Speaking ahead of Belfast’s Rally for Life on July 4, Bishop Kevin Doran urged his audience to think of pregnancy as a gift and privilege rather than a burden, and called for communities to work together to support mothers. “We need to be promoting new ways of thinking and speaking about pregnancy, not as a…
Dear Daddy and Mammy, Denis and Sadie to everyone else, but always Daddy and Mammy to me. As I write, I am days away from the fortieth anniversary of my ordination. On July 5, 1986, I stood before the Church and answered a call that had been forming in me for years. The older I…
A sower went out to sow… Let anyone with ears listen! The Gospel Matt 13:1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Matt 13:2 Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. Matt…
It’s great to come upon a programme that’s inspiring, informative and well made. I got all three last Monday night with Heart of a Servant – The Father Flanagan Story (RTÉ One). It was a high-quality documentary about the Irish priest who founded Boys Town in Omaha, Nebraska. I knew the bare bones of the story,…
Sunday, July 12 will mark the last Mass at St Augustine’s Church in Cork and the withdrawal of the Augustian Order from the city. The decision to withdraw comes as the order sees declining vocations, with a lack of ordinations to fill the ministry needs of the order amid the aging profile of the current…
Bishop Denis Nulty has said Catholic education remains “critical” and warned that schools which remain under Catholic patronage must be “unapologetically Catholic” at a time when divestment is under consideration. In a homily delivered at Loughcrew, Co. Meath, on Sunday, June 28, to mark the birth of St Oliver Plunkett, the Bishop of Kildare and…
150 teens and 100 volunteers from Ireland and beyond gathered for a week of catechesis and prayer at Clongowes Wood College SJ in Co. Kildare last week to take part in Camp Veritas, a Catholic summer camp experience founded by Ryan and Elizabeth Young. The American couple runs five summer camps each year, four in…
A day of celebration in Downpatrick turned to shock on Sunday, June 28, when a fire broke out at the former Convent of Mercy beside St Patrick’s Church just hours after Fr Thomas Hampton was ordained to the priesthood there. Fr Eugene O’Neill PP said Fr Thomas Hampton’s ordination on Sunday afternoon had been “a…
The Redemptoris Archdiocesan Mater Seminary in Dundalk, Co. Louth, had a new church and seminary extension inaugurated last Sunday, June 28. Presiding over the event, Archbishop Eamon Martin mentioned that this is Armagh’s missionary seminary, and said that “Ireland, which once sent thousands of missionaries around the world, is now in need of mission herself.”…
Financial statements for The Parish of Urney and Castlefin have revealed the east Donegal parish is in a €18,315 deficit. The parish has delivered a warning about the difficult financial challenges it expects to face. The accounts were prepared by Moore (NI) Accounting in Derry and submitted to the Derry Diocesan Trust for inclusion in…
Brendan O’Regan
Renata Steffens