Participants at the Youth 2000 Summer Festival, Katie Ascough, Kevin McElroy (a seminarian in Maynooth) and Clare McCarthy share a bag of chips during a break in the festivities in the Cistercian College in Roscrea, Co. Tipperary at the weekend. 

Catholics have a responsibility to offer “sanctuary and welcome” to asylum seekers fleeing war-torn parts of the world, the United Nation’s special envoy on migration has said. Speaking at this year’s novena at Knock, Peter Sutherland insisted there is “no room for ambiguity, let alone opposition amongst Christians, to the phenomenon of migration”. “Apart from…

The papal nuncio to Ireland has said that young Irish Catholics need “to have the courage to be different” and rebel against a society that “is distancing itself from God”. Speaking at the closing Mass of the Youth 2000 Summer Festival in Roscrea on Sunday, Archbishop Charles Brown told the over 1,000 young people that…

A prominent Belfast priest has said that internment, which is commemorated by marches in the North this month, effectively marked the end of British rule in Northern Ireland because it facilitated torture. Internment was a British army operation in the North in August 1971, when 342 Catholics suspected of being involved with the IRA were…

The National Traditional Pilgrimage takes place in the Parish Church in Knock on Saturday, September 5 commencing with a Missa Cantata in the Tridentine Rite at 2pm followed by Stations of the Cross and traditional benediction. The pilgrimage, which is both a diocesan and shrine event, is being organised by Our Lady’s Catholic Heritage Association,…

Over 1,500 gathered to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St Nicholas, with a Mass celebrated Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston. Cardinal O’Malley followed in the footsteps of his Boston predecessor, Cardinal Richard Cushing, who dedicated the cathedral in 1965.  In his homily Cardinal O’Malley said “in…

The Government needs to “face up” to the crisis of homelessness, Bro. Kevin Crowley of the Capuchin Day Centre has warned. Criticising as “appalling” the current lack of social housing for homeless families in Dublin in particular, the leading campaigner called on the Government to urgently invest in housing. “It’s up to the Government to…

The Bishop of Cork & Ross has called for the exhumation of the remains of Little Nellie, so that she can be reburied in a location allowing access for devotees to pray at her grave. Little Nellie is buried in the now derelict Good Shepherd Convent in Sunday’s Well, Cork which has gone into receivership.…

More than 150,000 pilgrims from throughout Ireland and from abroad will have by the end of this week attended the 2015 national novena to Our Lady of Knock at the National Marian Shrine in Co Mayo. Commenting on the opening day of the novena – which involves the celebration of prayer, reflections and faith-based workshops…