A leading homelessness campaigner has expressed reservations about the proposal for the State to set up a so-called ‘friendly vulture fund’ to aid people experiencing mortgage distress. Such a charitable organisation that would buy distressed loans from hard-pressed homeowners and allow them to stay in their homes would be a key step in tackling Ireland’s…
Leinster parishioners have submitted hundreds of complaints to RTÉ about how the Eucharist was ridiculed in the national broadcaster’s flagship chat show. More than 900 letters have been sent from parishes in Laois, Carlow, and Kildare, The Irish Catholic has learned, following a discussion on The Late Late Show in which the Eucharist was referred…
The Government has been urged to streamline the process for vetting people to work in schools amidst a huge backlog in the safeguarding system. Changes in the vetting process, to ensure that people are safe to work with children, led to a “very large upsurge” in applications for such clearance, according to Seamus Mulconry General…
Irish opposition to US President Donald Trump’s clampdown on refugees is hypocritical as long as a blind eye is turned to our own system, priests who have campaigned on the issue have said. “We can all get up in arms and rightly so about the outrageous actions of the President of the United States,” Msgr…
Irish community chaplains in the US have warned of a climate of fear and anxiety, following sudden clampdowns on immigration to the country by President Donald Trump. Sr Christine Hennessy who works with Irish immigrants in New York, told The Irish Catholic that “there is fear among the undocumented” that they will suffer as a…
Claims by a controversial priest that he resembles Pope Francis are misplaced, a bestselling papal biographer has said. Speaking on RTÉ radio at the weekend, Fr Tony Flannery denied that he disagrees with fundamental Church teaching continuing: “In fact, I would suspect that I am closer to the teaching and the attitude of Pope Francis…
It’s hard to imagine a more inflammatory title for a blogpost than ‘Catholic pro-lifers at the Women’s March? Get used to it’, but American blogger Simcha Fisher has never been one to pussyfoot around. Writing at simchafisher.com, she starts with a bang. “Were you surprised, even shocked, to see Catholics and other pro-lifers joining in…
Leading campaigners tell Greg Daly about the realities of Ireland’s worsening homeless crisis DePaul CEO Kerry Anthony describes herself as a naturally optimistic person, but faced with the worst homeless crisis that she has seen in 20 years of working with homeless people, she occasionally finds herself asking herself in dismay how we have got…
Killaloe’s Bishop Fintan Monahan has welcomed an ambitious new plan to revive rural Ireland and said the Church will do its best to be proactive in maintaining rural life. The bishop’s comments come following the announcement of ‘Realising our Rural Potential: Action Plan for Rural Development’, a €60 million plan intended to revive Ireland’s rural…
Irish people frustrated by the escalating homelessness crisis have been urged to give vent to their feelings by offering their time volunteering for charities working in the frontline. The call comes after Irish bishops discussed the ongoing issue of homelessness during their meeting with Pope Francis in Rome at the weekend and told him about…