics are in line with that. Speaking in Rome, Cardinal Reinhard Marx dismissed the ongoing row among priests and prelates on Amoris Laetitia and said he…
Pope Francis’ decision to send a ‘pastoral delegate’ to the controversial Marian shrine at Medjugorje has been welcomed by a leading Irish promoter of the pilgrimage site. Archbishop Henryk Hoser of Warszawa-Praga has been tapped as the Pope’s special envoy to the Bosnia-Herzegovina shrine, tasked with acquiring “a profound understanding of the pastoral situation” in…
Three Indian cardinals have brought the case of Fr Tom Uzhunallil, the Salesian kidnapped in Yemen in March 2016, to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, Cardinal George Alencherry and Cardinal Oswald Gracias urged Mr Modi to do all in his power to seek the release of the Indian priest, who appeared weak…
A parishioner has left a Co. Antrim parish a legacy of more than half a million pounds, one of the largest donations ever received within the Diocese of Down and Connor. The parish of Glenavy and Killead received the generous donation from Peter McAreavey, who died peacefully in hospital in July 2015. Fr Colm McBride…
Pope writes preface to abuse survivor’s story Pope Francis has written the preface to a new book penned by a victim of clerical sexual abuse. The book, I Forgive you, Father, was written by Daniel Pittet, a devout Catholic who met Pope Francis in 2015, and so moved him with his childhood story that the…
Staff reporter Former Jesuit provincial Fr Gerry O’Hanlon has insisted that the Church’s centralised model of governance contributed to the mishandling of sexual abuse allegations against priests. Speaking to the royal commission on abuse in Australia via a videolink from Dublin, Fr O’Hanlon also said that the Church suffered from the same defensive attitude as…
Nizar al-Qassab, an Iraqi Christian refugee from Mosul, gets a kiss from his children as they prepare to depart from Beirut international airport en route to the United States. The US bishops have welcomed an appeal court’s decision to overturn President Trump’s ban on travellers from seven nations. Photo: CNS
The Vatican should speed up how it deals with the cases of priests accused of abuse, the head of the Irish Church’s safeguarding body has said, calling on Ireland’s hierarchy to engage with the Vatican to encourage this. Addressing Australia’s royal commission into institutional abuse, Teresa Devlin, CEO of the National Board for the Safeguarding…
Paul Keenan
Courtney McGrail
Greg Daly