EXCLUSIVE New survey shows media figures ‘misleading’ The number of Catholic primary schools that are being forced to turn away pupils is dramatically lower than has been claimed, The Irish Catholic can reveal. Despite claims by politicians and commentators that one in five Catholic schools are over-subscribed and therefore forced to apply a ‘Catholics first’…
Archbishop Eamon Martin has urged the Government to “go out of its way” to support the family, especially the “uniqueness of the faithful and exclusive union between a married man and a woman and their children”. “In doing so, the State is not only caring for its citizens, but it is also strengthening and nurturing…
Church teaching holds that only God forgives sins, writes Cathal Barry The Church teaches that sin is, before all else, an offense against God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to sin as “a rupture of communion with him”. “At the same time,” the key teaching document of the Church states, “it damages communion…
Rolling out the proposed new curriculum on religion and beliefs in faith schools would be a “gross contradiction”, a leading educationalist has warned. Prof. Eamonn Conway of Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, told The Irish Catholic that the proposed curriculum would amount to “schooling pupils, at best, in an agnostic understanding of their own religion”. “To…
Young couples are “postponing” getting married due to the spiralling cost of weddings, it has been claimed. Fr Gerry O’Connor of Cherry Orchard Parish in Dublin warned that there are “huge expectations” for couples to have extravagant weddings which is forcing them to delay tying the knot. “There are huge expectations on couples to be…
This columnist was feeling particularly run down this week. Perhaps it was the cumulative effect of the ‘January blues’ or the shock of my body having finally readjusted to a regular diet after all the Christmas excess. Having ascertained that it was probably a combination of both, I decided to take action. Let me explain.…
Sir Terry Wogan spent his final hours surrounded by his family who held prayers before his death, it has been reported. Paying tribute to the broadcasting legend, Fr Brian D’Arcy told The Irish Catholic that Terry was a “wonderful” man. Acknowledging that the broadcaster was a self-described atheist, Fr D’Arcy insisted that “God knew him…
The Diocese of Palm Beach has rejected as “completely inaccurate” claims by an Irish priest that he was “frozen out” by the Catholic Church for raising safeguarding concerns about a fellow priest. The US diocese was responding to an article in the Irish Independent which reported on the case of Strabane native Fr John Gallagher…
The Church teaches that daily conversion and penance find their source and nourishment in the Eucharist, writes Cathal Barry The Church teaches that Jesus’ call to conversion and penance, like that of the prophets before him, does not aim first at outward works, fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion.…
Bishop Brendan Leahy has said it would be “great” for Christian unity if Churches could agree on a common date for Easter. The Bishop of Limerick told The Irish Catholic it would be a “truly great thing to have a common date for Easter”. Noting that Pope Francis had suggested recently that he would like…