The latest news is as grim as any emanating from the bloody battlefields of the Middle East currently dominating airtime with the international media. But this is Africa and, more specifically, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Thus, as embedded journalists in Iraq warned us to prepare for the worst as mass graves turned up amid…
A man “full of energy, full of life [and] of dynamism” has been lost in the passing of Bishop Eamonn Casey, who died on March 13 at the age of 89. This was the assessment offered by long-time friend Fr Dermod McCarthy for one of Ireland’s most high-profile prelates who would be recalled in his…
Can good news for a community be, simultaneously, bad news for that same community? It seems that this is possible if one is living within the Christian population of India. By way of elucidation we must look back one week, and to news reports of Christian fortunes in the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur,…
It’s all over bar the shouting, so the saying goes. As the Citizens’ Assembly moved last weekend from a session of presentations and questioning to a phase of internal debate towards a final ballot on recommendations to be put to the Oireachtas, it is a fairly safe bet that we have not heard the last…
In a case of ‘better late than never’ President Donald Trump used the occasion of his first major speech to the US Congress to address the wave of anti-Semitism currently afflicting the United States. “Recent threats targeting Jewish community centres and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries…remind us that while we may be a nation divided on…
The North’s Catholic Principals’ Association (CPA) has called for “clarity” from bishops on the issue of academic selection for grammar schools, after the announcement of a drive to formulate a single entrance exam to serve all schools by 2019. The announcement by the Post-Primary Transfer Consortium (PPTC) of a link-up with the Association of Quality…
Actress Viola Davis shared the secret of her Oscar-winning success during her Academy Award acceptance speech this week: God. Lauded for her Best Supporting Actress role in Fences, Davis sought to share her moment of glory with fellow Christian Denzel Washington, her co-star and Fences director, thanking him for “putting two entities in the driving…
Pressure is mounting on RTÉ this week after it was revealed that over 2,000 complaint letters have been sent in response to the ‘haunted bread’ incident on The Late Late Show. Fr Gerard Ahern of Abbeyleix, who has led the growing letter campaign to RTÉ since a guest on the flagship programme went unchallenged when…
The closure of Cistercian College Roscrea has been stalled as a result of a passionate campaign by parents and past pupils. Following the revelation that the Cistercian order was to close the boarding school due to financial pressures, a ‘Save CCR’ group has formed with the intention of sourcing funding for the school’s future. Speaking…
Drawn by “like-minded people” and in “hope of an uplifting event”, thousands of people packed the main hall at Dublin’s RDS for the 26th Divine Mercy Conference last weekend. According to organisers, despite pressure on Dublin accommodation from the Ireland v France Six Nations rugby clash at the nearby Aviva Stadium, the Divine Mercy recorded…