The Northern Irish Department of Education has launched a ‘Call for Evidence’ on the ‘Review of the Religious Education (RE) Core Syllabus for Northern Ireland’. An online survey will be used to gather views from the public to inform the work of a group of experts, teachers and school leaders, which has been set up…
Ireland’s future education system should resist ideological capture and short-term fashion, the National Conversation on Education led by the Dept. of Education has been told in a submission from the Catholic Education Partnership (CEP) the umbrella body representing all Catholic education organisations north and south. “Ethos matters” says the CEP submission, “as education is never…
Dublin’s largest ever number of Catechumens and Candidates were presented at the Rite of Election in St Mary’s Cathedral on Sunday, February 22. Nearly 130 people who will complete their journey into the Catholic Church at Easter this year attended the ceremony led by Archbishop Dermot Farrell. They were joined by their sponsors, family and…
In Week 1 of his Lumen Gentium catechesis, Pope Leo XIV explains that the Church is both a sign and an instrument of God’s plan of salvation. Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome! When the Second Vatican Council, to whose documents we are dedicating the catecheses, wanted to describe the Church, it…
Dear Editor, Garry O’Sullivan makes valuable points concerning the accountability of deceased clerical sexual abusers (in the February 12 edition of The Irish Catholic). From the perspective of our Catholic Christian faith, death is not the end for impenitent clergy who, for whatever reasons, evaded earthly justice. I am writing as a priest now who,…
“Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ”, says Pope Leo XIV in week 5 of his Dei Verbum catechesis. Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome! In today’s catechesis we will look at the profound and vital link that exists between the Word of God and the Church, a bond expressed by…
Last week, it was announced that the State-led forensic excavation at the former mother and baby home site in Tuam has so far uncovered the remains of infants buried in coffins in an area historically identified as a burial ground, according to the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam (ODAIT). In its most…
The Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin has warned the faithful “not to be under any illusion” about the scale of change facing parish life, signalling that fewer Masses and an increase in lay-led liturgies will become a defining feature of the diocese in the years ahead. In a pastoral letter issued in February, Bishop Denis…
More than 300 people from parishes across the Diocese of Cork and Ross gathered in the Cathedral of St Mary and St Anne for a Songs of Praise celebration highlighting the role of music in prayer and worship. Choir directors, musicians, cantors and singers joined members of the wider faith community for an afternoon of…
Anti-conversion laws in twelve states in India are being challenged by the National Council of Churches of India, which has filed a writ petition challenging the constitutionality of such legislation in the Supreme Court. Hindu nationalists often accuse Christians of using force and surreptitious tactics in pursuing conversions, often storming into villages and leading “reconversion”…