Clonfert, Co. Galway, is the resting place of one of the most adventurous of Irish monks: St Brendan the Navigator. Stories of his seafaring inspired not only his contemporaries in Ireland, but later generations across medieval Europe too. Even in our time his story was a major influence on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and…
Month: January 2024
How a school in Rome hid Jewish boys from the Nazis
By Anita Hirschbeck (KNA) 80 years ago, the “brothers” saved his life in this place. Now Fausto Zabban sits on the stage of the school theatre at the Collegio San Giuseppe in Rome and tells the pupils his story. When the Nazis occupied the Italian capital, his Jewish family went into hiding, he explains. His…
Cardinal Maradiaga: Europe is doing too little against drug use
By Tobias Käufer (KNA) Record drug finds in harbours in the Netherlands and Belgium, record production in Colombia. Plus almost weekly reports of violence in Mexico, Ecuador and Argentina. In Latin America, the power of the drug cartels appears to be increasing all the time. Now one of the most prominent heads of the Catholic…
Celebrating Brigid 1500 in Kildare
1500 years from the death of St Brigid, the legacy of her faith in Jesus and beautiful attitude of mercy is being celebrated and remembered in the cathedral that carries her name in Kildare town. Dean Isobel Jackson talks with Ray Hayden about Brigid’s life story and inspiring leadership in founding her monastery in…
Church in Poland faces headwinds under Tusk government
In Poland, the Catholic Church is struggling with adversity in society and politics. It is therefore speaking out strongly against the new centre-left government, particularly with regard to its family policy, writes Oliver Hinz Warsaw (KNA) In January, the priestly profession in Poland often resembles a back-breaking job. Day after day, priests go from house…
Govt must examine State’s role in abuse at schools ‘in interest of justice’
Ruadhán Jones
The Government must expand any further inquiries into abuse at schools to include the Department of Education and the education system as a whole to achieve “justice for all” religious have warned. The call comes as a scoping inquiry into historical sexual abuse in day and boarding schools run by religious orders moves forward, led…
Irish lawyer: Resurrected Finnish ‘hate speech’ trial should trouble Ireland
Following the news that the Finnish state prosecutor will appeal against the second unanimous court decision which exonerated an MP of “hate speech” allegations for sharing faith-based beliefs, an Irish lawyer has said that it shows a “liberal, European” country is capable of “targeting and prosecuting” people over widely-held Christian beliefs. Former MP Päivi Räsänen…
St Brigid comes home – Relics return to Kildare for the first time in a thousand years
Relics of St Brigid are to return to her native Co. Kildare for the first time in centuries to mark the 1,500th anniversary of her death. The relics will return to Kildare on Sunday, January 28, starting with a procession from the Solas Bhride Centre run by the Brigidine Sisters to St Brigid’s Parish Church…
Ideology must not drive faith from public life – bishop
Chai Brady
There is a move in the western world to “decry” faith-based schools, despite Catholic schools being successful and inclusive, according to the Chair of the bishops’ Council for Education. Speaking to The Irish Catholic Bishop Tom Deenihan of Meath warned against a growing ideology that faith must be excluded from public life. He said: “Faith…
‘Ambiguous’ durable relations clause leaves Govt ‘hostage’ to future warn legal experts
The proposed recognition of ‘durable relationships’ in the Constitution leaves the Government “hostage” to future generations as “no one can define” what the term means, legal experts have warned. The comments come as Minister Roderic O’Gorman claimed that ‘throuples’ and polygamous relationships will not be granted legal protection if a March 8 referendum to change…