Pope Francis has appointed Tuam-based priest Fr Fintan Monahan as the new Bishop of Killaloe. The announcement was made in Rome this morning. The Pontiff has also accepted the resignations of Bishop Martin Drennan of Galway and Bishop Seamus Freeman of Ossory – both for reasons of ill health. Bishop-elect Monahan (49) was ordained in…
The Catholic faith is the greatest gift any mother could give her child, according to a new inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Speaking at the induction ceremony, 12-time All-Star and former National League Rookie of the Year Mike Piazza thanked his mother “for the greatest gift a mother could give a child, the…
Kerry County Council lacked necessary state approval to carry out the partial demolition of an ancient holy well in Tralee, the council has admitted. Sundays Well at Lisloose, Tralee, which dates back to pre-Christian times, is believed by some to be the original “pure crystal fountain” famously mentioned in the song The Rose of Tralee.…
An Australian priest working in a West Belfast parish and a couple living next to a Co. Tyrone parochial house may have been threatened by the same armed intruders. Fr Denis Ryan (70) from Ballarat, Victoria, was providing holiday cover at St Michael the Archangel Church in Andersontown for a second successive year when two…
Fr Hamel, 84, hailed as martyr for the Faith
Rachel Beard A Co. Laois-based parish priest has hit out against an attitude towards refugees and asylum seekers in Ireland which he has branded as “racist”. Fr Paddy Byrne of Portlaoise told The Irish Catholic he believes “that there’s an underbelly in Irish society that’s quite cynical to refugees and a great sense of xenophobia where…
The Cardinal Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien was in Ireland at the weekend to preside over the investiture of new knights in the order dedicated to helping Christians in the Holy Land. The cardinal ispictured at a reception following the investiture Mass at St…
Some of the pilgrims as they depart from Dublin Airport on Monday for the World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland. Photo: John McElroy
Staff reporter A proposal to reduce the time dedicated to religious education in primary schools will further undermine the “distinctive ethos” of Catholic schools, Dr Tom Finegan of The Iona Institute has said. Speaking to The Irish Catholic this week, Dr Finegan criticised pressures being placed on Catholic schools to become ever more secular through a…
Masses for specific ethnic groups should be reduced in the interests of integration, a leading psychiatrist has suggested. Questioning the wisdom of Dublin’s Polish community having its own church – St Audeon’s Church on High Street – Prof. Patricia Casey told The Irish Catholic she thinks it would be healthier if “there would be no…
Greg Daly
Paul Keenan