The Irish community in Paris has joined in prayers for peace following days of protest across France after the shooting dead of a 17-year-old by a police officer. Nahel M., who is Algerian and of Moroccan descent, was shot during a traffic stop in Nanterre, a Paris suburb on June 27. Violent protests broke out…
Sofia Zate On June 30, Sr Mary Tighe celebrated her oak jubilee, ringing in 80 years in the Congregation of the Sisters of St John of God. She also celebrated her 100th birthday on the 14th of the same month. When I spoke to Sr Mary, she sounded grateful as she recalled her, not one…
Judith Sudilovsky A local Israeli reporter went undercover as a priest and was spat at several times while walking the streets of Jerusalem, Haaretz, the Israeli daily, reported. Haaretz underlined that at a time when attacks on Christians in Jerusalem are rapidly increasing, police are reluctant to track down the perpetrators. Channel 13’s Yossi Eli…
Farm deaths leave ‘cavern of darkness’ Farm deaths and accidents leave a “cavern of darkness” for those they affect, Bishop Denis Nulty said during an ecumenical prayer gathering on June 25. Accidents cause “devastation to families and farms”, the bishop of Kildare and Leighlin said at the 10th ecumenical remembrance service in Abbeyleix. “The more…
A number of years ago I was giving a retreat to priests in the USA. Most of them had been born in Ireland and had spent all of their priesthood in various dioceses. They are what used to be known in the Church in America as FBIs (foreign born Irish), to distinguish them from those…
Papal peace envoy journeys to Moscow Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi met with a Kremlin foreign policy adviser during the peace mission he is making to Moscow on Pope Francis’s behalf. Archbishop Giovanni d’Aniello, the apostolic nuncio to Russia, told reporters June 29 that the mission Pope Francis entrusted to Cardinal Zuppi “is to identify and…
Catholics in Honduras prayed for the victims of a horrific massacre in a women’s prison – an attack underscoring the power of the country’s criminal gangs and their control over correctional facilities. Many Catholic clergy expressed outrage while demanding an overhaul of the country’s prison system. “Tragedy repeats itself,” tweeted Bishop Ángel Garachana of San…
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he will speak with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega about releasing a jailed Nicaraguan bishop currently serving a 26-year prison sentence. Speaking to reporters in Rome June 22, a day after meeting with Pope Francis, the Brazilian president, commonly referred to as Lula, said there is “no reason…
The summer solstice was a scorching day in the golf club of Birr, Co. Offaly this year. A golf team tournament was held to raise awareness for vocations to the diocesan priesthood, called ‘Play for Vocations.’ This event was part of the ‘Year of Vocations’ to the diocesan priesthood that was instituted two months ago…
400-year-old church emerges from the waters in Mexico Due to an intense heat wave and drought that has spread throughout various parts of Mexico, a more than 400-year-old Catholic church has completely emerged from the waters in the state of Chiapas. The church of the disappeared town of San Juan Quechula, dedicated to the apostle…