Renata is a Brazilian journalist who holds a Master’s degree in Journalism with first-class honours, completed in 2023. She joined The Irish Catholic in April 2024 as a multimedia journalist, where she brings a fresh, international perspective to storytelling through a range of digital platforms.
Many young people joined Armagh Parish’s ‘Week of Hope’, said Admin. Fr Barry Matthews. The event took place from September 28 to October 5 and was “an opportunity” for the local community to come together in faith and share stories and experiences. He said the young attendees were inspired by the “speaker’s courage as they…
As the pilgrimage season 2025 closes in Lough Derg, the sanctuary team announced a significant rise in attendance this year. The three-day pilgrimage had an increase of 11%, while one-day retreats rose 23%. “The increased number of pilgrims this year reaffirms Lough Derg’s role as a beacon of hope and spiritual renewal,” they said. In…
Bishop Martin Hayes has said that Laudato Si’, the late Pope Francis’s landmark encyclical on care for the environment, “is even more relevant today than it was ten years ago,” urging Irish Catholics to treat ecological concern as an expression of faith and moral responsibility. Speaking after attending both the Raising Hope Conference and the Conference of European Bishops’ meeting…
Childhood trauma impacts people’s lives in different ways and overcoming it differs from person to person. Sean Loone, a deacon of the Archdiocese of Birmingham writes in his new memoir A Million Reasons to Be Angry – Only One to Love: A book about Mental Health, Childhood Trauma, and Faith how his Irish mother’s faith…
The Provincial of the Hospitaller Order of St John of God has warned that young people risk becoming trapped in a new form of addiction— not to alcohol or drugs, but to the glowing screens in their hands. The St John of God University Hospital in Stillorgan has already seen the toll firsthand. Its 28-day…
Loreto Sr Orla Treacy was granted an honorary Doctorate in Theology by St Patrick’s Pontifical University, Maynooth on September 27. The doctorate, conferred by Archbishop Eamon Martin, the university’s chancellor, is in recognition of Sr Treacy’s significant contribution to social justice and women’s educational rights across the world. Sr Treacy is a native of Carlow…
“My Irish mother’s faith was like a burning torch” that lit the darkness around a dysfunctional household, said Catholic deacon who is releasing a memoir about mental health, trauma and faith on October 13. Sean Loone, a Catholic deacon in the Archdiocese of Birmingham, England wrote A Million Reasons to Be Angry – Only One…
Thirteen men have taken their first steps towards the priesthood this year—despite the pressures, demands, and challenges of answering such a call. Fr Willie Purcell, the Church’s National Vocations Coordinator, said priesthood today is “challenging and rewarding” as Ireland’s bishops confirmed the new seminarians are beginning their Propaedeutic Year—the first of four stages of formation. Their arrival brings…
To be a good person, you don’t need to become a priest – you can do the right thing as a layperson,” Bro. Donatus Forkan OH Provincial, Hospitaller Order of St John of God, Western European Province told The Irish Catholic. Recently, the management for the Hospitaller Services Group (HSG), which was created in Ireland…
“My aunt, my mother’s sister, was [a] Sister of Mercy,” Pope Leo XIV revealed in a letter sent recently to the Mercy Sisters in Ireland. In the letter, he called himself “a devoted follower” of Bl. Catherine McAuley. And the Sisters are quietly hoping that the Pope’s affection for their charism might help push on…