The Irish Synodal Pathway has entered a significant new phase as seven newly established national ‘Working Groups’, comprising 64 lay, religious and clerical members, have begun applying years of prayerful, listening and communal discernment into practical proposals for the National Synodal Assembly on October 17 next at City North Hotel in Co. Meath. After five…
St Kevin’s Church, Kilnamanagh will welcome Archbishop Dermot Farrell to the parish on Sunday, May 24 to inaugurate a new shrine containing a historic Roman reliquary, a gift which parish priest Fr Frank Drescher described as “a blessing”. The reliquary holds a relic of the True Cross, and comes from the private collection of a…
Last week, I was delighted to join the National Association of Diocesan Advisors (Post Primary) at their annual Conference in Athlone. In my presentation, I invited the DAs to look to the future. I walked them along a familiar path, examining trends in secularisation, demographic shifts and the changing and growing demands and expectations placed…
I arrived in Canada in mid-January. A few days later, I headed to a government office to get my first monthly Senior Bus Pass. I went armed with evidence that I was eligible; passport, driving licence, every proof I could think of. The assistant didn’t look at any of my IDs but proceeded to issue…
Students are turning to theology because it helps them engage with the “big questions” facing the modern world, according to Fr Luke Macnamara OSB, Dean of Theology at St Patrick’s Pontifical University, Maynooth. Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Fr Macnamara said theology continues to speak deeply to young people at a time of uncertainty. “While…
Launching Laudato Si’ Week 2026 on May 17, Bishop Martin Hayes issued a statement reflecting on the encyclical’s legacy and welcoming the news that Ireland will co-host a conference on the fossil fuel crisis. “Last year the Irish Bishops’ Conference backed Trócaire’s call on the Government of Ireland to support the Fossil Fuel Treaty (Oct…
A Colloquia took place at the Institute of Political Studies, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbon, earlier this month entitled ‘Restless World, Restless Democracies’. It was the third event in an annual series, the purpose of which is – as its chief organiser Prof. Lívia Franco put it – to serve as a laboratory for ideas. This…
An annual Mass for organ donors and their families took place on Sunday May 17 in Knock Basilica. The occasion brought together transplant recipients, those awaiting transplants, medical teams, and bereaved families who have donated the organs of their loved ones to mark Organ Donor Awareness Week, which runs until May 23. Claremorris native Nicole…
Before he started his general audience, Pope Leo XIV stepped out of his popemobile on May 13 and walked over to pray beside a plaque marking the spot where history took a turn that shocked the world 45 years before. St John Paul II was shot precisely there on May 13, 1981—a day of the…
20.01 – BELFAST: The Clonard Youth and Young Adult Ministry’s Tuesday night walking group were back on the Belfast streets last week. The group set off from Clonard and making their way through Millfield, Donegal Street, the Cathedral Quarter, over to the Big Fish, across the bridge to the Ormeau Embankment, up onto the Ormeau…
Renata Steffens