Staff Reporter The Catholic Church prefers that Catholics are buried rather than cremated, according to a major new Vatican document. The instruction – which Pope Francis ordered to be published this week – also says that where Catholics are cremated, the ashes are to be kept in “sacred places”, not at home, divided among family…

Digital technology has caught up with a decades-long Bible project to make a hardcopy version of the work downloadable to mobile phones. According to researchers at the University of Navarra in Spain, a version of the Bible in Spanish, complete with commentary and explanations has taken 30 years to complete in the traditional bound volume…

Catholics should consider how to share the Church’s teaching on the family ahead of the World Meeting of Families, Armagh’s Archbishop Eamon Martin has said. Speaking in St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, at the formal launch of preparations for the ninth world meeting, which will take place in Dublin in August 2018, the archbishop said the…

A new book on the legacy of Irish missionaries has been launched in time for Mission Month.  The Legacy of Irish Missionaries Lives On contains numerous views and perspectives by leaders of Church and state, academics, historians, diplomats, media personnel, and international development specialists who have experienced the work of Irish missionaries, while also recording…

Dublin was the setting for a major conference on faith schools and their continuing relevance, organised by The Irish Catholic and St Mary’s University, Twickenham

The bells of Christian churches in Northern Iraq have begun to ring out for the first time in over two years as government forces liberate villages and towns around besieged Mosul. As a means of simultaneously signalling freedom regained and of the endurance of Christian communities, bells began to ring out last weekend as militants…

Claim that NI schools are divisive rejected

Mexican police arrest suspected killer of two priests Police in Mexico investigating the murders of two priests in the state of Veracruz have arrested a suspect.  The arrest came as police responded to a carjacking in Mexico City and detained two individuals, one of whom was subsequently identified as a suspect in the kidnapping and murder of Frs Alejo Nabor Jimenez and…

Missionaries have called on the Government to make educating girls in the developing world a key priority in Ireland’s foreign aid budget. The call comes in the aftermath of the International Day of the Girl last week. Sr Brigid Tunney, Mission Development Officer for the Loreto Sisters, told The Irish Catholic that targeted funding for…

John Reid The Catholic Grandparents Association of Ireland (CGA) has rejected the suggestion by Minister for Children Katherine Zappone, that grandparents are “insulted” by the suggestion they should receive State support for minding grandchildren.  Minister Zappone has announced a subsidy scheme which will be of benefit only to parents who put their children into childcare, but…