Padre Pio’s path to acceptance in the Church was far from a smooth one, writes Greg Daly When Padre Pio was canonised by Pope St John Paul II in June 2002 before a crowd of 300,000 people it seemed in some ways almost a formality. The path to Padre Pio’s beatification just three years…
The Pro Life Campaign (PLC) has rejected suggestions by former president Mary McAleese that the Eighth Amendment may no longer be fit for purpose, saying Ireland remains one of the world’s safest places for pregnant women. Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Sean O’Rourke, Mrs McAleese said she had not decided how she would vote in…
A new report on child abuse has revealed that clerical abuse makes up a statistically negligible proportion of abuse in Ireland. The Garda Inspectorate’s Responding to Child Sexual Abuse states that although clerical and institutional cases are reported and investigated every year, they form “a small proportion” of the overall number of cases investigated. The…
Dr John McAreavey ought to have held off for a few months before tendering his resignation as Bishop of Dromore, an old friend and PR adviser to he bishop has said. Speaking on BBC’s Talkback, Tom Kelly said he advised the bishop against resigning, saying: “If you want to do it, do it in a…
Parishes and dioceses may not be able to divest schools without arranging for alternative forms of religious instruction, The Irish Catholic understands. The vast majority of Irish primary schools are under religious patronage, and although the Department of Education has expressed a wish to see half of the country’s Church-run schools divested from Church control…
Visitors to the Chester Beatty Library have a chance to see one of the city’s religious and artistic treasures, writes Greg Daly Today’s Divine Office is a simpler set of prayers than that which previous generations of Catholics were faced. Putting forward a new revised Liturgy of the Hours in 1970, Pope Paul VI…
Given how fractious the Catholic internet has been of late, it can be surprising to find someone you might expect to have joined the camp of those attacking the Pope expressing an impressive docility, and a recognition that being Catholic is not simply a matter of believing Catholic things but of union with the Pope.…
Parishes should focus their resources on becoming missionary communities rather than on just preserving buildings, Bishop Phonsie Cullinan has said. The Bishop of Waterford and Lismore told The Irish Catholic that “a parish will quite happily renovate a church for half a million euro, but I would have to ask the question of whether it…
The last two Mondays have seen representatives from two of the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore’s pastoral areas meeting at the Granville and Woodlands hotels as part of an ambitious listening process with a view to updating the diocese’s pastoral plan. The context for this, according to Bishop Phonsie Cullinan, is Pope Francis’ vision for…
The decision to reappoint only two non-religious members of the Vatican’s child protection commission has been described as “disappointing” by leading advocate and former commission member Marie Collins, adding that this is “not a hopeful sign”. The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors was established in 2014 for a three-year period, closing on December…