Preparations for World Youth Day (WYD) in Krakow next year are gathering momentum in dioceses across the country, with expectations of large numbers of young people making the pilgrimage. Following a meeting in Maynooth with a member of the Polish WYD organising team, diocesan and religious youth ministries have begun to plan and promote their…

A ‘Blessing of the Roads’ ceremony will be incorporated into Easter Sunday ceremonies for many Co. Mayo parishes next weekend, with priests supporting an awareness campaign to reduce road deaths. The campaign from the Road Safety Office of Mayo County Council, supported by both local Catholic and Church of Ireland leaders, will see clerics blessing…

The Pope’s decision to appoint a Chilean bishop accused of turning a blind eye to abuse has been described as “baffling” and “disappointing” by the sole Irish member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Francis appointed Bishop Juan Barros to head the small diocese of Osorno. As a young man, Bishop Barros…

Archbishop Eamon Martin has made a new appeal for information to help find the remains of the six people known as “The Disappeared”.   The primate made the appeal when he celebrated Palm Sunday Mass in Armagh with family members of the victims who were killed and secretly buried by republicans during the Troubles. Archbishop…

Seminaries need to better prepare future priests for living a celibate life according to a senior psychiatrist. Prof. Patricia Casey, who said she personally “had no difficulty with married priests”, rejected suggestions that compulsory celibacy was too difficult for priests. “Priests have done it for many years and it seems to me that only in…

The leader of the Knights of St Columbanus has warned that the proposal to amend Article 41 of the Constitution is “an unjust attack on the family founded on marriage”. Supreme Knight Barry MacMahon said the proposals laid down in the Government’s Children and Family Relationships Bill “depart radically from the natural moral law” and…

President Michael D. Higgins and his wife Sabina with Sally O'Neill, a leading human rights advocate and Trócaire’s Head of Region for Latin America, based in Honduras, at a lunch to mark her retirement and honour her contribution to overseas development and human rights over almost four decades.