DCU helps those in direct provision reach third-level, Chai Brady writes   After being tortured in Africa and escaping to Ireland, an asylum seeker’s prayers were answered when he was accepted into university on his birthday. Shepherd Machayah lives in a Direct Provision centre in Portlaoise, and was “very, very worried” that his application to…

Urgent international action must be taken to protect Christians as attacks including beatings and torture continue to rise exponentially in India, an Irish charity has warned. Knife attacks, extortion, battery and arson were just some of the crimes highlighted by Church in Chains, who have issued a briefing document to the Government detailing what is…

Only the Gospel can rescue our society, writes Colm Fitzpatrick   Focusing on our multiple global crises from environmental disasters and financial instability to political upheaval and security threats, Dr Michael Kirwan SJ, Adjunct Associate Professor of the Loyola Institute in Trinity College, Dublin, recently gave a thought-provoking lecture about the failures of secularism and…

Families are being encouraged to come together and discuss their ideas for Lent in order take on acts of prayer, fasting and almsgiving in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin.  Focusing on those three themes ‘Our KandLe Family Lenten Promises’ is a first for the diocese, and was inspired by the upcoming World Meeting of Families 2018 (WMOF).  “It’s about…

A series of Lenten events prepared for the WMOF are set for the Tralee pastoral area in the Kerry Diocese.  The Lenten series will open on Monday February 19 at 7.30pm in St John’s with an evening entitled ‘The Christian Vision of the Family’ with Bishop Kevin Doran of Elphin speaking at the event.   The second session, on Monday February 26 at 7.30pm in St John’s parish will…

Over 250 winners of the Pope John Paull II award attended a ceremony in Belfast, with the theme of the celebration being ‘Family’, in anticipation of the World Meeting of Families 2018.  The director of Living Youth, Pauline Dowd, invited the gathering of 500 young people, parents, award leaders and friends to join in the prayer of the World Meeting…

Martin O’Brien meets Fr Edward O’Donnell, a priest happy in his ministry and his own skin   Fr Edward O’Donnell, first ever Catholic ecumenical canon in Belfast’s Protestant cathedral, parish priest in one of the North’ s most well to do areas, former private secretary to the late Bishop Cahal Daly, noted homilist, and proud…

The basic Christian task is to help people live fully, Bishop Brendan Kelly tells Greg Daly   Few issues are as pressing or more commonly raised in discussions about the state and future of the Church in Ireland than declining numbers of clergy, with the Association of Catholic Priests’ claim that the Irish Church is…