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. 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. Micheal finished his stint as Editor of The Irish Catholic in January 2024 and has taken up the position of Director of Public Affairs for Aid to the Church in Need Ireland.
As this newspaper went to press this week all eyes were on the cabinet meeting at which a further relaxation of the Covid-19 restrictions was due to be discussed. The Taoiseach Micheál Martin had indicated to religious leaders in a letter that there would be a relaxation of the ban on public Masses by mid-May.…
The right to religious worship has now been restricted in Ireland in some shape or form for 405 days. Apart from a brief period during the summer and the month of December, public Mass in the Republic has been disallowed for over a year. Many good people – instinctively trusting that the Government knew what…
Seeing everything through the lens of winners and losers makes losers of everyone, writes Michael Kelly “Them ‘uns have everything and we have nothin’” was the rather colloquial summary of a local Protestant woman when asked by BBC Radio Ulster why her young co-religionists were setting fire to their own communities. The ‘them and us’…
Admiration for members of the British royal family is not something that comes to me spontaneously. It would, of course, be hard not to have sympathy for Queen Elizabeth II given some of the embarrassment her adult children have caused her. The monarch has witnessed first-hand the consequences of marital infidelity and subsequent family breakdown.…
The Primate of All-Ireland has paid tribute to the contribution to peace and reconciliation of the Duke of Edinburgh who has died aged 99. Archbishop Eamon Martin also offered prayers for Prince Philip’s soul and the divine consolation of his family. Buckingham Palace announced this morning (Friday) that the husband of Queen Elizabeth II had…
Talking to people in Catholic circles in Ireland in recent weeks there are mixed views about the plan of the Irish bishops’ to move towards a national synod of the Church. From my reading, the closer one is to active participation in the life of the Church, the more apprehensive one is about the potential…
Fr Hans Küng, the prominent and sometimes controversial Swiss Catholic theologian, died peacefully in his sleep in the university town of Tübingen, Germany, where he had lived and lectured since 1960, said a spokesman for his Global Ethic Foundation. He was 93. Fr Küng was one of the most outspoken Catholic theologians and one of…
Pope Francis has used his traditional Easter message to pray for an end to restrictions in some parts of the world that have banned Catholics from worshipping together at the most important feast in the Christian calendar. The Pope’s prayer – delivered in his urbi et orbi address from St Peter’s Basilica – comes as…
EXCLUSIVE The Government has now insisted that it is an offence punishable by the law for a priest to celebrate public Mass, despite months of assurances that there is no penalty attached. This stance appears to be at odds with a statement to the Dáil by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly in October dismissing concerns around…
The howls of derision from some quarters that met the recent note from the Vatican confirming that the Church does not bless same-sex unions should sound a warning bell for anyone looking naively at the idea of a national synod. The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in a short document approved by…