The priority now has to be improving human rights and lifting millions of people out of extreme poverty, writes Seán Farrell Zimbabwe always struck me as a country struggling with how its past influenced the present. So many of my conversations in my two years working for Trócaire in the country revolved around the…
Susan Gately writes on the Capuchin doorkeeper who teaches us ‘I can’t do everything but I will do what I can’. The Irish heritage of a Capuchin priest beatified last weekend in Detroit made him who he was, according to Fr Tom Betz OFM Cap., St Augustine, Pittsburg’s Capuchin Provincial Minister. Fr Betz was speaking…
With Francis due this weekend, hopes are high that his visit can inspire reconciliation, writes Chai Brady from Myanmar The development of diplomatic relations between Myanmar and the Vatican are at infant stage as the Pope prepares to travel to the embattled nation this weekend, during a time of international condemnation and ongoing conflict…
The Church’s charitable agency in the Middle East and Africa has called on people to pray for all affected by a devastating earthquake that occurred on the border of Iran and Iraq in which at least 450 people have been killed. The majority of the victims of the 7.3 magnitude quake are from Iran. Altogether…
Although Bangladesh has welcomed a massive influx of Rohingya refugees from neighbouring Myanmar, a Catholic aid official is worried that the welcome may be wearing thin. James Gomes, regional director of Caritas, the Church’s charitable agency, said Bangladesh responded quickly to the surprise arrival of more than 600,000 Rohingya. “As a Bangladeshi, I’m proud of…
The incoming president of the Philippines Catholic bishops’ conference has caused a stir after saying fighting the proliferation of drugs should take precedence over narcotic related killings. The senior prelate’s statement last week was a change in Church dialogue relating to the issue, which has condemned President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. At a Mass…
Plans to convene a national dialogue forum in the face of a political crisis were announced by Kenya’s bishops, as they say the country’s ordinary people are on the brink of despair. The forum will assemble all sectors to set an agenda for honest discussions and resolutions for the country. Urgent matters to be addressed…
In Brief Defense of the unborn, racial division and immigration were the prominent topics of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops this week. The Church in the US has at times been a part of the problem of racism despite fighting it for many years, according to one bishop. Bishop George Murry, head of the…
In Brief Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminister, backed the Patriarch of Jerusalem in his campaign to preserve the place of Christians in the Holy Land as it exists now. Greek Orthodox Patriarch, Theophilos III, warned Cardinal Nichols that the current ‘Status Quo’ agreement that protects land tenure in Jerusalem is at risk, as a…
In Brief A diocese in northern Vietnam has begun construction of a church dedicated to Dominican martyrs, replacing the ruins of an earlier one destroyed during a US air raid in 1967. Bishop Joseph Vu Van Thien of Hai Phong celebrated a special Mass to begin the construction of the new church at the Hai…
Susan Gately
Chai Brady