Too much focus on who can and cannot be ordained as a priest risks distracting from Vatican II’s call to holiness and mission for all the baptised, the Bishop of Down and Connor, Dr Alan McGuckian has warned. He made the comment during a video conversation with theologian Dr Abigail Favale, after the question of women’s ordination…
Ballyshannon National School marked 150 years of education in the parish with a special Mass attended by pupils, staff, grandparents, and former students on a sunny day of celebration for the whole school community. Bishop Denis Nulty joined Fr Barry Larkin PP of Suncroft parish, Principal Lorraine McGovern, teachers, families, and past pupils for the…
The traditional Three Day Pilgrimage season at Lough Derg opened last week, following an ecumenical gathering on Station Island which brought together nearly 100 people from different Christian traditions. The annual Day of Friendship and Prayer took place on May 20, ahead of the pilgrimage season, with the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh, John…
One in four young people look set never to have children, a new paper from the Iona Institute forecasts. The paper is called ‘Choice or Circumstance? Rising Childlessness in Ireland’. This would be the highest percentage of childless people ever recorded in Ireland and coincides with both the marriage rate and the birth rate for…
Collaborating with the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) to celebrate the theme of International Women’s Day, “Give to Gain”, students of St Killian’s College participated in a workshop where they learned about the SVP and helped create a window display for the Vincent’s shop in Cushendall, Co. Antrim. Manager of the Cushendall shop…
The Pontifical Irish College in Rome has awarded Certificates to 13 Irish students who graduated from their year-long Lay Formation Programme, which includes a certificate in theology from the Gregorian University in Rome. It marks a significant milestone as the college embarks on expanding its mission beyond a seminary to what it calls a synodal…
Aid to the Church in Need Ireland (ACN) is appealing to people to sign a new petition it has launched aimed at highlighting the often savage persecution of Christians in many parts of the world today. “In 2026, no one should have to choose between their faith and their life,” said Brandon Scott, Advocacy Officer…
Some years ago, I was attending a Sunday Mass in Co. Galway, when I came to realise that it was also the occasion for First Holy Communions. Well, that’s a lovely ceremony to behold, and adds extra grace to a summer morning. Didn’t Napoleon say that everyone remembers their First Communion for the rest of…
What do you do when a convent dies? It is a question for our times, sadly, with the death of vocations and, frankly, a lack of appreciation for religious sisters, past and present. I was intrigued when Co. Down businessman Ciaran Fitzpatrick contacted me about the old Mercy Convent in Downpatrick, which had been officially…
An editorial in this newspaper, last week, reflected on the issue of engagement with the Synodal Pathway. Ultimately it posed the fairly fundamental question of ‘who exactly is this process for?’ It raised, in its analysis, the apparent “disengagement” of Irish priests. It implied an absence from the process on the part of The Irish…
Renata Steffens
Mary Kenny
Martina Purdy