The National Traditional Pilgrimage to Knock Shrine will take place on Saturday September 3. The day’s pilgrimage will commence with a Missa Cantata at 2 p.m., followed by Stations of the Cross and Benediction. All events take place in the parish church of Knock. The episcopally-appointed spiritual director and leader of the pilgrimage is Fr…
Staff reporter A biography of Daniel Mannix, the Irish-born Archbishop of Melbourne, has scooped a major literary award in Australia. Penned by 85-year-old Brenda Niall, who knew Dr Mannix during his tenure in Melbourne, Mannix has won the National Biography Prize, worth Aus$25,000. It beat off competition from six other biographies shortlisted by the State Library…
One of the world’s largest Christian charities, World Vision, has been rocked by allegations that its funds in the Gaza Strip have been funnelled to the militant group Hamas. Since June, the charity body has been lobbying the Israeli government over the arrest of its Gaza director, Mohammad El Halabi, who was detained without explanation…
Christian community under threat in the Philippines Christians on the Filipino island of Jolo have called on Muslim leaders to help in tackling Islamic fundamentalism in the wake of attacks and threats against the community there. According to reports emerging from the island, at least one Christian has died in an attack, while Christians have been threatened by radical Muslim groups.…
A Catholic prelate in South Sudan has urged the international community not to forget the ongoing conflict in that nation. Warning that one immediate result of ignoring South Sudan now will be an increase in “the tide of refugees reaching Europe’s shores”, Bishop Barani Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of Tombura- Yambio called on world powers to…
Christians in Iraq have marked the second anniversary of the emergence of so-called Islamic State (ISIS) with prayers for peace and a return to the land they were forced to flee. Led by Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako, Christians recalled the “Mosul tragedy (June 10-17, 2014) and Nineveh Plain catastrophe (August 6/7, 2014)” and prayed…
French authorities have moved to close down 20 mosques among a range of measures aimed at tackling radicalisation of Muslims. In the wake of a series of brutal attacks in France in recent weeks, including the savage murder of Fr Jacques Hamel in Normandy, the country’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazenueve announced that 20 mosques known…
Bishop Edward Daly has been hailed as a champion of human rights and a humble pastor who spent himself in the service of God’s people. Bishop Daly died this week. He was 82. Primate of All-Ireland Archbishop Eamon Martin described Dr Daly as an “iconic figure” who “spent himself in the service of others”. Bishop Daly…
Pope stresses forgiveness during private Assisi Pilgrimage Pope Francis made ‘forgiveness’ the theme of his private pilgrimage to Assisi on August 4. Having prayed in silence at the Porziuncola chapel where St Francis founded the Franciscan order in the 13th Century, his papal namesake delivered an address at the Basilica of St Mary in which he stressed that “too many people…
We’re giving readers of The Irish Catholic the chance to attend an exclusive special preview screening of new Irish film on Knock Shrine, Strange Occurrences in a Small Irish Village, at Light House Cinema, Smithfield, Dublin on the evening of August 22. In August 1879, 15 people in the small village of Knock, Co Mayo,…
Greg Daly
Courtney McGrail
Paul Keenan