Mary Immaculate College has slammed what it describes as “unwarranted attempts” to influence the interview process for appointing a new head of theology. This post has been vacant since last summer. The college will not engage with any party making “unwarranted attempts” to seek information that might have the effect of “unduly influencing the course…
Almost half the parishes in Killaloe diocese are ministered to by a priest over the retirement age of 75. Some 27 of the 58 parishes in the diocese have no resident priest under 75, Bishop Fintan Monahan said as he announced the diocesan appointments. Meetings were held across Killaloe diocese earlier this year, with radical…
What do the archbishop of Suva in Fiji and the cardinal in Tonga have in common? The same thing as many Fijian and Tongan clergy – they are all former students of Irish Columban Fr Donal McIlraith. Fr Donal has been ministering in Fiji for the past 35 years, all of them spent teaching at…
Staff and patients are upset at the removal of all Catholic imagery from St Vincent’s University Hospital, after the hospital’s controversial transfer from the Religious Sisters of Charity (RSC). All crucifixes and holy images – including of the hospital’s founder Mother Mary Aikenhead – were removed from public display this year in the hospital, while…
Staff morale at Mary Immaculate College has been “damaged” by the lack of transparency around the failure to appoint a new Head of Theology, a senior lecturer has said. Despite two rounds of interviews since September 2022, MIC has failed to find a new head for its theology department, meaning the department has been without…
A parish in Kerry diocese is facing a bill of €100,000 for restorations and has released a plea to former parishioners and descendants of the parish to offer their support. The Sacred Heart Church in Glengarriff, Co. Cork, is “at the heart of our parish”, Fr Niall Howard told The Irish Catholic, adding it is…
The war in Ukraine “can be stopped in a day”, just as the Soviet Union fell in three days, a chaplain to Ukrainian Catholics in Ireland has said. Giving hope to those who fled the war in Ukraine “is very, very challenging”, Fr Vasyl Kornitsky has said, but warned that despair is “a very dangerous…
Faith in film What’s a western doing on a Vatican film list? A genre that typically praises the triumph of individualism and a non-conformist Protestant culture might seem ‘anathema’. But Stetsons, stoic heroes, fantastic landscapes and engaging action have some Vatican sanction with its inclusion of the iconic western Stagecoach (1939) on a 1995 list…
A volatile situation in Cameroon means an Irish nun cannot visit her family, Ruadhán Jones hears. Sr Angèle Nkamsi MSHR, an Irish citizen since 2013, cannot visit her home in Cameroon due to the volatile political situation in the country, she told The Irish Catholic. The last time the Holy Rosary sister visited Cameroon in…
Paramilitary-style groups use the “romantic perspective” of past violence to “radicalise and divide society so people can stay in positions of powers,” a Belfast youth worker has said. However, Mr Stephan Hughes warned that it is not just paramilitaries who are the problem, saying it is also “politicians who cosy up to these people, get…