Everyone should have access to essential health services and no one should have to fall into poverty to obtain needed care, a Vatican representative said. “For many poor communities, families and individuals, access to the much-needed health care services remains an unachieved objective,” said Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, Vatican observer to U.N. agencies in Geneva. “We…
Pilgrims attending the World Meeting of Families in Dublin this August will receive a plenary indulgence, the Vatican has announced. The Apostolic Penitentiary today issued a decree saying that Pope Francis would grant a plenary indulgence to pilgrims, “on the usual conditions (sacramental Confession, Eucharistic Communion and prayer for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff),…
Parishes forced to support struggling schools Dozens of Dublin’s primary schools are nearing financial crisis and are set to ask parishes to bail them out over the next few years, The Irish Catholic understands. Rising insurance cost and reduced State supports have left almost one in 10 Dublin schools either having sought help from local parishes or on…
Homilies still have the power to move the hearts and minds of listeners, priests across Ireland have said. Their comments come against the background of international praise for a “passionate” and stirring sermon by a US Episcopalian bishop who spoke last weekend at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Commenting on Bishop…
The chaplain where tragic Jastine Valdez [pictured] attended college has said the tightknit community of students is devastated by the news of her death. Sr Bernadette Purcell – who has spoken to Jastine’s mother – said the family is “devastated” by what happened to the 23-year-old but said she believed “their Faith will help them…
If I were asked to preside over, or contribute to, a humanist funeral, or a “naming ceremony” for the children of non-believers, I would have to respond that I was not the appropriate person, since I am a Catholic Christian. Yet it seems that some atheists or agnostics, when asked to sponsor a child for…
Former Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave has left more than €33 million in his will, including €6,000 for Masses to be said for his soul. The Dublin politician, who died last October aged 97, had inherited the property from his father, WT Cosgrave, the first prime minister of the Irish Free State, and refused to sell it…
Controversy around John Halligan being barred as a Confirmation sponsor has revealed serious confusion in Church practice, writes Greg Daly Minister of State John Halligan TD may not be a hypocrite but his comments last weekend about the supposed pettiness of a Church refusal to allow him act as a Confirmation sponsor point to…
A theology scholar has said Minister Simon Harris expressed “serious ignorance” about Church teaching after criticising a bishop’s decision to stop an atheist politician from being a Confirmation sponsor. After reports that Minister of State John Halligan was barred from being a sponsor because of his atheism and public promotion of repealing the Eighth Amendment,…
An Australian archbishop has become the most senior Church cleric to be convicted of covering up child sex abuse, and faces up to two years in prison. Archbishop Philip Wilson of the Diocese of Adelaide will be sentenced next month after being found guilty of the crime in Newcastle Local Court in Sydney. He pleaded…
Greg Daly
Colm Fitzpatrick
Mary Kenny
Chai Brady