Ongoing difficulties forced survivor’s hand The sole Irish member of the Pope’s child protection commission has stepped down, three years after joining the Vatican body. Dubliner Marie Collins, one of two abuse survivors who were founder members of the advisory body in March 2014, is understood to have informed the commission of her wish to…
It’s hard to deny that online debate about Amoris Laetitia has been marked far more by heat than light. Indeed, disagreement about the Pope’s exhortation on love and the family has reached such a point that at least one commentator has claimed the Church is now entering a fully-fledged civil war. This is, of course, nonsense: that…
A survey on proposals for a new primary school course in religion, beliefs and ethics used leading questions and drew from an unrepresentative sample, a prominent research institute has found. A study for the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) analysed an online survey conducted by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) to…
Delays in how the Vatican tackles cases of priests accused of abuse continue to be a concern for Irish bishops, a spokesman for the hierarchy has confirmed. Addressing Australia’s royal commission into the institutional handling of abuse allegations earlier this month, Teresa Devlin, CEO of the Irish Church’s safeguarding board, said she believed that Ireland’s…
Divine Mercy Conference organiser Don Devaney tells Greg Daly about bringing God’s mercy into the world “The reason for this year’s conference is that we’re encouraging people to be apostles of mercy,” says Don Devaney of Ireland’s 26th Divine Mercy Conference, held in Dublin’s RDS this weekend. “The theme for this year is ‘Have mercy…
The Vatican should speed up how it deals with the cases of priests accused of abuse, the head of the Irish Church’s safeguarding body has said, calling on Ireland’s hierarchy to engage with the Vatican to encourage this. Addressing Australia’s royal commission into institutional abuse, Teresa Devlin, CEO of the National Board for the Safeguarding…
Catholic schools have welcomed news that new guidelines to streamline the process for vetting people who work in schools are expected shortly. “We’re absolutely delighted to hear that it’s imminent,” Seamus Mulconry, General Secretary of the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association (CPSMA), told The Irish Catholic. “It will be very welcome by schools and voluntary…
Pope Francis’ decision to send a ‘pastoral delegate’ to the controversial Marian shrine at Medjugorje has been welcomed by a leading Irish promoter of the pilgrimage site. Archbishop Henryk Hoser of Warszawa-Praga has been tapped as the Pope’s special envoy to the Bosnia-Herzegovina shrine, tasked with acquiring “a profound understanding of the pastoral situation” in…
Without a doubt, one of the key challenges of the Church in the modern world is to reach out to those who are outside it – whether those might be people who have fallen away from the Church, or never been part of the Church, or simply people opposed to whatever social role they see…
Greg Daly learns about a charity election that’s electrifying a Wexford parish Anyone paying attention to parish circles online in recent weeks can’t but have noticed that something exciting is happening in the Wexford parish on Barntown. The Mayor of Barntown is a charity election, intended to galvanise the community while boosting parish funds, explains…