Ecumenism is more important than ever now, Cardinal Anders Arborelius tells Greg Daly “We were of course very honoured and happy that the Holy Father could come here, and I think this has some historical reasons,” Cardinal Anders Arborelius tells The Irish Catholic of Pope Francis’ decision to visit the Swedish city of Lund last…
An award-winning novel is accused of getting Reformation England profoundly wrong, Greg Daly reports Cambridge University’s Dr Richard Rex believes the award-winning bestseller Wolf Hall contains “some pretty major blunders” for “a work which aspires to a high level of historical accuracy”, but is quick to stress his awareness that historical fiction requires a…
The Irish Church has done little to counter the dramatic negative effects of secularism on younger Catholics’ understanding of their faith, Baroness Nuala O’Loan has said. She warned that people who have been preparing children for First Holy Communion and Confirmation “have been aware for quite a while that the wider cultural shift away from…
Irish missionary work in Venezuela is worth celebrating even in troubled times, Greg Daly learns This summer, Ireland’s Sacred Heart Missionaries (MSC) celebrated the 50th anniversary of their mission in Venezuela, but compared with 1992’s silver jubilee, the mission’s golden jubilee celebration was a low key affair. “We had a Mass first,” explains Fr…
Pope Francis has given his approval for an extraordinary ‘month of mission’ in 2019 to reinvigorate and renew the missionary spirit and action of the Church. October 2019 was chosen for the month of prayer because it will be the 100th anniversary of Pope Benedict XV’s 1919 apostolic letter, Maximum Illud on the propagation of…
In the last two weeks 220 young people from two Irish diocese collected the Pope John Paul II Awards (JPII) for work in their parish and community. The Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo, assisted Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan in awarding 133 students from schools across the diocese of Waterford and Lismore. Archbishop Okolo thanked the…
Missionary legacy inspired WMOF Pope Francis chose Ireland to host next year’s World Meeting of Families to make sure Irish Catholics would take part in a ‘revolution’ promoting marriage and family life, one of the Pope’s key advisors has said. Dublin-born Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who heads the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, said…
Some stories make us uncomfortable. Mine is one of those stories, but I will tell it nonetheless, because I am a woman whose child was conceived in rape, and women like me will no longer be silenced. I was travelling on business, staying in a little hotel in a college town, when it happened. It was…
For the first time faith-based organisations and missionary congregations have united to call on the Government to an increase Overseas Development Aid (ODA) in Budget 2018, which is due to be announced next week. This coordinated effort has brought together the support of six of Ireland’s well-known faith-based organisations – CBM Ireland, Tearfund Ireland, Team…
Originating in the Middle East in what is now Turkey, the Church of Antioch was founded by Sts Peter and Paul and is where the word ‘Christian’ originally comes from, according to the New Testament. This developed into the Antiochian Orthodox Church. There are three parishes, in Belfast, Dublin and Kerry. The small community of…
Greg Daly
Chai Brady
Mags Gargan