As Advent approaches, I have hope on my mind, and a few programmes last week gave grounds for some hope that good programmes and insightful discussions can make their way into the media. Shetland (BBC One, Wednesday) recently returned for another series, and last week’s episode saw the reappearance of the local Minister, a brother…
I recently wrote about the theme of priests fighting crime in films of the thirties and forties. It also featured in some fifties films. The ‘Method’ actor Montgomery Clift was impressive in I Confess in 1951, playing a priest who goes to his death rather than break the seal of the confessional. A murderer confesses…
Dublin is coming alive with the joy of Christmas, and there’s no better way to begin the holiday celebrations than at The Moving Crib, now open at 42 Parnell Square, Dublin 1, running daily through 4 January 2026. Why not plan your Christmas outing today and share this cherished Dublin tradition with family and friends?…
Commissioning Editor of RTÉ Religion & Society, Roger Childs’ is to step down from the post having agreed to a voluntary exit package as part of a restructuring programme inside RTÉ, The Irish Catholic has learned. John McMahon, a former Station Head of RTÉ 2FM and Executive Producer of The Late Late Show, has been…
Long consultations and many discussions – also with Rome – lie behind those responsible. In Fulda, bishops and lay people now want to lay the foundation stone for a new church body at national level. The Catholic Church in Germany may soon have a new national body made up of bishops and laypeople. “We are…
The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Dermot Farrell, has placed the Church’s mission to the disadvantaged inner-city communities of the capital at the heart of his reflection on Pope Leo XIV’s decision to designate St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral as the Cathedral Church of the Archdiocese of Dublin. In an article submitted to The Irish Catholic, Archbishop Farrell describes…
Bishop of Limerick Brendan Leahy, in a wide-ranging Pastoral Letter for the Jubilee Year, invited people to reflect on what the “Catholic faith says about dying, death, what happens after death and prayer for the dead.” Catholics do not believe death is the end, the bishop said. “We believe we have one earthly life. It…
Following concerns from some parents about the integrity of the Department of Education and Youth’s online Parental Survey and its potential abuse, the Dept has sent assurances to this paper that the survey is secure. According to a Department of Education and Youth spokesperson, “The department has robust and multi-layered arrangements in place to ensure…
Speaking to The Irish Catholic at the launch of the new Focus Ireland campaign, titled ‘No Child Without a Home’, which took place on November 12, former President Dr Mary McAleese said the fight against homelessness “is not just an issue for politicians. That is an issue for us all as a people.” When asked…
The Apostolic Nunciature in Ireland has rejected suggestions that clergy were sidelined in the recent transfer of Bishop Niall Coll from Ossory to Raphoe, insisting that no complaints have been “heard” and that there is no “praxis” of consulting local priests ahead of a bishop’s transfer. In a statement issued in response to a query…
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone
Renata Steffens