The Christmas holidays weren’t just a time for family, friends and recreation for one group of Irish people who spent the week after St Stephen’s day 7,000 kilometres from home, building a dairy in Burkino Faso. Flying out on December 27 and not returning to Ireland until January 6, Cavan optician Paul Connolly and seven…
Catholics and people of goodwill should be “missionaries for the cause of life”, Armagh’s Archbishop Eamon Martin has said in a new year pastoral message that has been seen as the Church’s first major intervention ahead of next year’s expected referendum on abortion. “To serve human life is to serve God,” he said, quoting Pope…
Charities have said that the 39% increase in postal rates on a card or letter posted within Ireland is having an effect on the sale of Christmas cards which generate revenue. Earlier this year, An Post increased the cost of a posting a letter within Ireland from 72c to €1. “Orders from fundraising groups are…
A group of children and their families used the Christmas season to help reinforce the message that Christ is at the centre of the festival by distributing ‘baby Jesus’ figures to families to place in their homes. The project called ‘Jesus has been left out’ aims to put Jesus back to the centre of Christmas…
Christmas in the Redemptoristine monastery in Dublin is a thing of joy. “It’s a huge event in the community,” Sr Lucy, Superior at the monastery tells me and I can feel the sheer happiness oozing from her. “We are like an extended family, though only God could have put us together. It is a beautiful…
Common bodily posture taken by a mass congregation is a sign of the “unity of the members of the Christian community”, according to Fr Danny Murphy from the National Centre of Liturgy in Maynooth. The secretary of the National Centre of Liturgy was answering questions from The Irish Catholic about the widespread divergence in parishes…
As Poland votes to outlaw Sunday trading, Susan Gately wonders whether Ireland might follow suit Late last month, Polish MPs approved a bill aimed at phasing out Sunday trading by 2020. The bill which has been passed in the lower house of Poland’s parliament, restricts Sunday shopping to the first and last Sunday of the…
Almost 10,000 people are reported as missing to Gardaí every year. On Wednesday (6th December) a commemorative ceremony in Farmleigh, Dublin marked National Missing Person’s Day. This year’s theme focused on DNA matching, a technique which just days earlier, helped to identify the remains of Joe Reilly, missing since 2006. In 2000 following the disappearance…
As church gate collections take place across the country this weekend for the Society of St Vincent de Paul, the National SVP vice-president for members has reminded the public not to forget donations for teenagers. “Many of the families we visit at this time of year are desperately trying to cater for their small children,”…
Cost seen as barrier to new translation Despite ongoing complaints from some parishioners about some of the texts of prayers used at Mass across the country, there are no plans to review it in Ireland or return to an earlier translation of the Missal, The Irish Catholic can reveal. This is despite the fact…