Welcoming the election of Emmanuel Macron as president of France, the head of the French bishops’ conference has said he hoped elections next month to the National Assembly will not place the country “in an ungovernable situation”. Elected last weekend with 66.1% of votes in the second-round presidential ballot, former economy minister and head of…
The Vatican is investigating the decision by a group of Belgian psychiatric care centres run by a religious order to allow doctors to perform euthanasia of “nonterminal” mentally ill patients on their premises. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, is personally examining the situation, according to Bro. Rene Stockman, superior general of the Brothers…
The American Health Care Act the US House of Representatives passed by a four-vote margin has “major defects” according to the chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Social Development. Venice, Florida’s Bishop Frank Dewane said it was “deeply disappointing that the voices of those who will be most severely impacted were…
The Pope and the American president are surprisingly similar, writes John Allen Jr. Pope Francis recently met with the Vatican’s communications brain trust, urging them to use “a little violence, but good, good violence” in order to create new and more effective ways of getting the Church’s message across. If the Vatican really wants to…
Dear Editor, Your use of the word “cowardice” in your Editor’s Comment (IC 27/04/2017) in relation to the Church and the increased likelihood of a referendum on abortion in 2018, certainly struck a chord with me. It came during a week when Pope Francis had mentioned to us the case of a young mother in…
Classically, both in the world and in our churches, we have seen despair as the ultimate, unforgivable sin. The simple notion was that neither God, nor anyone else, can save you if you simply give up, despair, make yourself impossible to reach. Most often in the popular mind this was applied to suicide. To die…
Joyce Meyer Joyce Meyer shares actionable advice and encouragement on how to start enjoying the life God created for us “I’m just having a bad day.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people mutter those words (or muttered them myself). Traffic is backed up, you spill your coffee before you even get…
The Feast of Our Lady of Fatima is this weekend on May 13. This year, the feast day carries extra significance as it is the centenary and Pope Francis is preparing to canonise the three children Our Lady appeared to. Between May 13 and October 13, 1917 she appeared to three shepherd children, Lucia, Jacinta…
It’s been just over a year since the US-based Hilton Foundation announced it was awarding a grant of $290,000 (€268,000) to Vocations Ireland, and Margaret Cartwright, director of the organisation, has had her hands full in the meantime. Explaining that the umbrella group that supports vocations directors from Ireland’s religious congregations has just received the…
Bishop Phonsie Cullinan tells Greg Daly about the new National Vocations Office Ireland has lagged behind other countries in the promotion of priestly vocations for several years, according to Waterford and Lismore’s Bishop Phonsie Cullinan, chairman of the Irish bishops’ Council for Vocations, but that’s set to change this month with the establishment of the…
John L. Allen Jr.
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Erin Fox
Greg Daly