Mags Gargan visits the Sanctuary meditation and mindfulness centre, to learn about a programme helping struggling teens to find peace “I’m bored.” Two words any parent dreads, whether your offspring is a young child or a teenager. However, according to Caitriona McColgan, young people need to sit in their own boredom for the world to…
On the eve of his departure Archbishop Charles Brown sat down with Mags Gargan to reflect on his time as Papal Nuncio of Ireland Since arriving in Ireland in January 2012 as Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown has become a very familiar face to Irish Catholics. He has travelled the length and breadth of this…
Irish parishes will need to adjust to the reality that the declining number of vocations to the priesthood here will mean more African priests taking up the mantle, Ireland’s former papal nuncio has said. Speaking to The Irish Catholic as he prepared to leave for his new posting in Albania, Archbishop Charles Brown said that the decline…
Ireland will see its first Blessed in 17 years with the date set for the beatification of Fr John Sullivan SJ in May. The beatification of Fr Sullivan will take place in St Francis Xavier’s, Gardiner Street, Dublin, on Saturday, May 13. Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregations for the Causes of Saints will…
A local parish priest has expressed concern at a non-religious Passion play with a female Jesus, due to be played out across the streets and civic spaces of Ballyfermot and Cherry Orchard in Dublin. On Holy Saturday Brokentalkers theatre company is presenting a re-imagining of the Passion of Christ through a confrontation between a homeless…
Seriously ill children from rural Ireland could die en route to the proposed new national children’s hospital in the heavily-congested city centre of Dublin, a bishop has warned. Bishop Phonsie Cullinan, the Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, is backing a grassroots campaign to urge the Government to move away from the current proposed site at…
The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have offered to house a family of refugees at their retreat centre in Cork. Fr Michael Curran MSC, leader of the Myross Wood community, is currently working alongside the Irish Red Cross to put the suggested relief plan into action. Myross Wood House has already been inspected by an…
Sr Patricia Speight shares her faith journey with Mags Gargan One of the iconic images from Pope Francis’ trip to Kenya in 2015 was of an overjoyed Irish Franciscan Missionary Sister for Africa taking his picture from the crowd. Belfast-born Sr Patricia Speight found herself appearing in newspapers across the globe, but it was not…
The Minister for Justice has rejected appeals from publicans to lift the ban on the sale of alcohol on Good Friday, saying it would send “mixed messages” in advance of new legislation to address problem drinking. At a meeting with industry lobbyists last November, Minister Frances Fitzgerald said the “Government needs to avoid…diluting its key…
TheJournal.ie has been forced to change the verdict of its FactCheck on the enrolment policies of Catholic schools following a challenge from the Iona Institute. Iona’s Maria Steen appeared on RTÉ’s Claire Byrne Live a few weeks ago to debate the admissions policy of denominational schools. Ms Steen said that with regard to certain measures,…