Cathal Barry speaks to JMB General Secretary John Curtis about the challenges facing Catholic schools The JMBAMCSS is quite the mouthful. Better known as the JMB, the Joint Managerial Body Secretariat of Secondary Schools represents the interests of all voluntary secondary schools in the country. “The JMB provides services and advice to schools on a…

Ahead of next week’s elections to the Assembly, the northern bishops have issued a pastoral reflection. They are asking Catholics to think about key issues like the right to life, refugees, education, climate change and poverty before deciding who to vote for. Fundamental to our duty as citizens is the exercise of the precious freedom…

The deaths of seven French monks 20 years ago are as mysterious as their lives are inspirational, writes Greg Daly Three years before he was killed in 1996, the Trappist monk Fr Christian de Chergé wrote a letter which Milan’s Cardinal Angelo Scola has described as “one of the most beautiful pages ever written in…

Author Jon M. Sweeney tells Mags Gargan about how St Francis’ legacy was almost destroyed by his best friend One of the first of many surprises when Pope Francis was elected head of the Church was that he chose the name Francis, after St Francis of Assisi, because he was “the man of poverty, the…

The Sisters of Bon Secours are an international religious congregation of Catholic women based in seven countries who bring to the world “Good help to those in need”. The congregation was founded by a group of 12 women, led by Josephine Potel, who came together in Paris in 1824 to nurse the sick and the…

Mags Gargan speaks to Pallottine students about their decision to join the priesthood 2016 is a year of celebration for the Pallottine Fathers and Brothers in Ireland. Two of their six students, Charles Lafferty from Co. Derry and Liam O’Donovan from Co. Kilkenny, will be ordained deacons in June and two more, Rev. Brendan McCarrick…

Mags Gargan talks to the Director of Vocations Ireland about how religious life is once again finding its voice Religious life is changing, and has to change, but the call from God will always remain, and it is the role of Vocations Ireland to help people to discern that call. Vocations Ireland is an umbrella…

Sr Julie Buckley SMR had a successful career in nursing and a boyfriend who wanted to get married. She says becoming a religious sister was the last thing on her mind and yet she joined the Marie Réparatrice Sisters in 1991 and has “never regretted one minute”. The Marie Réparatrice Sisters were founded in the…

Greg Daly meets the head of London’s new Catholic research institute “If we’re serious about the New Evangelisation, questions about the transmission of religious faith, or disaffiliation or lapsation – which is the book I’m working on at the minute – then we have to pay very serious attention to sociology,” says Dr Stephen Bullivant,…

All relationships require work and commitment. It’s the same with prayer, writes Fr James Martin SJ Fr James Martin SJ Not long ago a young man who sees me for spiritual direction said his prayer life was unsatisfying. After asking what he meant, I asked the obvious question: “How often are you praying?” In response, he…