Unless there’s an “overnight surge in vocations” more religious orders will relinquish parishes to dioceses, according to the PP of Gardiner Street Parish in Dublin which will soon become part of the Pro Cathedral parish. Speaking to The Irish Catholic Fr Niall Leahy SJ said the Jesuits’ decision regarding Gardiner Street Parish is part of…

Anthony Hopkins who played Pope Benedict XVI in the Oscars nominee The Two Popes (2019), will play famous Baroque composer George Frideric Handel in a new biopic. The story will follow Handel during the summer of 1741 when he wrote the choral work Messiah. The oratorio was premiered in Dublin on April 13, 1742, and includes…

To celebrate five years since the passing of Fr Tony Coote, a walk of remembrance is being organised for the ‘Camino de Santiago’ in Northern Spain. Dates and details are still to be announced. Fr Coote died on August 28, 2019 due to motor neurone disease. To support research and awareness, the priest took part…

Veritas Communications is in discussions with a number of potential buyers and part-buyers since it announced its wind-down by the end of the year. The announcement by the company which is owned by the Catholic bishops was made in February and it is believed that since then the company has been inundated with expressions of…

Speaking in response to the verdict made by Northern Ireland’s Court of Appeal last week, overruling a previous judgment by the High Court which characterised religious education in the North as not being sufficiently “objective” or “critical”, Aontú Deputy Leader, teacher and advocate for Faith-based education Gemma Brolly said she welcomed the news but there…

Addressing the annual meeting of the Joint Managerial Body, the umbrella organisation for faith-based secondary schools in Ireland, Professor Eamonn Conway of the University of Notre Dame Australia said that three out of ten teachers under 29 years of age report not “witnessing” to Catholic ethos at all or doing so only to a limited…

EXCLUSIVE A lack of formation and Canon Law are “major roadblocks” to embedding synodality and co-responsibility in Ireland, Irish dioceses have said in new submissions ahead of the October listening sessions in Rome. Additionally, there is “complacency and paralysis” when it comes to laity assuming responsibility locally, despite the “pressing need” to involve laity in…

The Archbishop of Dublin has warned that the Church can’t be reduced to buildings, particularly at a time when preaching the Gospel is needed more than ever before “in the history of the Church in Ireland”. Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Archbishop Dermot Farrell said that “the Church can’t be reduced to buildings, or even…

The number of Catholic weddings made up just 35% of all those taking place in the State – the lowest recorded figure since the year 2000 – with civil ceremonies (32%) catching up quickly, marriage statistics for 2023 show. The proportion of Catholic weddings fell from 40% in 2022, while the percentage of civil ceremonies…

Those who challenge modern certainties are “taken to the edge of the cliff”, the Abbot of Glenstal said in a homily at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), encouraging openness to all knowledge in education at a time when free-speech debates rage on college campuses. Fr Brendan Coffey OSB also railed against the “irrational fear” behind a…