St Mary of the Angels is to be reopened for a final liturgy and blessing before it closes for at least two years as work begins to preserve this important heritage building. Parish Priest Father Barry Scannell said: “At 2pm on Tuesday 17 March we will hold a short liturgy and blessing for our church Read more
I am not particularly holy. That is to say, I don’t usually act holy, understand holiness much, think holy thoughts, or say holy things. I moan and groan, yell at my kids, live half my life by the motto “Me First,” mistrust God and generally schlep along the Road to Zion when I could be Read more
If you attend a church regularly, you may have noticed a person shows up for a worship service, but he or she never returns. Thom S Rainer carried out a twitter survey to see if he could find out how church communities drive away newcomers. This is what he discovered: Having a stand up and Read more
A San Antonio (USA) man who says he is a Catholic priest says he’s offering confessions digitally for the first time through the Snapchat app. The man who goes by “@PriestDavid” said this experiment started out as a way to help a college student with a project. He wants to remain anonymous and not identify Read more
Forget horse-drawn carriages, there’s a new funeral vehicle in town. Massey Bros. Funeral Home have come up with a really innovative way to say farewell – a slick Harley Davidson Hearse. The hearse is in fact a sidecar attached to the motorbike, and is the first of its type south of the border. The new Read more
Though China is officially atheist, Christianity is growing, with believers now outnumbering communists. That’s good news for a huge Bible publisher that supports charities in China and Africa. In the soulless gray industrial zone near Nanjing’s South Railway Station are the sounds of rattling and roaring inside Amity Bible Printing Co. Without interruption, the printing Read more
A young Catholic priest who enjoys rap music had a few confessions about his faith and his music: He didn’t like the Catholic Church as a youth, and he doesn’t want to simply be known today as the Rapping Priest. Ascension Press just released a vocations video featuring Fr. Joshua. “I Will Follow”, is a Read more
A Catholic priest is donning his boxing gloves for a charity fight next month. Fr Pierre “Jalapeno” Pepper, parish priest of St Rynagh’s in Banagher, Co Offaly, will be squaring up to parishioner Jared “The Artful Dodger” Madden to raise money for the St Vincent de Paul Society and the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association. Read more
From Facebook to Pink Floyd and Google to Harry Potter, long-dead Latin is enjoying something of a modern renaissance. Some students in Rome speak the language all day, and one band has even produced an album in the mother tongue of Julius Caesar. Nor is the language confined to dusty books: Google Translate now has Read more
A church minister, the undertaker and several pallbearers fell into a grave during the funeral of a young man in the town of Bethlehem, in central South Africa. A witness told the Afrikaans newspaper Volksblad that shortly after the coffin was lowered into the ground, a wooden plank on the edge of the burial pit Read more