Students are turning to theology because it helps them engage with the “big questions” facing the modern world, according to Fr Luke Macnamara OSB, Dean of Theology at St Patrick’s Pontifical University, Maynooth. Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Fr Macnamara said theology continues to speak deeply to young people at a time of uncertainty. “While…
The pro-life campaign warns of lack of scrutiny More than €50 million in Irish taxpayer funding was channelled to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) between 2019 and 2024, a parliamentary reply has revealed, prompting calls from a pro-life group and a senator for greater scrutiny of how overseas aid is spent. The figure –…
Liberal societies risk entering a “new dark age” if they lose the ability to argue through controversial questions with reason, courage and restraint, Prof. Nigel Biggar told an audience at University College Dublin. Speaking at the Dublin Lectures on Free Speech and Academic Freedom, Prof. Biggar said the culture wars are not superficial disputes but…
A retired pastor has been convicted after preaching a Bible verse during an open-air church service inside an abortion safe access zone in Northern Ireland. Pastor Clive Johnston, 78, was fined £450 at Coleraine Magistrates Court on May 7 after being found to have breached safe access zone legislation outside Causeway Hospital in Coleraine. The…
When Charlie Guy first began to pray the rosary aloud in his van, it was spontaneous. He didn’t set out in search of a new business idea, nor to become known online. He was, as he put it, simply heading off to do a delivery for his confectionary distribution business. When somewhere along the road,…
Thousands gathered in Dublin on Monday for the annual March for Life, with this year’s demonstration focusing on rising abortion numbers and opposition to proposals to remove the three-day waiting period. The event began with Mass at the Newman University Church, where Bishop Kevin Doran of Achonry and Elphin told worshippers: “Once there is a…
Young people in Ireland are moving from climate concern to action through creative learning initiatives, according to organisers of Trócaire’s Game Changers competition, which held its national final in Dublin this week. A recent survey by ECO-UNESCO found that 97% of young people in Ireland are worried about climate change. That concern was reflected at…
When Isabel Vaughan-Spruce stood silently praying near an abortion facility in Birmingham, she did not expect to become a test case for the limits of public expression. Yet a few years on, her case remains ongoing, with a trial expected later this year under the UK’s buffer zone legislation. What began as a single arrest…
The former Presentation Convent lands in Portlaoise have been officially reopened following a two-year redevelopment, delivering 52 social housing apartments for people on the long-term homeless waiting list in Co. Laois. The site, originally established by the Presentation Sisters more than 200 years ago, had fallen into dereliction by the late 20th century. After the…
The Diocese of Clogher has celebrated the ordination of Fr Stephen Sherry to the priesthood on Vocations Sunday, April 26, in St Macartan’s Cathedral, Monaghan. Originally from Tullycorbet, Co. Monaghan, Fr Sherry was ordained by Bishop Lawrence Duffy in a ceremony attended by clergy, family and parishioners from across the diocese. His ordination marks the…