Courtney McGrailBishop Phonsie Cullinan and Abigale Betts from Cappoquin at the Cathedral of The Most Holy Trinity, Waterford for the diocesan launch Mass for preparations for the World Meeting of Families 2018, with an icon of the Holy Family and a bell which will visit the parishes of the diocese to promote the event. Photo: John…
Month: March 2017
Towards Peace reconnects survivors to their faith
Sr Marianne O’Connor Sr Marianne O’Connor describes a spiritual support service for survivors of abuse “I feel relaxed, and comfortable with the process…why? –my answer is this because the guilt, blame, confusion, was wearing me down, so with support and guidance, I want to let go, and thus try to move on with my life,…
Facing the reality of the changing face of Irish Catholicism
Michael Kelly
“A new type of Church – more lay-led – will have to emerge”, writes Michael Kelly Archbishop Eamon Martin recently said that priests and bishops need to get used to “letting go” of the central role in parish communities if faith is to be re-energised. In many ways, it’s not an issue of choice: declining…
Pro-repeal group return billionaire’s cash after ethics watchdog probe
Greg Daly
A group campaigning for the abolition of Ireland’s constitutional protections for the unborn 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), The Irish Catholic has learned. According to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, the Abortion…
Time to face declining clergy reality – Bishop Duffy
Parishes in the Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnois need to prepare for a future without parish priests, Bishop Francis Duffy has warned. In a letter entitled ‘Sustaining our Faith Community’, Dr Duffy said while the diocese currently has 53 clergy serving its 41 parishes, by the time children baptised this year are confirmed the diocese…
Privatising faith impoverishes society
Archbishop Eamon Martin
The voice of faith or religion is not simply for the privacy of our homes and churches, writes Archbishop Eamon Martin We do not enter the public square simply to win arguments through the clever use of reasoning and debate. When we speak, we draw upon both reason and faith and upon an integral vision…
It takes courage to stand up, but we need courageous witness now more than ever
Breda O'Brien
Congratulations to Katie Ascough on becoming president of UCD’s student union. It is a great victory, not least because she made no secret of her pro-life views or that she is a person of faith. It gives great hope to other students and young people in general, that Ireland does not always have to be…
In the eye of the hurricane
Greg Daly meets a Tearfund ‘early responder’ on the frontline of crises in the Philippines Originally from Manila, 37-year-old Dandin Espina had always thought he’d be a minister in his Church, the Pentecostal Church of God, but God, he says, had other plans. “I was in seminary,” he says. “I had thought I’d be a pastor, but…
What are we to make of all this ‘gender-bending’?
Mary Kenny
“I hear certain sarky remarks about this being “a new definition of having it all”, writes Mary Kenny There was a young woman of my acquaintance who, a couple of years ago, disappeared from view, and then returned as a male, having had a sex change operation. She was always a boyish kind of girl,…
Sleep out for Simon
Some of the staff and 28 students from Glenstal Abbey School who took part in a 24-hour sleep out and fast on the streets of Limerick, raising over €2,600 for the Simon Community.