Pope Francis has spoken out about the temptations encountered in the Christian life, encouraging faithful to not be discouraged by the struggle, but to be reassured and strengthened by the prayers of the Church. “It is difficult to fight against evil, to escape from its deceptions, to regain strength after a tiring struggle, but we…
Episode 11 of The Irish Catholic Podcast is John Quinn chatting with Natalie Doherty, a Parish Catechist in Kilnamanagh & Castleview Parish, Dublin 24 (you can find her on Twitter @ParishCatechist). In the first of a two-part conversation, John & Natalie discuss the challenges and opportunities in being a catechist in an Irish parish today,…
Pro-life campaigners have welcomed today’s Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI opinion poll on abortion and says the findings are “a devastating blow to the Government’s referendum proposal”. In the poll, 47% of respondents say they intend to vote Yes and 28% say they will vote No, while 20% of respondents say they are undecided as to how…
The man hailed as the ‘King’ of country and Irish music was “gifted by God” to entertain people the funeral Mass of ‘Big Tom’ McBride has heard. Fr Leo Creelman told the thousands of mourners that the legendary singer was above all “a loving father, grandfather, uncle, brother, neighbour and friend”. He said that the…
Pope Francis has asked the president of the German bishops’ conference to come to Rome to discuss pastoral guidelines for possibly allowing some non-Catholics married to Catholics to receive the Eucharist, the conference spokesman said. Reports that “the document was rejected in the Vatican by the Holy Father or by the dicasteries are false”, said…
The referendum on the Eighth Amendment is proposing “a wide-ranging right to abortion”, a group of 100 lawyers have said. The Constitution as it stands respects the right to life of mothers, and “protects the right to life of the unborn only to the extent that such protection is consistent with the right to…
A leading cardinal has said the Church in Ireland must be prepared to consider closing hundreds of churches to concentrate resources on building strong faith communities. Speaking in Dungarvan on Monday, April 16, on ‘What the Irish Church could learn from the recent history of the Church in Holland’, Utrecht’s Cardinal Willem Eijk said that…
The Referendum Commission has refused to answer queries about a senior member of a company assisting with their referendum information campaign, who tweeted that bishops were “hypocritical old eunuchs”. Dylan Cotter, the Executive Creative Director of BBDO Dublin, linked an article about a pastoral message Bishop Kevin Doran had sent to parishioners, which stated that if abortion was…
Dubbed Ireland’s king of country music Big Tom was also described as a man who was “very committed to his locality and parish” after his death this week. Tributes have streamed in for the music legend, who died aged 81 on Tuesday. Thomas McBride [his real name] dominated the showband scene in the 1960s and…
University chaplains have voiced solidarity with students struggling to pay exorbitant student accommodation costs which have seen yearly increases in some cases, with some saying prices are back to “Celtic Tiger era”. Students from Dublin City University (DCU) have been protesting the large rent hikes of Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) facilities in the area.…
Greg Daly
Chai Brady