Gloria.TV News on the 7th of July 2014

Catholic Ireland: The number of serving Diocesan priests in Ireland dropped 13 per cent in the last twelve years according to the Statistical Yearbook of the Church. The number of nuns in Ireland dropped by 23 per cent. The number of students at diocesan and religious seminaries in Ireland dropped by 12.1 per cent. In Dublin diocese with 199 parishes there are two priests under 40 years of age.

Dead: Fr Gerald Robinson who was convicted of killing a nun 34 years ago in a hospital chapel has died Friday in prison. He will be buried as a diocesan priest according to the Diocese of Toledo. Robinson was arrested 24 years after the murder. He had been in a hospice unit since the end of May after suffering a heart attack. Robinson continued to maintain his innocence.

Disappeared: Daughters of Mary Sisters Miskintah and Utoor Joseph and three orphans have disappeared. The two Sisters managed an orphanage in Khazraj, a Christian neighbourhood, in Mosul, northern Iraq. When the city fell to ISIS-troops Sister Miskintah left with the children to another city. Sister Utoor remained at the monastery. On June 28 Sister Miskintah returned with three orphans to Mosul to inspect the monastery and gather some belongings. Shortly afterwards the two nuns and the children vanished. It is believed they were kidnapped.

Long Journey: Last Friday the late cardinal Bernard Agré was put to rest. He was the archbishop of Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, from 1994 until 2006. Unlike most of the Catholic bishops Agré was not know for cultivating wooden language, meaning, vague, ambiguous, abstract or pompous words in order to divert attention from the salient issues. Agré died on June 9th in Paris after a heart attack. This means that after his death he still was around for almost four weeks.