Prayer is an important part of daily life according to best-selling author Cecelia Ahern. Speaking on RTÉ’s The Meaning of Life with Gay Byrne, the 33-year-old author of PS I Love You and 10 other books said she prays to God every night. Describing prayer as an honest conversation in which people “say the things that you feel,…

Dioceses across the island of Ireland have begun to ask parishes to provide feedback on the Lineamenta discussion document from last year’s extraordinary synod on the family, in order to collate a report from the Irish Church in advance of the second session of the bishops’ synod in October. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, who…

The head of the Catholic Principals Association (CPA) has welcomed Archbishop Eamon Martin’s “clear and unambiguous assertion” that “no young person should be turned away from a Catholic school on the basis of their mark in an entrance test”. In a homily launching Catholic Schools Week in the North, the Archbishop of Armagh said “in…

Government TDs should be asked to account for the coalition’s “arrogance” in seeking to speak for citizens in a way that is contrary to the Constitution, Bishop Kevin Doran has said. The Bishop of Elphin, who stressed that he is expressing a personal view as a citizen, also accused the Government of trying to presume…

A cleric at the forefront of social justice campaigning has accused the Government of further excluding people who are already clinging to the margins of society in a new review of State policy. A review of Government policies released by Social Justice Ireland this week, which analyses how Ireland is performing on reaching its national…

Shane McGauley and Michael Achums from St Joseph's National School, Dundalk, Co. Louth try on Archbishop Eamon Martin's mitre and zucchetto at the Mass to launch Catholic Schools Week in St Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh. Photo: Liam McArdle

A photograph from the installation of Bishop Donal McKeown as the new Bishop of Derry last year, won a prestigious award at the annual Press Photographers Association of Ireland’s competition. The photograph by Margaret McLaughlin of The Irish News, titled ‘The Holy Gust’, captures the moment when a gust of wind caught the robes of…

College could be forced to close

Church leaders have started to distribute a pastoral letter on marriage to parishes in the North, after doubts were raised about the Church’s commitment to promoting marriage when it was revealed that only a small quantity of the leaflets had been printed. Earlier this month, The Irish Catholic established that only 170,000 copies of The…