A shift in practice seems to be occurring across the country, reports Cathal Barry Removals have been an integral part of the grieving process for bereaved Irish families down the years. However, it appears than an increasing number of families are opting to shun the practice, preferring instead for their deceased loved ones to be…
Fr Frankie Mulgrew, son of famed Irish comedian Jimmy Cricket, is behind an imaginative initiative in the Diocese of Salford in the North of England which is using a double-decker ‘Mercy Bus’ to bring people back to Confession this Lent. Bishop John Arnold of Salford and Mayor of Bolton, Cllr Carole Swarbrick, are pictured with…
“there does appear to be something in Catholicism in America that is not present in many Irish parishes”, writes Michael Kelly I’m writing from the United States where I am attending the Religious Education Congress of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Irish Catholics who attend Mass in the US often return with memories of the…
The outbreak of Zika virus in Brazil is being used to justify eugenics, writes David Quinn On the flight home from his trip to Mexico last week, Pope Francis spoke to journalists, which is now a papal practice dating back to St John Paul II. Francis has, however, taken it to a new level. He…
Creighton was right to quit FG – voters Renua leader Lucinda Creighton was right to quit Fine Gael, according to almost half of her constituents. The Dublin Bay South TD sacrificed her junior ministry and a potential promotion to Cabinet when she voted against the Government’s controversial abortion legislation in 2013. A poll by research firm Millward Brown for the Irish Independent…
Fr Ted co-writer Graham Linehan, has defended his “gothic horror” style video which calls for the abolition of Ireland’s constitutional protection for the unborn. The video, called ‘Chains’, which was released in October 2015, has been strongly criticised in numerous quarters. Former Taoiseach John Bruton described the video as “totally anti-Christian” and Sunday Independent columnist…
Over 200 young people are expected to attended a festival of faith next month hosted by the Office for Evangelisation and Ecumenism in the Archdiocese of Dublin. The idea behind the ‘Faith Fest’ in Clonliffe College came from four parish pastoral workers who had seen the success of the Youth Space at the Eucharistic Congress…
Larry Donnelly More attention should be paid to the wonderful influence the Church can be on people, writes Larry Donnelly Although I write and speak a lot publicly – both in my day job as a lecturer in the School of Law at NUI Galway and in my avocation as an avid watcher of and…
Remarks by Pope Francis that Catholic women with Zika virus might be able to use contraception do not change Church teaching, a leading moral theologian has said. Zika virus has been linked by some to birth defects in babies, especially microcephaly which causes them to be born with abnormally small heads, but the link has…
The rights of religious organisations working in the areas of marriage, education and health are under threat because of “equality legislation that does not recognise the right to protect religious ethos”, Bishop Kevin Doran has said. The Bishop of Elphin made the remark in a talk called ‘How should a Catholic think about politics?’ that…
Cathal Barry
Michael Kelly
David Quinn
Greg Daly
Mags Gargan