Overseas priests call for renewed drive to foster home-grown vocations Ireland cannot rely indefinitely on overseas priests to compensate for falling local vocations and needs a renewed drive to encourage Irish men toward the priesthood, missionary priests serving in Ireland have told The Irish Catholic. “I’ll serve as a jack. I’ll lift your car, but…
Two things happened in Catholic education this month, and read together they tell an uncomfortable story — not about the Church’s willingness to change, but about the State’s. On October 16, the Catholic Education Partnership (CEP) will launch the ‘Irish Church’s new Vision for Catholic Schools in Ireland’, the opening move in a three-year formation process that the Association of Patrons…
For generations, Ireland sent priests and religious across Africa and Asia, helping to build up local Churches. Today, in some places, that direction of travel has reversed, with priests from those Churches now coming to serve in Ireland. For Fr Anselm Emechebe MSP, a Nigerian priest serving in Kilsaran, Co. Louth, that reversal is personal.…
Ossory Diocese has, officially, a new bishop, as Bishop Ger Nash was installed on Sunday, September 13, following his appointment as Bishop of Ossory on July 29. The ceremony of Installation, which took place in St Mary’s Cathedral, Kilkenny, was led by Archbishop Dermot Farrell, and attended by parishioners, family, friends and bishops from dioceses…
I wouldn’t dream of expressing an opinion over the current spat between Mary McAleese and the GAA supremo Jarlath Burns. I merely follow with interest Mrs McAleese’s claim that the Gaelic Athletic Association is showing a tincture of misogyny by not expediting integration between the men’s and women’s sports. Mr Burns, for his part, finds…
magine a priest somewhere in Ireland sitting at his kitchen table tonight with a laptop open in front of him. He has several parishes to look after, and this week there have been funerals, sick calls, meetings and all the ordinary demands of parish life. There is also administration to complete, correspondence to answer and…
“The family of faith is the greatest gift” parents can give their children, Fr Willie Purcell has said, as relics of Sts Louis and Zélie Martin, the parents of St Thérèse of Lisieux, were welcomed to the Carmelite Monastery in Tallow, Co. Waterford. The relics of the canonised married couple and their daughter St Thérèse…
Speaking ahead of the opening of a new fertility and female health centre in Co. Meath, co-owner Kay O’Dwyer and NaPro Fertility doctor Kirsty Chapman, who runs a clinic at the centre, said the education on female sexual health from a Catholic perspective is lacking in the current curriculum. The St Brigid’s Centre of Female…
Commenting after Irish Aid published their 2025 Annual Report, which demonstrated Ireland’s leading role in overseas development aid, Trócaire CEO Seán Farrell said the organisation “remain[s] grateful to Irish Aid, Barry Andrews MEP, and Minister Neale Richmond’s continued support and commitment to our programmes.” In a recent interview with this newspaper, Mr Farrell also cited…
During the US President’s courtesy call to Áras an Uachtaráin on Saturday, September 12, President Connolly presented President Trump with three gifts: a St Brigid’s Cross, a copy of the book Navigato Sancti Brendani – The Voyage of St Brendan and a collection of Michael Longley poems, including his sonnet ‘Ceasefire’. The gifts reflected the…
Renata Steffens
Mary Kenny