Sign of the times. Details:  One of the largest Catholic churches in Dublin is to be demolished to make way for a much smaller building accommodating 350 worshippers instead of 3,500. The scaled-back building on the site of the Church of the Annunciation in Finglas West on the city’s north side will also allow social housing to be built alongside it. The current church opened in 1967 when John Charles McQuaid was archbishop of Dublin and there was a vogue... Read more

When I was growing up, going to Catholic school in Maryland, it was a winter ritual: every February 3rd, the Sisters of St. Joseph would line us up and lead us into the church, to receive a blessing of the throats on the feast of St. Blaise. Do people still do that? I know we offer the blessing at the Masses in my parish. Do other places do it, too? For what it’s worth, I’m not sure it was all... Read more

Check this out: the latest in the Holy Father’s series of short videos illustrating his monthly prayer intentions. Read more

President Trump delivered remarks (you can watch the video of it above) at the National Prayer Breakfast this morning: It was the great Thomas Jefferson who said, the God who gave us life, gave us liberty. Jefferson asked, can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God. Among those freedoms is the right to worship according to our own beliefs. That is why I will get rid of... Read more

From The Telegraph:  Ibrahim Ali remembers his first church service well. The smell of the candles, the cheap plywood pews, and the hymn singing that sounded so foreign to him at the time. The 57-year-old Muslim Syrian never imagined that when he fled to neighbouring Lebanon to seek refuge from the war that he would end up converting to Christianity. But Mr Ali is not alone. Hundreds of Muslim refugees living in Lebanon have been baptized in the past year... Read more

Details:  A broad coalition of Christian leaders and evangelical groups spoke out against President Donald Trump’s move to rein in immigration from certain majority-Muslim nations, an outcry that risks undercutting the White House’s case for an executive order under siege from protesters and Democrats. In a letter to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence obtained by POLITICO, the Christian groups implored the two leaders to reverse course on the refugee ban in particular – one of several prongs in Trump’s... Read more

Recent developments are hitting close to home:  Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq, planned to discuss the suffering of Christians in his homeland during a visit to the United States beginning Feb. 2. Msgr. John Kozar, president of Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA), was all set to host Archbishop Warda. However, he received an email over the weekend from the archbishop that said the trip would have to be postponed. President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration,... Read more

We don’t see much of the Pope Emeritus these days.  But this photo appeared on Facebook Sunday with the (roughly translated) caption: The hope of a good Sunday, along with another recent photo of the pope emeritus, that in the last few days has met a deacon of the Pontifical College Scotsman of Rome. Remember Benedict in your prayers. April will mark his 90th birthday. Read more

What a blessing he will be. From Bishop John O. Barres’s homily yesterday at his installation: I look forward to discerning together with you our priests, our deacons, religious and laity, the movement of the Holy Spirit in our parishes, parishes that are schools of prayer, holiness and the New Evangelization. As I said at the press conference on December 9, I have a passion for parish life and will always have the heart of a parish priest. I am... Read more