JANUARY
The new year began with the Dáil preparing to debate a full motion condemning the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. This was sparked by the failure of politicians to include Christians in a motion attacking the treatment of Iraq’s Yazidi minority by the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) – an omission described as “outrageous” by Bishop John McAreavey.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder of social media giant Facebook, asserted the importance of faith in a Christmas message to followers, saying, “I believe religion is very important.”
The first month also entailed a refusal of the Irish hierarchy to ask Pope Francis to consider permitting priests who left to get married to return to ministry. Yet, Bishop Leo O’Reilly stated that the issue may come up during a series of meetings between the bishops and Pope Francis. The observation came about against the background of rumours that the Pope was willing to allow married former priests to return to ministry
in Brazil on a phased and experimental basis.
Fine Gael was accused of attacking parish owned schools in a bid to distract from Government failures to tackle overcrowding in Ireland’s primary schools. This tension arose at a period when Education Minister Richard Bruton announced plans to abolish the so-called ‘baptism rule’ that allows oversubscribed schools to favour children from families that share their ethos over other children.
The month ended on another education-related theme, with Pope Francis encouraging the Church in Ireland to maintain and enhance the strong values of Catholic schools despite a background of negativity from some vested interests.
FEBRUARY
US Irish chaplains warned of border clampdown fears as President Donald Trump closed the US borders to refugees and called a halt to refugee resettlement from Syria. He also suspended entry for three months for citizens of seven Muslim majority nations.
Valentine’s Day got a reboot for couples as part of the countdown to next year’s World Meeting of Families in Dublin. More than 150,000 gift tokens were available to both couples and singles at cathedrals across the country.
Missionaries represent the best values of Ireland, President Michael D. Higgins said while visiting the Irish community in Peru. This was during a 12-day trip, encompassing Peru, Columbia and Cuba to celebrate the historic connection between Ireland and Latin America.
The future of Catholic boarding schools was threatened following the announcement of the closure of Cistercian College Roscrea, which was described as “a very sad death knell”. Dom Richard Purcell said the school “…witnessed a 45% drop in enrolment in the past 10 years…”
Bishops were unhappy with the speed of Vatican trials for alleged abusers. The delays became a concern for the bishops, confirmed by a spokesman for the hierarchy. Despite this, Elphin’s Bishop Kevin Doran said as far as he was aware the bishops had sought “no specific changes” from the CDF.
Ireland’s 26th Divine Mercy Conference featured in a special issue of the paper covering Sr Faustina’s story behind the Divine Mercy image and St John Paul’s journey with her work.
MARCH
Marie Collins resigned from the Pope’s child protection commission. She was one of the two abuse survivors who were founder members of the advisory body in March 2014 but said that “there are difficulties that I just couldn’t continue to contend with, and I’ve reached a point where I have to leave”.
Parish priests warned that reports of the proposed closure of up to 80 post offices in towns and villages will lead to the death of rural Ireland.
Catholic schools were urged to be vigilant when approached by groups offering to speak to students, following claims that speakers from the so-called Church of Scientology were in contact with schools in the Cork area, under the guise of the ‘front groups’ Foundation for a Drug-Free World and Youth for Human Rights.
The death of Martin McGuinness provoked stories about his remarkable journey from violence to peace. Archbishop Eamon Martin said he had “no doubt” that Mr McGuinness’ “faith and relationship with God guided him along this journey.
The Abortion Rights Campaign (ARC) returned a grant of $24,999 to the US-based Open Societies Foundation after being directed to do so by the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO). Under Irish law, it is not
permitted to use foreign donations for domestic political campaigns.
APRIL
Bishop Phonsie Cullinan, the Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, urged the Government to move away from the proposed site of the new national children’s hospital at St James’ Hospital to a greenfield site closer to the M50 motorway in Blanchardstown. The campaign was backed by influential supporters such as Fionnbar Walsh whose inspirational son Donal lost his battle with cancer in 2013.
The Church supported an ambitious new film series aimed to energise young Christians to help them tackle doubts that they might have with their faith, following the release of census figures that showed significant declines in the number of Irish people identifying as members of the Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland and the Methodist Church.
In an exclusive interview with The Irish Catholic, Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, George Hamilton, called on Catholic leaders to do more to encourage young members of their community to consider becoming a police officer.
An initiative of the Maynooth deanery saw an empty unit in Liffey Valley Shopping Centre in Dublin become a buzz of sacred activity on Holy Saturday, with local priests answering Pope Francis’ call for outreach.
Senior Church sources told the paper that the referendum on abortion in 2018 will overshadow preparations for the World Meeting of Families which is due to be held in Dublin in August next year. As a result, the Vatican will keep the papal visit under review due to the push for a referendum.
MAY
May saw The Irish Catholic publishing a special supplement marking Pope Francis’ visit to Fatima for the canonisation of two Fatima visionaries and the centenary of the Portuguese shrine’s first apparitions.
Church leaders were urged to stand up to negative bias in the media, after a spate of ‘Church-bashing’ during emotive debates about abortion. This came after Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said there was a “justified resentment” among priests, religious and committed Catholics at being “unfairly under attack”.
Pope Francis visited Egypt to address an international conference on peace hosted by a mosque. The Pope called the visit a journey of “unity and fraternity”, and called on Egypt’s religious leaders to expose violence masquerading as holy and to condemn religiously-inspired hatred as an idolatrous caricature of God.
A complaint to Gardaí led to British entertainer Stephen Fry being investigated for blasphemy. Gardaí quickly clarified that there would be no action, but it led to calls for the 2009 law to be revoked. Bishop Kevin Doran said his “own personal view is that if people are rude or insensitive, that’s not a criminal offence”.
Irish missionaries working in war-torn South Sudan vowed to stay with the people struggling with starvation and bloodshed, despite knowing they are in danger of being attacked at any moment. More than 1.8 million people – including one million children – have fled violence after a fragile peace collapsed last year.
Irish parishioners were urged to embrace new thinking and a new wave of missionaries from overseas, in particular Africa, as a way to revitalise the Church in Ireland. The Society of African Missions (SMA) revealed that it has turned to African priests to undertake mission in Ireland as an “injection of new life and energy”.
JUNE
The controversy around the transfer of the new national maternity hospital to a site at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin 4 came to a conclusion when the Sisters of Charity announced that they would end their involvement
with the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group.
A curate in Portlaoise parish, Fr Paddy Byrne, called upon Pope Francis to visit a direct provision centre during his expected visit to Ireland next year, in order to highlight the treatment of asylum seekers. “There are mother and babies imprisoned in horrific conditions, and in the parish where I minister, four miles out the road you have 140 people imprisoned up to 10 years by direct provision,” he said.
People before Profit TD Bríd Smith was urged to visit Catholic charities after calling for the Catholic Church to be put “in the dustbin of history where it belongs” in a Dáil speech. Bro. Kevin Crowley of the Capuchin Day Centre said if it wasn’t for the Church, the underprivileged would be “utterly and completely ignored”.
Warm tributes were paid to Limerick priest Fr Jack Finucane, co-founder of overseas development charity Concern, when he died in mid- June. Irish bishops called for action as millions of people faced famine in East Africa on a scale described as “absolutely frightening”.
Ireland received its first Jesuit bishop with the announcement that Fr Alan McGuckian SJ would be the new Bishop of Raphoe.
New research into the Magdalen Laundries debunked the myths and brings the “discussion back from sensationalist portrayals to real-world, specific settings” according to author and historian Dr Jacinta Prunty.
JULY
The Government was urged to ensure that refugees arriving to Ireland from war-torn countries would be integrated into local communities as soon as possible to aid their recovery. This came against a backdrop of reports that fewer than a third of the 4,000 refugees Ireland has promised to accept by the end of 2017 have so far been admitted.
Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin warned that true reform of the Church in Ireland will not come about by tinkering with structures, but only through a radical spiritual realignment. The archbishop also said that change can be hindered by the fact that many people who talk of reform “are still fundamentally clerical in their vision of the Church”.
The tragic Charlie Gard case motivated healthy discussion and disagreement among Catholics about his situation, and also emphasised the dangers of what the Pope called a ‘technocratic paradigm’.
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn insisted in Limerick that when dealing with marital breakdown, the Church must put the needs of children ahead of a simplistic application of rules. He underlined the fact that when a divorced Catholic enters a second union, there is a responsibility to care for others affected by marital breakdown.
News emerged that the Government was unaware of the cause of death of more than one in three asylum seekers who die in State care. Forty-four asylum seekers died while residents of controversial State-run direct provision centres over a 10-year period, with many listed with a cause of death as “unknown”.
AUGUST
Bishop of Down and Connor Noel Treanor warned that a Brexit hard border across Ireland is “unthinkable”, and could have devastating consequences. Dr Treanor said that it “would be detrimental in so many different levels and arenas of life”, highlighting the needs of the North and the growing interconnectivity recent decades have seen across Ireland.
At his episcopal ordination, the new Bishop of Raphoe Alan McGuckian SJ said that the Church in Ireland needs to increasingly embrace a model where lay people are given co-responsibility for the future with bishops and priests.
Irish missionaries vowed that they would stay with the people of Venezuela in the midst of deepening political crisis and widespread food shortages. Fr Joe Magee MSC said “this is the first time that I’ve witnessed people scavenging in rubbish heaps to get food for themselves”.
Thousands of families representing dioceses across Ireland gathered at Knock Shrine for the launch of the one-year countdown to the much anticipated World Meeting of Families in Dublin in 2018.
Figures revealed a record-low number of seminarians attending Maynooth for the coming academic year, with only five first-year seminarians. Although 14 men began studying for the Irish dioceses, many of them are participating in a so called propaedeutic or preparatory year.
It was revealed that anti-Semitism has led to young people hiding their Judaism. Maurice Cohen, chairperson of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland (JRCI) said some Irish Jews “would be conscious of not being overt about their Judaism, for example wearing the Kippah (skullcap) in public”.
SEPTEMBER
October’s ‘Reformation 500’ special issue marked the fifth centenary of Martin Luther’s revolt and its ongoing legacy
n Irish missionary in Korea, Fr Denis Monaghan SSC, warned that tens of millions of people would lose their lives in a matter of hours if the US pushed for a military response in North Korea following the country’s latest nuclear tests. Speaking from his base in Seoul, he said, “We’ve so many threats of war with North Korea saying they would burn us to the ground…I suppose it’s like crying wolf, but they are worried how Trump will react.”
The new Apostolic Nuncio in Ireland, Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo, Titular Archbishop of Novic, presented his credentials to President Michael D. Higgins at a ceremony in Áras an Uachtaráin.
Cold water was poured on the idea that Catholics might have to endure another English translation of the Mass, six years after the last change, following an amendment to Canon Law by Pope Francis returning responsibility for translations to local bishops’ conferences.
Columban Fr Neil Magill called for Burmese leader, Aung Suu Kyi to return her Nobel Peace Prize because of her refusal to condemn the “genocide” of Rohingya Muslims in her country. He said “We must make these atrocious acts known to the world”, adding that the peace prize “should be revoked as she has not opened her mouth to condemn these brutal atrocities”.
Leading legal historians and scholars of Bunreacht na hÉireann rejected as “nonsense” claims by independent TD Joan Collins that the Irish Constitution was written by a priest.
OCTOBER
A key papal adviser on family life, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, said that Pope Francis chose Ireland to host next year’s World Meeting of Families to make sure Irish Catholics would take part in a ‘revolution’ promoting
marriage and family life.
Sinn Féin TD Peadar Tóibín was one of 11 members of the Oireachtas who signed a statement expressing concern about the increasing inability of businesses to facilitate presentations by pro-life groups, highlighting how an event hosted by Human Life International had been cancelled.
Ireland’s protection of the unborn was placed at the mercy of well-funded lobby groups as it was revealed that Amnesty International Ireland has pinpointed abortion as its top priority. New figures revealed that the organisation – headed by Colm O’Gorman – spends more lobbying for abortion than any other project.
Baroness Nuala O’Loan said that the Irish Church has done little to counter the dramatic negative effects of secularism on younger Catholics’ understanding of their faith and must take radical action.
The Irish Catholic published a special commemorative issue marking Martin Luther’s revolution and its effects on the Church and the world today, including its impact on Ireland and the role of the Irish martyrs.
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, one of the DUP’s most senior figures, said that he would be hopeful that a visit by Pope Francis to the North could encourage other Church leaders to take a more public stance on issues of concern to Christians.
NOVEMBER
An influx of new religious communities were hailed as offering new life to the Irish Church, and bringing Ireland’s missionary heritage back home. One such group was the Ursuline Sisters of Mary Immaculate
from India who moved into a house in Portlaoise.
Despite a fall-off in church attendance, research from the European Social Survey (ESS) revealed that more than one in three Irish Catholics attend Mass weekly. Commenting on the figures, Prof. Stephen Bullivant said, “Ireland being remarkably religious once you look at any other western modern nation really does stand out”.
Discussions that took place between World Meeting of Families (WMOF18) organisers with State authorities and planners revealed a hope for the Phoenix Park to be unveiled as the venue for the closing Papal Mass. Polls showed that some 40% of Irish people said they would like to see the Pope during his expected visit, showing an appetite for a large venue.
Following a proposal by independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice to allow elderly people in the countryside to arm themselves with pepper spray or taser guns to feud-off would-be attackers, Fr Harry Bohan said that it was a sign that the country had lost its soul.
Despite complaints from some parishioners about some of the texts of prayers used at Mass across the country, it was revealed that there were no plans to review it in Ireland or return to the earlier translation of the Missal. This is despite the fact that Pope Francis has given local bishops the authority to take charge of new translations.
DECEMBER
Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin said that people who come to Mass “are a dying breed.” He said: I could spend all my time being concerned about the people who come to church, but they’re – you know I don’t want to be nasty – but they’re a dying breed”. Prof. Patricia Casey responded that he should be trying to “stimulate renewal on the ground in the Church in Ireland” rather than “constantly talking negatively”.
Pope Francis’ papal trip was a tremendous success, delivering his messages of peace and unity in the face of the plight of the Rohingya people. This was the first time any Pope travelled to Myanmar, and only the second time to Bangladesh.
Parishioners were urged to look out for the elderly and vulnerable during the cold spell, and use Church structures to boost rural solidarity. Raphoe’s Bishop Alan McGuckian SJ called on people coming to Christmas services to think of their neighbours and perhaps offer them a lift to Mass during the poor weather.
Amnesty International was accused of arrogance on a “grand scale” following a vow that the group will not comply with an order from the Sate’s ethics watchdog to return a donation from a US-based pro-abortion lobby. Colm O’Gorman, executive director, said “Amnesty International will not be complying with the instruction”, adding that it would “deploy every means at its disposal to challenge this unfair law”.
Fr Paddy Byrne said many urban parishes fail to engage with people who are used to instant and creative online material, saying that A4 black and white newsletters just won’t cut it anymore. The Portlaoise priest believes social media offers opportunities to offer reflections and hopefulness, as well as Christian values”.
