Pender Island is part of the island chain that includes Vancouver Island off the city of the same name; Pender is a relatively small island of three thousand souls. These 3,000 doubles in summertime, when people return to their summer homes, made accessible by car ferry. This large population of people of all faiths and…
The final four standing in the race for the Liam McCarthy Cup will lock horns this weekend as the championship reaches its penultimate stage. In truth, hurling desperately needs two high-quality semi-finals to inject some life into what has, for long periods, been a surprisingly underwhelming summer. For years the Munster Championship has been regarded…
“Her contribution to helping vulnerable women and families in Cork and development of services that now provide continuing support to vulnerable people will be remembered for ever,” was the foremost sentiment about Sr Colette Hickey in consideration of her recent passing at age 108, holding the title of Ireland’s oldest person for a couple of…
Pastoral development worker Frances Rowland on responding to the changing needs of her diocese In conversation with The Irish Catholic, pastoral development worker Frances Rowland shared stories of collegiality, openness, and formation from the Diocese of Kerry, highlighting the changing needs of parish life in the diocese she has worked in for over 20…
If the diocesan websites of Ireland are to be believed, Ireland has only one diocesan chancellor who is not a priest. This is Sr Mary Lyons JCD, the chancellor of the Archdiocese of Tuam. She is a rare exception to what appears to be the norm in the dioceses and archdioceses of Ireland. In some…
This Saturday, Tipperary’s minor hurlers will travel to the banks of the Shannon to face neighbours Limerick in the All-Ireland Minor Hurling Final, a fixture that evokes memories of a decade ago, the last time the two counties met in the decider at the grade. Ten years have passed since the Munster rivals clashed in…
Ireland is a country where the old Catholic world is never entirely out of sight. It lingers in holy wells, ruined monasteries, pilgrim paths, roadside shrines, Mass cards, family prayers, sacred caves and the ever-present Breastplate of St Patrick. For many, these are fragments of a culture past its prime rather than signs of something…
In a remarkable feat of leadership, Derry stood at the centre of the world stage on the feast of The Immaculate Heart of Mary last Saturday, June 13. Creating history, 6,000 faithful reverently followed Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament past Derry’s iconic walls, spiritually leading 550 parishes and 15 prominent shrines across six continents,…
“Love for others, and especially for the poor, is made concrete by promoting justice,” wrote the late Pope St John Paul II in Centesimus Annus. For the charity Mary’s Meals, this means feeding over three million school children across sixteen of the world’s poorest countries every day. By providing meals to children, the organisation also…
Recently, Pope Leo welcomed the new female Archbishop of Canterbury to the Vatican. The optics of the meeting bring the Catholic Church’s male-only priesthood into focus though it can never really be said to be out of focus among progressive Catholics. It is difficult to make a case for the theological rationale behind the Church’s…