Michael Kelly is an award-winning writer and broadcaster specialising in religious and social affairs. Born and raised in Northern Ireland, he attended the Pontifical University St Patrick’s College, Maynooth where he obtained degrees in philosophy and theology and the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome where he studieD social institutional communications. From 2002-2005 he was an Editor in the Central Information Service of Vatican Radio. In this role, he travelled with Pope St John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI on overseas trips. In 2005, he returned to Dublin to take up the position of Deputy Editor with The Irish Catholic newspaper, succeeding as Editor in 2012. In 2016, he was appointed Consulting Editor of Columba Books, the Dublin-based publisher of religious and spiritual books. He is a regular contributor to programmes on RTÉ, BBC, UTV, CNN and Al Jazeera. He also have extensive experience offering media training and coaching in the voluntary sector. Mr Kelly is a weekly columnist with Ireland’s largest-selling secular newspaper the Irish Independent and has been published in The Irish Times, the Irish Examiner, The Irish News, The Guardian, Our Sunday Visitor, Catholic World Report, the National Catholic Reporter and the National Catholic Register. He writes from Ireland for Catholic News Service of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He is co-author with Austen Ivereigh of the best-selling book How to Defend the Faith Without Raising Your Voice. He is a frequent visitor to the Holy Land and is currently working on a new book on the holy places in the Holy Land which is due to be published in Autumn 2019.
‘We’ve been treated like monsters’ The Religious Sisters of Charity, who agreed to hand over their hospital and the site of the new national maternity hospital, are fearful of the media and feel bewildered that they have been so badly portrayed in the public eye since deciding to transfer ownership of St Vincent’s Hospital in…
Editor’s Comment At lunchtime on Tuesday a lengthy 1,019-word statement from the Department for Health landed in my email inbox. It hailed May 17 as a “significant day for women’s health” in Ireland and announced that the Government that morning approved “the legal framework that will underpin the ownership and governance arrangements for the new…
Exclusive A number of Irish bishops have engaged in a listening process with gay and lesbian Catholics as part of the synodal process, The Irish Catholic can reveal. It follows commitments from the organisers of the Irish synod – which aims to hear from diverse voices about the future direction of the Church – that what they…
At a superficial level, the main takeaways from the assembly elections are: that a nationalist is now in-line to be the First Minister in a polity created to ensure a permanent unionist government; the SDLP received a terrible drubbing and that party is now on life support; the main winner is the ‘centre ground’ as…
If a leaked document from the US Supreme Court this week can be taken at face value, the landmark 1973 ruling that made abortion legal in all 50 states will soon be overturned. A draft document obtained by the news website Politico suggests the top US court is in favour of overturning Roe v Wade.…
Michael Kelly in Rome As the Church in Ireland continues the process of bishops, priests and laypeople working together to chart the future, Pope Francis has pleaded for Irish Catholics not to cling to past ways of doing things. He was speaking in unscripted remarks after receiving a group of Irish people involved in Catholic…
Plea for Catholic schools to foster peace Michael Kelly in Rome Pope Francis has urged Catholic schools in Ireland to form students to work for mutual coexistence and peace in a fractured world. The Pontiff took time out of his busy Easter Week schedule to meet with representatives from the Global Researchers Advancing Catholic Education…
The very mixed emotions experienced by priests in pastoral ministry as they deal with the ups and downs of their parishioners often leads to a wry, even black humour. Behind it often lies a deeper message. I remember a priest saying to me once of another cleric: “oh, he doesn’t suffer from depression – but…
For the believer, Holy Week and Easter are the culmination of the Faith when we mark the saving death and lifegiving resurrection of the Saviour. Even if some people sometimes relegate Easter to a mere festival of over-indulgence in chocolate eggs, the glory of this festival transformed our world. The Carpenter of Nazareth revealed in…
Catholic parishes across Ireland have so far raised more than €3.25m for vital relief effort for Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion. Following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24, Church leaders in Ireland asked for a special collection in parishes across the island. This mainly took place over the weekend of March 26-27, as…
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