Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Michael Router as the new Bishop of Derry following the retirement of Bishop Donal McKeown. The Vatican announced on Thursday that Pope Leo had accepted Bishop McKeown’s resignation and transferred Bishop Router from his role as Auxiliary Bishop of Armagh. Bishop McKeown will remain as Apostolic Administrator of the…
Young people are “desperately looking for people who are authentic and religious,” said Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan during the Annual Solemn Novena at Whitefriar Street Church, urging Catholics to become “authentic disciples” by living out their faith in everyday life. Speaking to The Irish Catholic afterwards, the Bishop of Waterford and Lismore said many young people…
The Catholic Church is not seeking to advance its own interests within the European Union but to help the bloc remain faithful to the values on which it was founded, COMECE President Bishop Mariano Crociata has said. Speaking to The Irish Catholic after meeting Taoiseach Micheál Martin as part of Ireland’s Presidency of the Council…
For Fr Laurence ‘La’ Flynn, the memory of his ordination is full of light. It was July 4, 1976, the day the United States was marking the bicentenary of its independence. “I wasn’t invited to the celebrations in America,” he laughs, “so I went ahead with my own.” The summer itself, he remembers, was “particularly…
Voluntary children’s care providers are calling for a comprehensive overhaul of Ireland’s care system in a submission to the Oireachtas Committee on Children and Equality on July 9, warning that years of short-term decision-making have left the sector responding to crises rather than planning for the future. CRAVA, which represents Ireland’s voluntary residential care and…
Back-to-back ordinations in the Diocese of Down and Connor have signalled hope for vocations, with nine seminarians now in formation, according to diocesan vocations director Fr Conor McGrath. Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Fr McGrath said the ordination of Fr Thomas Hampton in Downpatrick on Sunday, June 28, followed by the ordination of Fr Esteban…
Archbishop Dermot Farrell has said there are “legitimate concerns” about the rate of population growth and the impact on housing and essential services, but warned that Ireland has also witnessed the “mobilisation of hatred and rejection” against migrants in its towns and cities. Speaking during Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral, Dublin, for the 14th Sunday…
Bishop Denis Nulty has said Catholic education remains “critical” and warned that schools which remain under Catholic patronage must be “unapologetically Catholic” at a time when divestment is under consideration. In a homily delivered at Loughcrew, Co. Meath, on Sunday, June 28, to mark the birth of St Oliver Plunkett, the Bishop of Kildare and…
A day of celebration in Downpatrick turned to shock on Sunday, June 28, when a fire broke out at the former Convent of Mercy beside St Patrick’s Church just hours after Fr Thomas Hampton was ordained to the priesthood there. Fr Eugene O’Neill PP said Fr Thomas Hampton’s ordination on Sunday afternoon had been “a…
The President of Dublin City University, Prof. Daire Keogh, was invested as a Knight of the Order of St Gregory the Great, an award bestowed by Pope Leo XIV, during the Annual Mass of the Association of Papal Orders in Ireland at Newman University Church, Dublin. Archbishop Dermot Farrell conferred the papal honour in the…