The Pope in Ireland Pope Francis harbours no illusions about modern Ireland, Cardinal Kevin Farrell told Greg Daly When it was announced at the closing ceremony of the 2015 World Meeting of Families that the Church’s next global celebration of the family would be held in Dublin, eyebrows inevitably were raised. The September 27…
Pope in Ireland Colm Fitzpatrick explores why the Pope chose the name ‘Francis’ Nowadays, the names that we are given or ascribe usually have no abiding meaning or significance, but merely act as markers for identifying one another. However, in the Jewish tradition, names carried spiritual significance – they held a certain symbolic meaning…
Pope in Ireland In the papal apartments the next morning after Joseph Ratzinger was declared Pope in 2005, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio paused longer than almost any other cardinal to converse with the new German Pontiff and express his deferential respect and loyalty – a tradition that has been carried out by cardinals since the…
Joyous pilgrims from across Ireland are hopping on planes trains and automobiles in their hoards this week to celebrate the importance of family and marriage in their lives. In a moment that will go down in history, Pope Francis will step off his plane at approximately 10.30am on Saturday to be greeted by clergy and…
A friendly English Catholic I know whizzed by me on her bike, and then drew up. We exchanged greetings and pleasantries, and then she said: “By the way, one of my sisters is going to Dublin to throw eggs at the Pope at the weekend!” Oh, why? She shrugged. “It’s a bit vague. It’s to do…
Pope in Ireland The Pope’s window for showing that child protection is a key priority for his is narrowing, writes Michael Kelly It was with a mixture of sadness and dismay that many Catholics looked on in January 2018 when Pope Francis jumped to the defence of a controversial Chilean bishop accused of knowing…
The Primate of All Ireland has expressed his hope that Pope Francis will visit the North of Ireland in the distant future, giving it the “dedicated time” it requires. Speaking to the BBC on Thursday, Archbishop Eamon Martin said that he pushed hard to encourage the Holy See that the Pope would make a visit…
Pope in Ireland Pope Francis wants a living relationship between Rome and the local Churches, writes Greg Daly It’s one of the many ironies of Pope Francis’ pontificate that the 2014 and 2015 synods of bishops have been criticised by some as rigged exercises, when by all accounts they were the most open and…
The View In just a few days Pope Francis will come to Ireland for the World Meeting of the Families. It will be a brief visit and its primary focus will be the family, not the whole Church in Ireland, nor its future nor its past. So what can we realistically expect will happen…
Failures to take hard choices continue to haunt the Church, writes David Quinn The issue of abuse of children by priests has loomed large over the visit of Pope Francis to Ireland this week, and over the World Meeting of Families, the reason for him being here. The scandals have re-erupted in Chile, Australia…
Greg Daly
Colm Fitzpatrick
Chai Brady
Mary Kenny
Michael Kelly
Nuala O’Loan
David Quinn