World Mission Sunday A Day of Celebration and Renewed Support for Missions Worldwide In September this year, Misean Cara CEO, John Moffett, journeyed to Kenya for a week, accompanied by the Board Vice-Chair Sr. Josephine McCarthy (Presentation Sisters) as part of a year-long celebration of Misean Cara’s 20th anniversary. They were joined on this special…
Month: October 2024
New lay ministry course available in Co. Laois
The Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin is inviting people to step forward and subscribe to the new Lay Pastoral Ministers programme. The programme is a two-year level 7 diploma course, which will prepare the laity to undertake significant roles in their parishes and pastoral areas. The course offers part-time lessons and will be held over six weekends…
Delivering education in a nation born in conflict
World Mission Sunday A Day of Celebration and Renewed Support for Missions Worldwide The Irish Loreto sisters have been empowering young South Sudanese women for two decades, Chai Brady writes From being exchanged for cattle to fulfil wedding arrangements, to becoming educated leaders in their community, the lives of women in South Sudan have changed…
Mixed response to bishops’ letter on immigration
The bishops’ recently published advisory letter on immigration has provoked mixed responses, with Director of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice Dr Kevin Hargaden praising the bishops for issuing “a very strong word against the fear-based politics that have been developing in the nation”, while Dr Gerard Casey, a Catholic academic, was critical of…
Finding meaning in wonder: A journey of the heart
Brenda Noriega-flores Have you ever found yourself pondering the meaning of life? If so, you’re not alone! Most people, especially between 13 to 30 years of age, frequently wrestle with these big questions. Wonder is part of what it means to be human and, as St Thomas Aquinas wisely noted, it’s a deep desire for…
Harris and Walz are terrifying on abortion
If you listened to Democratic campaigners in the US Presidential elections, late-term abortions do not happen in America, or they happen so rarely that they are not worth mentioning, or they only happen in cases of life-limiting conditions and threats to the life of the mother. Lyman Stone is a Lutheran demographer who works for…
Loreto Rumbek is Expanding
World Mission Sunday A Day of Celebration and Renewed Support for Missions Worldwide In 2022, five graduates of Loreto Rumbek, now working mothers in the North of South Sudan, returned to the Loreto School in Rumbek with an exciting proposition. They invited the Sisters to open a new primary school for boys and girls and…
The faith journey of a Myanmar priest
Ireland is the host for many international priests and missionaries who come to study, either for a long period or on short trips, Fr Simon (Young) Ye Yint Naing Saw, from Myanmar, is one of those foreign priests. Fr Young lived in Knock and Portlaoise during the Summer months to improve his English, and in…
‘No such a thing as a bad person’ says bishop
Bishop of Kilmore Martin Hayes, who is also the Bishop’s Conference liaison to the Irish Prison Service drew attention to the work of Fr Greg Boyle SJ, founder of Homeboy Industries during Prisoners’ Sunday on October 13. Prisoners’ Sunday is a day to direct thoughts and prayers to prisoners and their families. “Fr Greg believes…
Abortion decriminalised in Jalisco, Mexican cardinal decries ‘murder of innocents’
Cardinal Francisco Robles Ortega, archbishop of Guadalajara, the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco, spoke out strongly against the recent decision of that state’s Legislature to decriminalise abortion up to 12 weeks of gestation, calling it the “murder of innocents”. Following debate and a vote, the penal code of the state of Jalisco was…


Renata Steffens
Chai Brady
Brandon Scott

Breda O'Brien



