Pope Francis has called for abolition of the death penalty as well as life imprisonment He has also denounced what he called a "penal populism" that promises to solve society's problems by punishing crime instead of pursuing social justice. "It is impossible to imagine that states today cannot make use of another means than capital…

An Iraqi seminarian has proven his credentials after he heroically saved the Blessed Sacrament from a local Church before Islamic State militants ISIS descended on the village of Karamlesh. “Until the very last minute, the Pashmerga [the Kurdish armed forces protecting the villages] were telling us it was safe,” the 24-year-old seminarian, Martin Baani, told…

Nina Pham, a Dallas nurse, was the first person known to have contracted the Ebola virus in the United States

The new director of Trinity College Dublin’s Loyola Institute has called for a renewed vision of what it means to be Catholic

American actor Shia LaBeouf (28) has revealed that he found God while playing the part of a Christian soldier wrestling with guilt during World War II, in his new film Fury. “I found God doing Fury,” said the actor, whose mother is from an Ashkenazi Jewish family and whose father has Cajun (French) ancestry. “I…

The Government is misleading the public by conveying the impression that the country has entered economic recovery, a senior figure in the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (SVP) has warned. Tom MacSweeney, SVP national vice-president, said that coalition parties Fine Gael and Labour have recently “conveyed the impression that the country has entered recovery…

Waterford diocese has warned against people acting like vigilantes following anti-Roma protests in the city over the weekend. These led to people being evacuated from their homes and property being damaged. Large groups of people protested outside the homes of members of the Roma community in the city on both Saturday and Sunday. Protestors said…