EU directive could have implications for Churches
A proposed EU anti-discrimination directive, aimed at outlawing any discrimination based on sex, religion or sexual orientation outside the workplace could have implications for Church property. ....

China to permit a limited distribution of Bibles for Olympics
The Chinese government has said it will permit booklets of the Gospels, New Testaments, and full Bibles to be distributed during the Olympic Games, even though it normally controls publication of ....

Facelift for ruined Mayo abbey.
The Office of Public Works has commenced a restoration programme for the ruined Franciscan friary at Rosserk, Co Mayo. The friary, which has a picturesque location on the estuary of the river Moy ....

Right of parents to choose school "overriding principle": Iona
The right of parents to choose the school to which their children go should be the “overriding principle” in the debate over education policy, says David Quinn the director of the Iona ....

New Anglican group "schism in all but name": report
A significant number of bishops of the Anglican Communion, representing up to half of the world's Anglicans launched a new Church on Sunday, which challenges the authority of the Archbishop of ....

Clergymen to be honoured for NI role
Two clergymen who witnessed the decommissioning of IRA weapons will be honoured tody for their role in the key chapter of the Northern Ireland peace process. Rev Harold Good and Father Alec Reid ....

Focolare meets to appoint new President
Following the death of the charismatic Focolare founder Chiara Lubich just over three months ago, the General Assembly of the international movement came  together yesterday in Rome to begin ....

Families and friends recall those lost at sea
A recent service at Kilmore Quay in Wexford has commemorated the lives of people lost at sea. A large number of people attended the moving service in St. Peter's Church, concelebrated by Fr. ....

Priest reality show a big hit in France
Priest Academy, the first reality show to feature three priests, has become an internet phenomenon, netting over 150,000 viewers in its first two episodes. The programme was launched by the ....

NI Bishops seek 11-plus clarification
Northern Ireland's Catholic bishops have called for greater clarity and resolution to the debate on plans for an end to the 11-plus. In an end-of-term statement, the bishops said there was ....

Ordination in Co. Wexford
On Sunday last week there was a very happy occasion in Tagoat, a small village on the road between Wexford and Rosslare Harbour, when one of its parishioners was ordained to the ....

Confusion over Catholic rebels’ reply to pope’s call to rejoin Rome
Leaders of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) report that they will not respond directly to what some observers have called an "ultimatum" from the Vatican. However, the SSPX has not ....

Huge ceremony for episcopal ordination of Down & Connor’s new bishop
President Mary McAleese, members of the diplomatic corps and several European  bishops were among those present at the episcopal ordination of Monsignor Noel Treanor, who became bishop of ....

Psalm book found in bog is biggest find since Ardagh Chalice: Museum Director.
The director of the national museum has described an ancient Christian psalm book which was discovered in a bog in County Offaly two years ago as the most important archaeological find in Ireland ....

Mugabe isolated on a sad day for Zimbabwe
On Sunday the Electoral Commission in Zimbabwe stated that Mr Mugabe won the Presidential election by a huge margin in the vote, which has been widely condemned as a sham. On the same day ....

Irish missionary archbishop to receive the pallium
Recently-appointed Archbishop Richard Anthony Burke SPS of Benin City, Nigeria, will be among 41 metropolitan archbishops from all over the world who will receive the pallium from Pope ....

Cardinal launches history of his alma mater
A book which chronicles one of Ireland’s best known seminaries and boarding schools, St Patrick’s College in Cavan, has been launched by Cardinal Seán Brady, who is himself both one of its former ....

Cocaine use in Ireland has doubled since 2003: survey
Cocaine use has increased more than twofold across the country since 2003, according to new figures from the Government's top drug task force. A survey of 5,000 people aged between 15 and 64, ....

Church will play changed but significant role in education: Archbishop Martin
Catholic Education will remain “as a creative partner alongside others” in playing “a changed but significant role in Irish education". So said Catholic Archbishop Diarmuid Martin at a major ....

Laws should recognise "special status" of marriage: Senator
A group of Fianna Fáil TDs and Senators are supporting a motion in the parliamentary party to secure the special status of marriage under the Constitution. The motion comes just days after the ....

Irish strikers honoured
President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, signed a plaque recently unveiled in Dublin to honour Mary Manning and the other Dunnes Stores workers who went on an anti-apartheid strike 24 years ago. At ....

Online selling of Pill against Irish law: IMB
The Irish Medicines Board (IMB), which is charged with regulating medicines in the State, has warned that a controversial UK service prescribing the contraceptive and morning-after pill online is ....

Africa should reject Mugabe: Catholic bishops
The Catholic Church in Southern Africa has urged all African states to reject President Robert Mugabe should he be declared winner of today's presidential run-off boycotted by the opposition ....

Painting of St. Columba donated to Derry church
A hundred-year-old painting of St. Columba has been donated to a church in Derry named after him. The painting had been hanging in the Kivlehan family’s home for over forty years and had been in ....

Government to grant marriage-like rights to same sex couples
Same sex couples are to be granted marriage-like rights under new Government proposals published on Tuesday. Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern launched the proposals, saying that the Civil ....

Priest slams holy water traders
Unscrupulous traders who offered bottles of holy water for sale last weekend before open-air cemetery Masses in Derry have been criticised by a local priest. The traders plied bottles of holy ....

Pope Benedict to confirm young people at WYD Mass
Pope Benedict XVI will confirm 24 young people at the World Youth Day Final Mass near Sydney on Sunday July 20, it has been announced. Twenty-four candidates for confirmation, 14 Australians and ....

School buildings delay 'unacceptable': Bishop Walsh
The bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, said it is “unacceptable” that the provision of permanent accommodation for Ennis schools should be put on hold any longer. Dr Walsh made his statement on ....

Church-supported schools change life for displaced Chadians
The equatorial African inland country Chad is very much in the minds of all people in Ireland with many of its soldiers helping to keep peace in such remote areas. Tens of thousands of Chadian ....

Papal award for Knock organist
The organist at Knock Shrine, John Aldridge, has been conferred with the highest lay papal honour, the ‘Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice’ award, for his services to the shrine over seventeen year and his ....

Cardinal Daly delighted congress will be in Dublin 2012
Cardinal Cathal Daly, who just last week published a book on the Eucharist, has expressed his delight at the news that the next Eucharistic Congress will happen in Dublin in 2012. Speaking to ....

Roman churches ‘no-go areas’ for new movie
Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard will have a tough time filming two key scenes in their new film Angels and Demons, based on Dan Brown's novel of the same name, for the Vatican has banned them ....

Latvian priest declared ‘Righteous among the Nations’
A Latvian priest has been awarded the title “Righteous among the Nations” by Yad Vashem for risking his life to save Jews during World War II. Fr Kasimir Vilnis was parish pastor in Riga, Latvia, ....

Next Eucharistic congress will be in Dublin: Pope
Dublin is to be the venue for the next Eucharistic Congress in 2012.  The announcement was made by the Pope yesterday, in a broadcast live from Rome, to the 49th Eucharistic Congress in ....

Opposition leader pulls out of Zimbabwe elections
In a sensational move, the opposition leader in Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai has announced that he is pulling out of  Zimbabwe's violence-ridden presidential run off.  Mr Tsvangirai ....

End of era for Christian Brothers schools
Last week the newly-formed Edmund Rice Schools Trust was granted trusteeship and operational responsibility for the Christian Brothers schools and their 35,000 students and 2,700 teachers at a ....

CPA figures on Irish abortions in Holland 'dubious': PLC
The Pro-Life Campaign (PLC) have queried claims by the Crisis Pregnancy Agency (CPA) suggesting that over 400 Irish women travelled to the Netherlands for abortions last year. The CPA made the ....

12,000 at Eucharistic congress in Canada
Cardinal Seán Brady and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin led a delegation of six representatives from Ireland to the 49th International Eucharistic Congress, this week in Quebec city. The congress on the ....

Bishops to be exhumed from cathedral crypt
Bodies of four bishops and two priests buried in a crypt of St Muredach’s Cathedral in Ballina, Co Mayo, are to be exhumed and re-interred if a planning application to the town council is ....

No Church approval for blessing gay unions: priest
A leading priest has said that homosexual unions cannot be recognised within the Christian tradition. Fr Brendan Purcell, a philosophy lecturer and long time commentator on social and moral issues, ....