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.
November is the month during which Christians traditionally pray for and remember in a special way our loved ones who have died. The reality about the human condition is that we will all die some day – Benjamin Franklin captured it well when he said: “in this world nothing can be said to be certain,…
Shift in party’s position EXCLUSIVE The DUP has given the strongest indication yet that the party will welcome a visit by Pope Francis to the North during the Pontiff’s expected visit to the island of Ireland next year. Sir Jeffrey Donaldson – one of the party’s most-senior figures – told The Irish Catholic that…
Editor’s Comment BBC One aired the first instalment of Gunpowder at the weekend, a three-part retelling of the 1605 Catholic plot to blow up the House of Lords. It made for tough – if gripping – viewing. The scenes of the executions of Catholics amidst a blaze of anti-Catholic hysteria were brutal and it seemed…
Pope Francis has convened a special synod meeting of bishops for 2019 that will address issues facing the Church in what’s known as the Pan-Amazon region of South America. The meeting will look at Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guyana, Guyana, Peru, Venezuela and Surinam. Francis announced the move at the weekend and said the…
Editor’s Comment I’m not one for media boycotts. I think Newstalk’s decision to ban journalists from The Irish Times from appearing on programmes is childish. But, I likewise think it petulant of people from The Irish Times like Fintan O’Toole and Una Mullally to declare that they were boycotting Newstalk over George Hook’s now…
Editor’s Comment The number of people coming forward to discern a vocation to the priesthood and religious life in Ireland is stubbornly low. There is some evidence that when vocation-promotion is prioritised, interest increases. A few years ago, after the Church hosted a ‘Year of Vocations’, Irish dioceses saw the largest number of ordinations in…
I’m sometimes asked by dioceses and religious congregations for advice on vocations strategies. I don’t have anything close to all the answers, but I’m happy to share my experiences of what I have seen work elsewhere in terms of fostering a culture of vocations and how one might go about communicating a life-encompassing commitment…
Jacob Rees-Mogg is a colourful if somewhat eccentric member of the British Conservative Party. While still a backbencher and just seven years in the House of Commons, Mr Rees-Mogg is being tipped by some as a potential future Prime Minister. This would be quite something, since he would become Britain’s first Catholic Prime Minister. Unlike…
One of the great challenges that Pope Francis is setting before the Church is the need for Catholics to get out of their comfort zones and bring the Gospel closer to people. Francis likes to talk about the absolute urgent need to reach out to what he describes as the “existential margins” or “peripheries” of…
I was in the United States this past week where I was attending the ‘Convocation of Catholic Leaders’ on the theme of ‘the joy of the Gospel in America’. Five years in planning, the meeting brought together 3,500 delegates from various US dioceses and Catholic organisations to chart the future direction of the Church in…