Family fun picnic in Elphin is moment of welcome for asylum seekers
WMOF 2018 Despite at times inclement weather, the Family Picnic Fun Day in Lough Key Forest Park last Sunday (April 22) was a winner. “One of the lovely things about the west of Ireland is that people are so used to the weather that they come out anyway, because [otherwise] you’d never come out,”…
Social media transparency a priority before referendum
A bill on social media transparency, currently at committee stage, should become law before the Referendum on the Eighth Amendment, according to its sponsor, Fianna Fáil’s James Lawless, TD. “On social media at the moment anyone can do anything they want,” the Kildare North TD told The Irish Catholic. “It is positive that people can…
Crowds brave snow, ice and cold to pray for life
Thousands of people defied arctic temperatures on Sunday to pray the rosary at Mass rocks for ‘Life and Faith’, organisers have said. “On the east coast, the crowds were decimated,” Kathy Sinnott told The Irish Catholic, adding that most gatherings went ahead elsewhere. In Dublin, a small number gathered at the Papal cross, while others…
Nuns ‘on the run’ from Mother’s House
Eucharist is essential food for the daily journeys of a group of sisters, writes Susan Gately The Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother, dressed in white habits, arrived in Roscommon town last May. “People are very open and friendly. They meet us on the streets and beep their horns at us because most…
New feast keeps Mary at the centre of Church life
A leading theologian has said that the Pope’s decision to institute a new feastday of Our Lady as ‘Mary, Mother of the Church’ is a way of underlining the importance of avoiding institutionalism in the Church. At the weekend, the Pope announced that the new feastday will be celebrated on the Monday after Pentecost. According…
Public prayer seen as vital for preserving human life
Praying in public is of vital importance to the outcome of the referendum on the Eighth Amendment, according to campaigners. “In the battle for life, we have to do the canvasing and everything else, yes, but we are not going to win without prayer because it is very much a spiritual battle,” pro-life advocate Kathy Sinnott told…
Leading Islamic scholar rejects Irish Imam’s support for Eighth Amendment Repeal
One of Ireland’s leading Islamic scholars has rejected claims by an Imam that Muslims can vote to remove constitutional protection for unborn children. “Abortion is an act of murder and who can sanction murder?” Dr Ali Selim from the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland told The Irish Catholic. “If you give people permission to do that basically…
Conversation connects people in new ways
As the three of us sat in the Prosperous, Co. Kildare parish centre, briefly sharing on the topic of ‘family’, during the buzz session of the first parish conversation on Amoris Laetitia, I thought to myself: “All human life is here.” For there we were – three people – a young single man, a widow…
Movie on Irish nun killed in earthquake to premier in Derry
A movie about the life of an Irish nun who died in an earthquake in Ecuador will be launched on the second anniversary of her death in her hometown Derry. All or Nothing tells the story of Sr Clare Crockett who entered the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother in 2001, aged 18. From 2006…