Bishop Ray Browne and Carol Hickson (left) with Kamil Kunicki, Jane McGillicuddy, Kevin Lavery and Kiah Doona at the launch of Ógra Beo, a new parish programme aimed at getting young people in Kerry diocese involved in Church life. Training with adult leaders begins in Killarney on October 22.

A well-known priest has described as an “appalling stupidity” the closure of rural garda stations, claiming that the decision has led to a rise in crime in isolated parts of the country.  Fr Micheál MacGréil also warned that the improved network of motorways in Ireland has been a contributing factor to the rise in rural…

The Limerick-based Dominican Biblical Institute (DBI) is in the final stages of closure due a severe lack of funding since the financial crash.  DBI Director Fr Gerard Norton OP has confirmed that the DBI board’s final meeting has taken place, the company has ceased trading and it is preparing to apply to be voluntarily struck…

A filmmaker is seeking to raise €40,000 to enable the distribution and promotion of a film about Japan’s last Irish nun. Thanks to your Noble Shadow tells the story of Jennie O’Sullivan who, aged just 23, left Ireland as Sr Paschal, a member of the Infant Jesus Sisters, to spend the next 75 years in…

Precious Life, the largest pro-life group in the North, has opened a new pregnancy care centre in Belfast. Speaking at the opening of Stanton Healthcare Belfast on Tuesday, Precious Life’s director, Bernadette Smyth said, the centre will “offer a much needed alternative” to the Marie Stope Clinic at no cost “because we believe that women…

Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, currently in Rome for the Synod on the Family, called for prayers throughout the diocese for the Traveller families affected by the “heartbreaking” fire in Carrickmines. Ten people, including children as young as six months, died in a fire at a Traveller site on Saturday morning. The parish priest of the…

A parish appeal in Belfast to raise funds to help alleviate the suffering of refugees fleeing war in Syria has raised an incredible €70,000.  Sparked by frustration at what they saw as a poor political response to the crisis, the Redemptorist community at Clonard Monastery undertook fundraising collections at the end of September, which was…

Television icon Oprah Winfrey has credited her church upbringing for being the catalyst for her successful global media career. The American talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist, was born into poverty in rural Missisippi to a teenage single mother. Speaking in a video to promote her new series Belief, which is about the “ongoing…

A documentary following the work of an Irish missionary sister supporting people with HIV/AIDS has been nominated for the Kenyan version of the Oscars.  Nurtured with Love, a video on the work undertaken by the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa in the Love and Hope Centre in Nakuru, Kenya, has been nominated for this year’s…

Campaigners have condemned the absence of concrete measures in next year’s Budget to prevent the spiralling homelessness crisis. Mike Allen, Focus Ireland’s Director of Advocacy, told The Irish Catholic that: “We were hoping there’d be measures to deal with the ever rising tide of families becoming homeless, but the Government hasn’t put in any significant…