Catholic bishops in Northern Ireland said the defeat of a bill that would have prevented late term abortions for non-fatal disabilities in unborn children “will send a message to all citizens that unborn disabled babies, are fundamentally less valued than those who are able-bodied.”
Church leaders in Ireland are calling on the government to take the spiritual needs of the population into consideration, noting the country is the only one in Western Europe to continue to ban public worship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pope Francis officially announced Ireland’s Knock Shrine as an international Marian and Eucharistic shrine on the feast of St. Joseph on March 19.
Ireland could see the number of Mass-going Catholics drop by nearly a quarter when the COVID-19 pandemic ends.
Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, Northern Ireland, has hailed political leader John Hume as a “paragon of peace” for his key role in bringing an end to the conflict in Northern Ireland.
The U.S. demonstrations over police aggression toward minorities has an antecedent in Northern Ireland, according to a police commander in Salinas, California, who spent the first 10 years of his life in Northern Ireland in the midst of “the Troubles” there, then later wrote his master’s thesis on the applicability of its policing reforms to the United States.
Ireland’s top prelate is calling on “the younger members of our parishes” to help manage the transition back to full parish life and celebration of the sacraments as the island eases out of the restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Despite regulations established by civil and ecclesiastical authorities to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, many priests in remote areas of Ireland are feeling pressure to celebrate funeral Masses. In rural parishes, funerals are “big occasions for the community,” according to Father Brendan Hoban, co-founder of the Irish Association of Catholic Priests.
The Catholic Church in Ireland has confirmed that a woman who was seriously ill with multiple sclerosis experienced a complete healing of all her symptoms at Knock shrine in September 1989.
The Irish village of Knock is celebrating on Aug. 21 the 140th anniversary of “Apparition of Knock,” in which the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, St. John the Baptist and Jesus as the lamb of God appeared in the local church.
