Most Dublin parishes are struggling to stay afloat and many are not sustainable in the long term, The Irish Catholic understands. It comes after the publication of the first of two sets of accounts the diocese will issue this year bringing unprecedented financial transparency. A source told The Irish Catholic that based on current figures…
It’s been just over a year since the US-based Hilton Foundation announced it was awarding a grant of $290,000 (€268,000) to Vocations Ireland, and Margaret Cartwright, director of the organisation, has had her hands full in the meantime. Explaining that the umbrella group that supports vocations directors from Ireland’s religious congregations has just received the…
Bishop Phonsie Cullinan tells Greg Daly about the new National Vocations Office Ireland has lagged behind other countries in the promotion of priestly vocations for several years, according to Waterford and Lismore’s Bishop Phonsie Cullinan, chairman of the Irish bishops’ Council for Vocations, but that’s set to change this month with the establishment of the…
Pope Francis’ visit to Egypt last week may have been one of the shortest overseas trips so far in his papacy, but it may prove one of his most important. Friday morning saw the Pope arriving at Cairo airport and being officially welcomed to Egypt at the Heliopolis presidential palace, before joining the chief imam…
The Vatican department that tackles the cases of priests accused of abuse has accelerated its handling of such cases, the head of Ireland’s child protection board has said. Teresa Devlin, CEO of the National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC), told The Irish Catholic that she believed the development was…
Church leaders will this month open a new national office dedicated exclusively to promoting vocations to priesthood as the shortage of priests continues to bite and some dioceses are no longer able to staff parishes. Bishop Phonsie Cullinan admitted that the Irish Church is playing ‘catch up’, telling The Irish Catholic that Ireland is “behind…
Greg Daly asks whether the Religious Sisters of Charity can legitimately host the new National Maternity Hospital In recent days a story broke in California that the American Civil Liberties Union (ALCU) had filed a lawsuit against a Catholic hospital for denying a hysterectomy last year to a woman who identified as a man, and…
Greg Daly considers the recommendations of Ireland’s latest ‘Citizens’ Assembly’ If there remained any plausible claim that Ireland’s so-called ‘Citizens’ Assembly’ is a genuinely representative body, rather than, as Senator Michael McDowell put it last year “a ridiculous sham … convened on the basis of a polling company’s random sample of persons”, it was demolished…
A leading canon lawyer has warned that prenuptial agreements could invalidate marriages, as farmers have indicated their support for such agreements being introduced into Irish law. Research from Macra na Feirme conducted at livestock marts over recent weeks has found that 72% of surveyed farmers believe prenuptial agreements should have a place in Irish law,…
Limerick’s diocesan day of lay-led liturgies has been a big success, according to early reports. The morning of Tuesday, April 25, saw lay-led liturgies of the word in every Limerick parish, while diocesan clergy were away on in-service formation. “There were about 150 to 200 people in the cathedral,” Noirín Lynch of the Diocesan Pastoral…