Sr Consilio honoured by Oireachtas award

Sr Consilio Fitzgerald, the founder of Cuan Mhuire, was this week presented with the Oireachtas Human Dignity Award at a ceremony in Leinster House. It comes 53 years after she began work from a small room in the Convent of Mercy in Athy, Co. Kildare with people experiencing addiction. Today, there are five treatment centres…

Family News and Events

Robin Hood Panto He steals from the rich and gives to the poor – the famous story of Robin Hood will be performed this December in Liberty Hall Theatre Dublin. The whole family will get to watch the legendary outlaw, along with Maid Marion, Nursie Nellie Nu Nu and the Merry Men as they try…

Trump is not ‘least religious president’

Dear Editor, Might I refer to ‘The View’ written by Breda O’Brien (21/11/19) in which she states that “Donald Trump is the least religious president ever” and goes on to laud the faith of the Democrat hopefuls seeking the nomination for the 2020 election and especially one particular individual whose lifestyle would not be in…

In Brief

Priest defends decision to deny judge Holy Communion The Church in western Michigan is defending a priest’s decision to deny Holy Communion to a judge in a same-sex marriage. Judge Sara Smolenski says Fr Scott Nolan privately informed her on about a week after receiving Communion from him at St Stephen Church in East Grand…

More praying, fewer staying but hope for Irish Church

The number of Irish people who say they pray every day has increased and presents an opportunity for the Church to grasp, according to experts. The recently-published European Social Survey 2018 found that while Mass attendance continued to decline, there was an increase of 2.1% in the number of people who say they pray every…

Steep decline in Dublin parish collections continues

Weekly collection figures at Masses in Dublin continued to fall last year, fresh figures reveal. A total of €5,854,362 was raised across the diocese for the weekly ‘Share’ collection during 2018 – down from €6,330,958 the previous year, a fall of almost 8%. At the same time expenditure from the Share collection – which supports…

Medjugorje maestro Finbar remembered for devotion and Faith

An author and Medjugorje expert has been remembered as an “amazing” and “fantastic individual” after his death following an extended illness. Finbar O’Leary brought three charter flights each year from Cork to Medjugorje in the late 1980s and continued to bring large groups with Marian Pilgrimages in May and September from Cork after the civil…