Fulgence Kayishema, a former Rwandan police officer who is suspected of having ordered the killing of at least 2,000 Tutsis who were seeking refuge at St Paul’s Nyange Catholic Parish in the current Nyundo Diocese during the 1994 genocide, has been arrested in South Africa. Reuters reported May 25 that Kayishema, one of the top suspects…
The new leader of a charity targeting Christian persecution around the world is from the North of Ireland and will serve for five years. The international pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) will be led by Regina Lynch from June 14. She is a long-serving project director for the charity. Ms Lynch…
Saint of the week One of the host of remarkable men the early Church offers up is St Ephrem the Syrian, who is now known far and wide for his remarkable hymns and poems that offer us a profound glimpse into the Divine. Probably born in the year 306 in the city of Nisibis (modern-day…
A volatile situation in Cameroon means an Irish nun cannot visit her family, Ruadhán Jones hears. Sr Angèle Nkamsi MSHR, an Irish citizen since 2013, cannot visit her home in Cameroon due to the volatile political situation in the country, she told The Irish Catholic. The last time the Holy Rosary sister visited Cameroon in…
Deacon Greg Kandra June 11 – Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20 1 Cor 10:16-17 Jn 6:51-58 Years ago, I heard the story of a priest who was getting ready for Sunday Mass. While puttering around in the sacristy, he reached into a storage cabinet, took a plastic…
The Pope at War – The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini and Hitler by David I. Kertzer (Oxford University Press, €29.00/£25.99) Dermot Keogh The decision in 2019 of Pope Francis to open the Vatican archives for World War II and beyond, becoming operational on March 2, 2020, is a significant milestone on the long…
Benedict XVI’s private secretary to return to home diocese According to a German newspaper report, Pope Francis ordered Archbishop Georg Gänswein to leave the Vatican and return to Germany by the end of June. The longtime private secretary of Pope Benedict XVI has been told to return to his home diocese of Freiburg in southwest…
While maintaining its stance against IVF, the Vatican issued a new document May 30 sounding an alarm about declining birth rates and touting alternatives to methods of artificial reproduction the Church sees as morally unacceptable. The text also reiterates the Church’s traditional opposition to contraception, despite speculation in some quarters that Pope Francis might be…
Irish farmers have been “singled out” by plans that Government is considering that could see up to 65,000 dairy cows a year culled so as to bring the agricultural sector into line with climate targets. Speaking to The Irish Catholic newspaper, Birr, Co. Offaly, parish priest Fr Michael O’Meara said that farmers are “good stewards”…
Index, A History of the – A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age, by Denis Duncan (Allen Lane/ Penguin Books, €15.50/ £10.99) Dennis Duncan, who lectures in English at the University College London, is a man of many parts and a writer of diverse, bookish interests. His most entertaining book, which deals as…
Ruadhán Jones
Peter Costello