Asia Bibi, the Catholic woman condemned to death under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws in 2010, has had her conviction overturned by the Supreme Court in Pakistan. She was told by the judge she was free to go immediately. The court, in a three-member bench led by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, released the verdict this morning in Islamabad,…
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò said he is convinced he was right to accuse Pope Francis and Church officials of failing to act on accusations that then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick engaged in sexual misconduct and sexual harassment. Archbishop Viganò, the former nuncio to the US, said an open letter released on October 7 by Cardinal Marc Ouellet…
Gabriel Doherty The pages of The Irish Catholic for Saturday, October 26, 1918, contained an eclectic assortment of items. No one topic dominated, in comparison to the recent extensive coverage of the sinking of the Leinster, but two themes were common to nearly all stories: the growing belief that the end of the war was…
Dr Kevin Myers Hallowe’en is on the horizon and with it we find many of our friends and neighbours preparing to meet the macabre. In this mist of the seasonal jovial ghoul, however, we also take time to reflect on our lives and, rather importantly remember our dead. In many ways, Christianly is a religious…
The US ‘March for Life’ plans to fortify its pro-life message next year by pointing out that science proves life begins at conception with a specific focus on stem-cell research. ‘Unique From Day One: Pro-Life Is Pro-Science’ is the theme announced by Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life Education and Defence Fund. The…
The Museum of the Bible has announced that five of its most prized artefacts – valuable fragments in its collection of Dead Sea Scrolls – are forgeries that will no longer be displayed at the museum in Washington DC. Researchers in Germany tested five of the museum’s 16 fragments, bought by the billionaire businessman and museum…
Cindy Wooden Having some doubts is definitely better than having no doubts at all, Pope Francis told a group of seminarians. As the Synod of Bishops on ‘young people, the faith and vocational discernment’ was continuing at the Vatican, the Pope tackled some of the synod’s key questions when he met on October 13 with…
Hypocrisy is the leaven that causes men and women to be self-centred and indifferent to the world around them, according to the Pope. “This leaven is dangerous,” the Pope said in his homily during Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae. “It is a leaven that grows inward, a leaven that grows without a future because…
Barcelona’s iconic Sagrada Família basilica has agreed to pay €36 million in back payments after going without a building permit for more than 130 years. The church, designed by architect Antoni Gaudí, has been under construction since 1882, but without any official permit. Until now, the building has only been marked on property registries as…
The diaconate in Ireland could help encourage vocations to the priesthood, a newly-ordained deacon has said. Prominent lawyer Brett Lockhart QC, who with eight other men was ordained a deacon earlier this month in Belfast’s St Peter’s Cathedral told The Irish Catholic that as the diaconate flourishes in Ireland, there will be a “better environment…
Colm Fitzpatrick