Thousands gathered at the RDS in Dublin this weekend for the 35th Divine Mercy Conference, joining in prayer, worship and reflection under this year’s theme, ‘This is my Body… this is my Blood, given up for you’. Attendees travelled from across Ireland and abroad for a programme of Mass, Eucharistic adoration, music and talks centred…
It was lashing across the Knockmealdown Mountains as we drove up the winding road to Mount Melleray. But as the car pulled into the gravel courtyard, the sky began to clear. The grey lifted, and there before us stood the great church against the wide Waterford landscape. For nearly two centuries, the monastery had been…
The Cistercian Community of Our Lady of Silence has announced it will establish its long-term home at Mellifont Abbey, Co. Louth, following what it described as a “prayerful process of discernment”. The community, formed from the former abbeys of Mount Melleray, Mount St Joseph and Mellifont, gathered at Mount St Joseph Abbey in Roscrea in…
Humanitarian action must move beyond simply saving lives in war and disaster and begin protecting the ecological conditions that sustain them, according to Dr Hugo Slim ahead of this year’s Annual Trócaire Lent Lecture. Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Dr Slim, Director of the Las Casas Institute for Social Justice at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, said…
The Ukrainian Catholic community in Dublin gathered on February 21 for an evening of remembrance and prayer, marking the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Clergy, diplomats, veterans and representatives of Ukrainian organisations in Ireland were among those present, alongside members of the wider community. The evening began with a procession, followed by…
Dr Hugo Slim says humanitarian action must protect both people and the world they depend on There is a painting by Francisco Goya entitled ‘Fight with Cudgels’. Two men furiously swing at each other in desperate concentration, locked in combat, yet they are unaware that they are both sinking into the same ground beneath them.…
Plans for an Irish campus by a US Catholic university at the former Mount Melleray Abbey in Co. Waterford have reached an “advanced stage”, according to the Cistercian Order in Ireland. In a statement, the Cistercian community at Our Lady of Silence Abbey said discussions with Florida-based Ave Maria University on a proposed “educational and…
“Sadly, this is not an isolated incident,” said Eilís Mulroy of the Pro Life Campaign in response to a case of coercive abortion before the courts this week, renewing debates over safeguards within Ireland’s abortion law. A man in his 20s appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court after pleading guilty to unlawfully ending the life of…
It’s not just about external forms and structures, what’s more important is the spiritual depth that shapes the Church,” hears Pedro Esteva. As Lent begins, many Catholics ask what shape these forty days should take. Giving something up. Adding extra prayer. Fasting more seriously. Yet there is always a temptation to approach the season as…
I’m getting married this year. As the day draws closer, amid all the preparations, we’ve found ourselves watching a run of wedding rom-coms. And a familiar pattern kept resurfacing. For example, in Runaway Bride, the problem isn’t that love is absent, but that it is perpetually deferred. Maggie (Julia Roberts), the titular runaway bride, repeatedly…