A High Court case to determine the legal status of a child born through surrogacy who was later discovered to have no genetic link to the commissioning parents highlights the “contested, ambivalent and undecided character of contemporary kinship arrangements”, a specialist in bioethics has said.   Describing the surrogacy case as “tragic”, David Mullins told…

The Church should have women priests, regardless of Pope Francis’ views on the matter, the leader of Ireland’s Green Party has said. Speaking in the Dáil about whether Ireland should have an annual public holiday to commemorate the Easter Rising, Eamon Ryan TD countered that such a holiday would be poorly timed, Easter Monday already…

Knock Basilica will this weekend be the centre of a moving and evocative Marbhna 1916 Requiem Mass in Irish to remember all of those who died in 1916. The Mass, to be celebrated at noon on Sunday, November 6, will be celebrated by Achonry’s Bishop Brendan Kelly, accompanied by music composed by Odhrán O’Casaide.  …

The North’s First Minister Arlene Foster has criticised the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) over its role in the Ashers Bakery case. Following the upholding of a discrimination finding against the McArthur family in failing to supply a cake bearing a message supportive of same-sex marriage Ms Foster said the ECNI had not “covered…

Ireland should act immediately to help child refugees in Calais by taking in 200 unaccompanied children, Sr Stanislas Kennedy has said. The founder of the Immigrant Council of Ireland called on the Taoiseach to respond to admissions by French President Francois Hollande that 1,500 unaccompanied children are at risk and housed in containers outside the…

The Archdiocese of Dublin is discouraging the non-traditional practice of placing mementoes on coffins among new policies around the conduct of funerals. In a new Funeral Ministry document, the diocese states that “a relatively new custom, which is not strictly part of the Funeral Rites, is the presentation of mementoes of the person who has…

The initiative launched by the son of Munster legend Anthony ‘Axel’ Foley to get people going back to Mass has been met with huge support across Ireland and beyond. Eleven-year-old Tony set up a Facebook page in honour of his father to appeal to people to attend Mass for eight Sundays to Christmas to remember…

A statue of St Patrick saved from destruction in Co. Leitrim is on its was to a new home in Bangkok, Thailand, after its rescue by a local historian and a special fundraiser to erect it at a Catholic-run charity in the Thai capital. ‘St Patrick of Gortletteragh’, originally commissioned for the village’s parish church…

Following losses of almost half a million euro, Ireland’s largest religious publishers have vowed to turn their dire financial situation around, The Irish Catholic has learned. Despite several successive years of crippling losses and a net loss of €496,580 in 2015, in its newly published financial statements for 2015, Veritas claims to have a plan…

John Reid A Dublin priest has expressed concern after the National Transport Authority (NTA) published plans that would see a new road driven through his church carpark. Fr Fergus O’Connor, parish priest at our Lady Queen of Peace Church on Merrion Road, said half of the church’s carefully rebuilt car park would be removed under the…