A statement signed by former President Mary McAleese is out of step with Pope Francis, one of her colleagues at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, has said.  Mrs McAleese joined more than 100 academics in signing a ‘Scholars’ Statement’ from the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research challenging the Church’s ban on artificial contraception. The former president…

Fr Jacques Hamel ‘a martyr’ – Pope Pope Francis has hailed Fr Jacques Hamel, as “a martyr” during a Mass for the murdered French priest.  Referring to the wider suffering of Christian communities in various parts of the world, the Pope said: “Today there are Christians murdered, tortured, imprisoned, and slaughtered because they do not deny Jesus Christ. In this history,…

A medal-winning athlete at this year’s Rio Olympic Games has gifted her bronze medal to the shrine of St Mary of Marija Bistrica in her native Croatia in thanks for answered prayers ahead of the games.  Champion high-jumper Blanka Vlašić has revealed that she nearly missed the 2016 games due to complications from surgery to…

Pope Francis holds a baby during a September 16 visit to the neonatal unit at Rome’s San Giovanni Hospital. Photo: CNS

Staff reporter A major conference on education due to be held in Dublin next month will address the future of faith-based schools in Ireland, both North and South. Organised by The Irish Catholic in collaboration with St Mary’s University, Twickenham in London, the October 20 event will be addressed by former UK Secretary of State for…

Although logically we know the end has to come for everyone, there are certain personalities so indomitable, so larger than life, that in practical terms we come to regard them as virtually immortal. Back in the late 1990s and 2000s, I said that when Pope John Paul II finally died, those most stunned would be…

Archaeologists in Israel believe they have uncovered the site of the biblical battle between David and Goliath. According to experts who have led excavations for the past seven years at a site today known as Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Elah Valley, the Old Testament city of Shaaraim has been found. The city is mentioned in…

The past is slowly catching up with President Duterte, writes Paul Keenan

Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick has called for a collective societal response in tackling addiction in Ireland. As he celebrated Mass to mark 50 years of the work of the Cuan Mhuire treatment centre in Bruree, Bishop Leahy said: “We owe it to one another in Ireland, as a collective work of mercy on the…

An Irish missionary nun is to receive a Presidential Distinguished Service Award for her lifetime of work in Sierra Leone and her courageous efforts in co-ordinating a response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak there. Sr Mary Sweeney, a Sister of St Joseph of Cluny and a native of Co. Donegal, has worked for over 40…