Attempts to compel priests to reveal information about abuse learned in Confession would be legally unsustainable and probably contrary to Ireland’s Constitution, a leading expert on constitutional law has said. “If you’re given an undertaking at some point and then act to your detriment as a result of that undertaking, the law shouldn’t turn around…
An invitation earlier this year to address Australia’s royal commission on institutional child abuse shows how highly regarded Ireland’s National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church has become, according to the board’s CEO Teresa Devlin. “It was probably the big event of the year so far in terms of the honour…
EXCLUSIVE Irish missionaries have vowed that they will stay with the people of Venezuela in the midst of a deepening political crisis and widespread food shortages that has seen some people forced to scavenge through rubbish tips for food. This is despite the fact that one of the Irish Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC)…
Ireland’s experience in tackling clerical child abuse is being acknowledged around the world, according to the CEO of the National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church. Teresa Devlin told The Irish Catholic how the board was asked earlier this year to address Australia’s royal commission on institutional abuse and explain the…
Ireland’s newest bishop has encouraged Catholics to take pride in all the good work that the Church continues to do with the vulnerable and marginalised. Bishop Alan McGuckian SJ – who was ordained Bishop of Raphoe at the weekend – also said that the Church in Ireland needs to increasingly embrace a model where laypeople…
The Church should use next year’s World Meeting of Families to highlight the need for more family-friendly economic models, a leading economist has said. “The World Meeting of Families should be about families in the practical everyday circumstances, the hustle and bustle of what life is for all of us,” UCD’s Prof. Ray Kinsella told…
One of the strangest sights in social media in recent times has seen Cambridge classicist Prof. Mary Beard being mocked by the US-based essayist and risk analyst Nassim Nicholas Taleb over her supposed inability to handle evidence relating to the ethnic diversity of Roman Britain. The minutiae of the argument go a bit beyond this…
Raphoe’s Bishop Alan McGuckian first spent time in what would eventually become his diocese almost 50 years ago, when his love for the Irish language brought him to Rann na Feirste as a 15-year-old. Although he’s been a regular visitor to Donegal’s Gaeltacht since his teenage years, he only moved to the diocese on Wednesday…
More creative ways are needed to draw young people towards the Mass and into a vibrant faith life, Bishop Phonsie Cullinan has said. Explaining how the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore has is seeking to employ a diocesan co-ordination for Faith formation and New Evangelisation, Bishop Cullinan told The Irish Catholic that huge efforts are…
The Church should do more to make known the Christian tradition of mindfulness, a leading advocate of the discipline has said. “What’s really needed is a renaissance of Christian contemporary publishing,” Bro. Richard Hendrick OFM Cap told The Irish Catholic. “That means repackaging, new translations, etc. of the great classics with good introductions that enable…