Pope Francis has expressed his spiritual closeness and solidarity with those affected by the eruption of the La Sourfrière volcano in St Vincent and the Grenadines. Authorities in the Caribbean island nation have ordered the evacuation of thousands of people to avoid a humanitarian disaster. Pope Francis, in a message signed by the Vatican’s Cardinal…
Following the conviction of former police officer Derek Chauvin US bishops have appealed for Catholics to work “to cleanse our land of the evil of racism”. The May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd while in police custody and the surrounding events, including the three-week trial of Mr Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer now…
The Government has been “tricking” citizens into compliance through “calculated ambiguity between legal obligations and public health advice, a leading law professor has said. Professor Oran Doyle of Trinity College Dublin took to Twitter to criticise the Government’s behaviour concerning religious restrictions throughout the pandemic. Citing an article in The Irish Times earlier this week, Prof. Doyle…
Higgins’ comments on Catholic schools rejected A number of prominent Catholic voices have rejected a claim by President Michael D. Higgins that the fact that parental choice is central to education policy in the North and many parents choose to send their children to Catholic schools is to abandon them “to parcels of hate and…
Bills in Ireland and Northern Ireland seeking to ban conversion therapy are too “broad and sweeping”, threatening penalties for “honest conversations” about sexual identity, according to Christian organisations. Courage International, an apostolate of the Catholic Church that counsels men and women with same-sex attractions, as well as evangelical organisations Affinity and the Fellowship of Evangelical…
The law introduced last week on religious gatherings has made it illegal even to hold outdoor confession, according to a law professor. Professor Oran Doyle, from the law school at Trinity College Dublin, said the new provision, SI 171/2021, applies to both indoor and outdoor events and “that’s where it is different from restrictions on…
The vandalism of Jewish graves in Belfast’s City Cemetery has been dubbed “distressing” and “anti-Semitic” by Bishop Noel Treanor of the Diocese of Down and Connor. The police launched a hate crime investigation into the incident which took place last Thursday. Ten gravestones were damaged. In 2016, 13 graves in the same plot were damaged…
A race car driving prince has opened up about how he always tries to go to Mass before his races, even asking a priest to celebrate a private Mass in his hotel room when there was none available. Prince Ferdinand von Habsburg, who competes in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) but has also raced in…
The Irish Government must speak up about persecution of Christians in the Middle East, international charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) said, as recent videos showed ISIS executing a Christian in Egypt. A 62-year-old Egyptian Christian, Nabil El-Habashy, was killed by ISIS in the Sinai Province of Egypt, which has witnessed several deadly…
The recent street violence in Northern Ireland has dashed illusions that there are no circumstances in which “lethal, politically-motivated violence” could recur, former adviser to Taoisigh Martin Mansergh has said. A key architect in the Northern Ireland peace process, Mr Mansergh wrote in The Irish Catholic this week that the causes of tension need to…
Ruadhán Jones
Chai Brady