A video has emerged of Bishop Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV describing how he was physically attacked in Ireland on a visit there in what was likely 2007. He had previously visited in 2005. Bishop Prevost describes the attack and how another bigger Augustinian friar came to his rescue. Bishop Prevost is recorded on X…
‘I receive news of miracles and conversions every day from across the world’ – St Carlo’s mother History was made this week as Fr Michael Toomey, parish priest of Holy Family Church, Ardfinnan, Co. Tipperary, returned from Italy carrying with him a first-class relic of the Church’s newest saint, Carlo Acutis. The relic, entrusted to him by…
He once promised, “I’ll be back,” but this time Arnold Schwarzenegger returns not to the silver screen but to the Vatican stage — and alongside an Irish bishop. On October 1st, Bishop Martin Hayes of Kilmore will share the spotlight with the Hollywood action hero and Pope Leo XIV at a landmark Laudato Si’ conference in Rome.…
Irish theologian and academic Fr Eugene Duffy has called for wide-ranging reform in the Catholic Church, with a strong focus on leadership and the way bishops are appointed. Delivering a lecture titled ‘The Need for Ecclesial Reform’ recently in Trinity College, he said the Synodal Assembly had made clear that the People of God want “a…
Presidential hopeful Maria Steen launches campaign Prominent barrister and Catholic commentator Maria Steen is seeking a nomination for the Presidency of Ireland, placing family, faith, and constitutional values at the heart of her campaign. Steen, a mother of five, said that while she has never run for public office before, she feels compelled to speak for those…
Fr Ted writer and pro-women campaigner Graham Linehan was arrested on Monday by fiver armed police officers as he stepped of a plane at Heathrow for sending three tweets. “In a country where paedophiles escape sentencing, where knife crime is out of control, where women are assaulted and harassed every time they gather to speak,…
The event was regarded as one of the leading gatherings in the field, featuring a distinguished line-up of theologians and church leaders. The congress took place in Dublin in part to mark the appointment of Professor Fáinche Ryan of the Loyola Institute as the incoming President of the European Society for Catholic Theology. Among the…
The Catholic Church has welcomed many kinds of popes in its long history — reformers, diplomats, visionaries, caretakers. With Pope Leo XIV, history’s first American successor of Peter, the Church appears to have received something rare: a shepherd intent on binding up wounds without tearing at old scars. His first hundred days offer every sign…
The news that St John Henry Newman is to be declared a Doctor of the Church has been greeted with joy. This has been expected for some time, having been requested by, among others, the Episcopal Conference of England & Wales, the Irish Episcopal Conference and the Bishops of the Church of England. Newman joins…
Fr John Murray who was savagely attacked hearing confessions in Downpatrick was recovering from illness after a stay in hospital and preparing to transfer from his parish having turned 75 – retirement age. In one of his final homilies as parish priest he encouraged the faithful to “Bring our anger to God, your frustrations. Bring…