Parishioners in Derry and Tyrone donned their hiking books this month as they faced a daunting ascent in the Donegal mountains. As a fund-raiser for Derry’s St Eugene’s Church, Glenock, the parish of Newtownstewart, Co. Tyrone, organised a sponsored climb of Mount Errigal.  The two groups of climbers rose to the challenge.  The “early birds”…

Tens of thousands of young faithful descended on Bosnia and Herzegovina last week to celebrate Medjugorje’s Youth Festival which is now in its 30th year. It comes after a ban on pilgrimages organised by Catholic dioceses and parishes was lifted under a papal decree on May 12. Earlier this year Pope Francis gave the Vatican…

A group of about 50 young people took to the streets of Germany this summer on a pilgrimage said to be an “integral part” of youth ministry in their diocese. Living Youth, developed by the Diocese of Down and Connor, brought the young pilgrims to Bavaria from July 28 to August 3. According to the Director…

Among the pilgrims on Croagh Patrick last month was a Belgian who’d walked three months to get there, writes Greg Daly   Santiago de Compostela is a fashionable destination for Irish pilgrims year-in-year-out nowadays, with a record 7,548 Irish pilgrims collecting their ‘Compostela’ from the cathedral offices last year. In the Camino’s medieval heyday, however,…

Irish clergy in the Philippines served God’s people despite all manner of brutal threats, writes Jean Harrington   It was April 1973 and the island of Mindanao in the south of the Philippines was descending into a war between the Muslim population and their Christian neighbours. No one was safe, not even the priests who…

Little Nellie – Special Feature Chai Brady hears about a community’s intense 
desire 
for Little Nellie’s sainthood Even though she died over 100 years ago Ellen Organ, best known as Little Nellie of Holy God, continues to inspire devotion among a significant number of people in both Ireland and abroad, with a growing number calling…

Little Nellie – Special Feature Serious questions are being asked by Little Nellie’s devotees about access to her grave. The path is overgrown and difficult to reach with several obstacles in the way – making it almost impossible for an elderly or disabled person to access the cemetery. When the site, formerly owned by the…

Little Nellie – Special Feature Despite an extensive investigation carried out by canon lawyers, clergy and lay people, Bishop-Emeritus of Cork and Ross John Buckley was not convinced that the evidence collated on Little Nellie warranted sending to Rome. He acknowledged that there was a huge interest in Little Nellie among the faithful in his…

Starting in Tipperary and ending in Waterford, hundreds of pilgrims have been enjoying the 100km-long St Declan’s Way over the summer. Broken-up into five stages and starting in Cashel, 300 people have taken on the challenge each month since April. At the end of this month, pilgrims will tackle the final leg of the trek…

A trip to Limerick has proved inspirational, writes Bagdora’s Bishop Vincent Aind   Ireland and India may have only two things in common in the past: British Rule and the Education System. For the rest Ireland is quite different, or so it appeared to us a group of visitors from one little corner of India…