Obituaries & Tributes

Awdah Hathaleen was killed on Monday 28 July 2025, shot dead by an Israeli settler. This 31-year-old husband, father of three young boys, and English teacher was a leader in his Palestinian community of Umm Al Kheir, a village in Masafer Yatta in the south of the West Bank. Awdah was renowned for welcoming Jews and Christians alike to his village. I first visited Umm Al Kheir on 29 October 2008. I... Read More

Fr Joe McNerney gave the following homily and eulogy at the funeral of Canon Gerard Flynn at St Michael's, Leigh Park, Portsmouth Diocese. (The church was absolutely packed, with many clergy and laity in attendance, spilling out onto the steps of the church. As has been mentioned, Canon Gerard was the Vocations Director for our diocese. That might sound like another add on task to his ministry, bu... Read More

On July 11, the day Fr Kees Vlaming MHM would have reached the age of 90, the friends of Kees and of the Mill Hill Missionaries in DR Congo, came together at the Basankusu diocesan house in Kinshasa to celebrate the memory of this dearly beloved missionary. Fr Patrick Lonkoy Bolengu MHM paid him this tribute: We gather today, our hearts heavy with sadness but filled with gratitude, to pay our last... Read More

The Requiem Mass for Liverpool FC player Diogo Jota, 28, and his brother, André Silva, 25, was held on Saturday at the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar church in Portugal, on Saturday. The brothers died in a car accident on Thursday, after a tyre of the car they were travelling in blew out. Just eleven days before, Diogo had married his childhood sweetheart, Rute Cardoso, in a Catholic ceremony at t... Read More

The first President of the Focolare Movement after the foundress Chiara Lubich, Maria Voce, passed away on 20th of June 2025, at home in Rome. She was 87 years old. The announcement was made by Margaret Karram, the current President. In a message to the Focolare Movement worldwide, Ms Karram paid tribute to Maria Voce's contribution. "As the first president of the Focolare Movement after our foun... Read More

This 14th of June, we remember and celebrate the birthday of John Bradburne who would have been 104 years old in 2025. John's extraordinary life of faith, poetry, and service-most notably his care for the leprosy community in Mutemwa, Zimbabwe, continues to inspire people around the world. As we mark this special day, we invite you to reflect on his enduring legacy and join us in giving thanks for... Read More

Bernard Desmond Heaphy was born in Lee, Lewisham in 1937. He went to school at St Joseph's Academy, Blackheath. He then studied for the priesthood at St John's Seminary in Wonersh and was ordained at Our Lady of Lourdes, Lee on the 17th of June 1962. After ordination he went to Cambridge University to study physics and subsequently taught at St John Fisher School, Purley for 10 years. He then s... Read More

Mill Hill Missionary Fr Innocent Akum Wefon writes: For most of my life as a priest, Easter has been a time of overflowing joy; churches packed with singing voices, polished liturgies, colourful vestments, and the familiar rhythm of celebration. Christ is risen! And with that proclamation, joy often feels like the only appropriate response. But this year, Easter broke me open in a different way. C... Read More

Fr Dominic Robinson SJ, Parish Priest at Farm Street Church, Mayfair, writes: "We are not living an era of change but a change of era". Francis' comment to Italian bishops in 2015 became something of a mantra for his papal ministry in a fast changing world in which the Catholic Church had lost so much credibility and needed to be humbled back to simplicity. The choice of name said it all, defin... Read More

John Nish, President of the Catholic Association of Teachers, Schools and Colleges (CATSC) writes: It is with profound sadness and deep gratitude that the Catholic Association of Teachers, Schools and Colleges (CATSC) joins the universal Church in mourning the death of His Holiness, Pope Francis. A shepherd of humility, wisdom, and courageous faith, Pope Francis led the Church with a heart close t... Read More

Fr Nicholas Crowe OP, Dominican Prior Provincial writes: With deep sorrow, the Dominican friars of the English Province mourn the passing of His Holiness Pope Francis. We give thanks for his faithful witness to the Gospel and his tireless service to the Church. As the College of Cardinals prepares to gather in Conclave, among them our own brother Timothy Radcliffe OP, we unite in prayer, invokin... Read More

The death of Pope Francis has generated renewed interest in a story - https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/36313 - I wrote in January 2019 about the Irish nun who was present at his birth in December 1936 and who nursed him for the first week of his life. The Irish Examiner has published an article about the story and the Irish Independent and Irish Central in New York picked it up from there, as ... Read More

All the Irish Bishops have issued tributes to Pope Francis. A Book of Condolences for people in Ireland to record their sympathy on the death of Pope Francis is now available on the homepage of https://www.catholicbishops.ie , and on the Irish bishops' social media platforms of Facebook, Instagram, X, and on BlueSky. The tributes follow: Bishop Michael Duignan, Bishop of Galway, Kilmacduagh & ... Read More

Joe Stanley, Chair of LGBT+ Catholics Westminster Pastoral Council writes: It is with deep mourning that the LGBT+ Catholics Westminster Community learns of the death of Pope Francis, tempered by the certainty that he will be welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven with open arms, and a profound respect for his stewardship of the Body of Christ as Servant of the Servants of God. His papacy has had a ... Read More