Staff Reporter The annual collection of unwanted gifts at Dublin’s St Mary’s Pro Cathedral got underway on St Stephen’s Day and runs until January 6. An initiative of Crosscare, the archdiocese’s social care agency, the collection invites anyone who is willing to ‘re-gift’ a Christmas present to drop parcels at St Mary’s crib. The gifts…

Msgr Colm McCaughan RIP The death has taken place of Msgr Colm McCaughan, former Chancellor of the Diocese of Down & Connor. He was 89. Born in 1927 in Ballycastle, Co. Antrim, Colm began his studies for the priesthood in 1946 and was ordained in 1954. He assumed his first appointment as curate in Bangor.…

Activities at Belfast’s Marie Stopes clinic are “shrouded in darkness” and should be investigated, a leading pro-life campaigner has said in the aftermath of a damning report into the organisation’s English abortion centres. The report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which followed inspections at clinics in 10 locations across England, as well its call…

Staff Reporter Ireland’s newest bishop has welcomed immigrants into Ireland in his first Christmas address. Linking how many Irish are immigrants in other countries with recent immigration to Ireland, Killaloe’s Bishop Fintan Monahan noted that at Christmas “our emigrants are very much on our minds”. Dr Monahan welcomed those who have returned to Ireland for…

The Christmas Day Dinner hosted by the Knights of St Columbanus served a record 3,500 meals this year to those in need. The figure is 500 more than for 2015 and represents a continued year-on-year growth for the charitable event. “On Christmas Day, people like Brother Kevin of the Capuchin Day centre take the day…

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has acknowledged that it incorrectly accused the Catholic Church of failing to speak out or act against the persecution of Jews in Europe during World War II. During a BBC news broadcast in July, covering Pope Francis’ visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp, a reporter stated: “Silence was the response…

A Senate Judiciary Committee in the United States has recommended that the country’s largest abortion provider be investigated by the FBI and the Department of Justice in connection with allegations of illicit trading in aborted body parts. Arising from undercover footage filmed by pro-life activists appearing to show members of Planned Parenthood engaging in trade…

Vatican envoy warns of rising anti-Christian violence in Europe Anti-Christian intolerance and violence are on the rise in Europe, the Holy See’s Permanent Representative to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has warned. In three addresses to a December 14 conference in Vienna on ‘Combating Intolerance and Discriminations of Christians’, Monsignor Janusz…

‘Their plight gives us cause for thought’ – Archbishop Martin

Pope Francis greets a boy as he arrives to lead his general audience in Paul VI hall at the Vatican. Photo: CNS