People are fully behind Pope Francis’ efforts to tackle abuse and concealment of abuse in the Church, according to a Belfast priest who was sexually assaulted by a priest while a seminarian and who was one of eight survivors of clerical and institutional abuse who met the Pope on Saturday evening. Describing the encounter as…
A time of renewal lies ahead for the Church in Ireland, Pope Francis has assured the country’s bishops. Addressing members of the hierarchy before returning to Rome, the Pope said that while upheavals of recent years have tested the faith of the Irish people, they have also “offered the opportunity for an interior renewal of…
Rome will host the 10th World Meeting of Families in three years’ time, Cardinal Kevin Farrell has announced. Drawing to a close the final Mass of the 2018 World Meeting of Families, the head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life said to Pope Francis, “Holy Father, it is with great joy that…
The Church and Irish society can be renewed if parents dedicate themselves to living Christian lives and providing examples of Christian living to their children, Pope Francis has said in an address to married and engaged couples in Dublin’s pro cathedral. Highlighting how he is in Ireland to preside over the closing stages of the…
President Higgins has welcomed how Pope Francis has spoken of abuse in his recent pastoral letter, and urged him to follow these words with actions. The President took advantage of today’s papal visit to Áras an Uachtaráin today to raise the issue of suffering and hurt caused by child abuse perpetrated within the Church. According…
WMOF 2018 Catholic parishes urged to stand up for persecuted gay people, writes Greg Daly In some countries, LGBT issues are ‘life issues’, the World Meeting of Families heard today, in an impassioned plea for parishes to welcome, integrate, and stand up for same-sex attracted and transgender Catholics. Addressing a packed hall, Fr James Martin SJ called for Catholic parishes to…
The Pope in Ireland A two-year exile helped make the future Pope the man he is, writes Greg Daly “I’m very pleased with the way things have gone,” Fr James Kelly SJ told The Irish Catholic in 2015, two years into Pope Francis’ papacy. “He has surprised me. He’s a changed man.” Fr Kelly,…
The Pope in Ireland The Pope’s most controversial document is an attempt to face reality, writes Greg Daly “I see the Church as a field hospital after battle,” Pope Francis told the Jesuit Fr Antonio Spadaro in a September 2013 interview. “It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol…
The Pope in Ireland Pope Francis harbours no illusions about modern Ireland, Cardinal Kevin Farrell told Greg Daly When it was announced at the closing ceremony of the 2015 World Meeting of Families that the Church’s next global celebration of the family would be held in Dublin, eyebrows inevitably were raised. The September 27…
Pope in Ireland Pope Francis wants a living relationship between Rome and the local Churches, writes Greg Daly It’s one of the many ironies of Pope Francis’ pontificate that the 2014 and 2015 synods of bishops have been criticised by some as rigged exercises, when by all accounts they were the most open and…