As I write this, my Fianna Fáil colleagues in the Seanad are bringing forward a motion to debate Online Safety. I don’t doubt their good intentions, but the text of their motion is too deferential towards the Government, the EU and Big Tech. Artificial Intelligence is reshaping our world, they say, and the Government has…
In Week 1 of his Lumen Gentium catechesis, Pope Leo XIV explains that the Church is both a sign and an instrument of God’s plan of salvation. Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome! When the Second Vatican Council, to whose documents we are dedicating the catecheses, wanted to describe the Church, it…
Fr Brian Lennon SJ takes issue with the Catholic position on the ordination of women to the priesthood (The Irish Catholic, 12/2/2026). In making his case, Fr Lennon begins with an emotional appeal. A female chaplain can comfort a dying patient only to the point of giving them the Sacrament of the Sick. Then she…
Three and a half decades ago, a Kildare man climbed the steps of the Hogan Stand to lift the Sam Maguire aloft, capping the greatest summer of all for those on Leeside. The towering figure of Larry Tompkins captained his adopted county to their sixth All-Ireland title, their second in a row, and their second…
On this week’s Education Nation podcast, we turned our attention to one of the pinch points of our education system, perhaps the most pressurised and least understood roles in Irish education: school leadership. More specifically, the conversation focused on the lived reality of principals and deputy principals in post-primary schools. Our guest, Rachel O’Connor, a…
A vocation is an inner voice so strong that it becomes unthinkable to turn away, writes Fr Ron Rolheiser, any of us are familiar with a famous line from C.S. Lewis who, when writing about his conversion to Christianity, shared that he was “the most reluctant convert in the history of Christendom.” When he first…
For the first time in eight centuries, the mortal remains of St Francis of Assisi are being exposed for an extended period of public veneration, drawing hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from around the world to pray before “the Little Poor Man of Assisi.” The bones of the beloved saint were unveiled for public display…
A Polish bishop went on trial on February 18, accused of not informing authorities immediately about alleged sexual abuse of children by two priests in his diocese. It is the first time a Polish bishop is on trial over sexual abuse allegedly committed by priests under his authority. According to the Polish Press Agency, prosecutors…
Dear Editor, Garry O’Sullivan makes valuable points concerning the accountability of deceased clerical sexual abusers (in the February 12 edition of The Irish Catholic). From the perspective of our Catholic Christian faith, death is not the end for impenitent clergy who, for whatever reasons, evaded earthly justice. I am writing as a priest now who,…
After the Spanish parliament debated on February 17 a controversial bill proposed by far-right party Vox to ban the burqa and niqab in public spaces, a leading Spanish archbishop has said the burqa discriminates against women while he also called for mutual respect among religious groups. Speaking to Crux, Archbishop Joan Planellas of Tarragona said…
Senator Ronan Mullen
Fr Ronald Rolheiser