School communities across the country have given their backing to Catholic education, as a highly-publicised pilot scheme on converting Catholic schools to secular ones is finding little push for change following “rigorous” consultation. Even Taoseach Leo Varadkar has indicated no desire for change in his own constituency. After dozens of Catholic schools and hundreds of…
Category: News
Call for urgent action on new climate report to stop ‘devastation’
Ireland’s political leaders must “urgently act” on a new report on climate change which highlights numerous options to reduce harmful emissions in order to help the poorest, Church-charity Trócaire has said. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a major report on Monday which brings the latest evidence on solutions to climate change…
Senior Church figures rebuke German bishops over same-sex union blessings
A synod of German bishops overwhelmingly approved Church blessings of same-sex unions and unions between divorced and remarried Catholics, but the move has faced harsh criticism from some members of the Catholic hierarchy who have accused the German bishops of abandoning the Faith. German Cardinal Gerhard Müller and American Cardinal Raymond Burke rebuked the German…
GAA stars ‘leaned on’ Faith after their mother’s death
GAA Galway legends Ollie and Joe Canning have opened up about how their Faith helped them through their mother’s death last year. Growing up in a Catholic household, going to Mass every weekend and saying the Rosary, they said the family has a strong Faith. The brothers appeared on the Tommy Tiernan Show over the…
Fianna Fáil TD decries lack of coverage of Christian persecution
Cavan-Monaghan TD Brendan Smith has said that the global persecution of Christians is “not an issue that gets near enough widespread coverage as it should” and that he was shocked by the contents of the recent Church in Chains Global Guide. Speaking to The Irish Catholic newspaper, Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Smith said that he…
Minister for Health receives report on review of abortion laws
A review of the State’s abortion laws has been compiled and sent to Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly. Barrister Marie O’Shea was appointed last year as the independent chairwoman of the review, and she has submitted her final report to Minister Donnelly. A spokesman for Mr Donnelly said he would consider its findings and bring…
US ‘The Office’ star blasts Hollywood’s ‘anti-Christian’ bias
Actor Rainn Wilson, best known for his role as Dwight in the hit TV series The Office, recently took to Twitter to criticise Hollywood’s “anti-Christian bias”. Wilson’s tweet responded to a depiction of a cannibalistic Christian preacher in a new episode of HBO’s popular zombie series The Last of Us, starring Pedro Pascal. “I do…
Latest stats show sharp decline in NI married couples
There has been a sharp decline in the number of people who are married in the North of Ireland from 61% in 1971 to 46% in 2021, according to the latest statistics. The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency released the data this week. It found that 693,000 adults (aged 16 and over) are married…
Welcoming migrants our solemn duty, says Archbishop Farrell
Welcoming migrants and refugees to Ireland is our “solemn duty and noble tradition”, said Archbishop Dermot Farrell in his St Patrick’s Day homily. He hit back at those who “stir up hostility” and called out the lie that “some have claimed that they are motivated by a desire to defend our Christian heritage”. The archbishop…
Abuse survivor: Inquiry must include Church of Ireland schools
An abuse survivor from a Church of Ireland (CoI) setting has said the Government’s scoping inquiry must include CoI schools in order to identify other victims. Kerry Lawless told The Irish Catholic that the scoping inquiry must not only focus on Catholic religious schools, saying: “If there are cases in Protestant schools, then they need…