The Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) has estimated it will receive more than quarter of a million requests for help this year, as Christmas approaches. With calls for help already at almost 200,000 to date, the society expects calls at the end of this year to well exceed last year’s record of 230,000 calls.…
A Mexico school run by the Augustinian order threw themselves into Irish food and culture, making hurleys out of bits of plastic and sampling a full Irish breakfast, all witnessed by Irish friar Fr Colm O’Mahony OSA. Fr O’Mahony was invited to the Mendel Institute in the city of Aguascalientes, Mexico, to join them in…
A “world famous and world renowned” scholar and librarian, Donegal-born Fr Leonard Boyle OP, was recently remembered and celebrated in Rome by his Irish Dominican brothers on the centenary of his birth in 1923. Speaking to The Irish Catholic newspaper, Provincial for the Dominican Order in Ireland, Fr John Harris OP, said that “the most…
Kildare and Leighlin receives lay funding boost Proceeds from the writings of a deceased Laois parish priest will go towards training lay people for ministry in counties Laois, Kildare, Offaly and Carlow. After he was presented with a cheque for €7,000 by members of the Cummins family, from Newbridge, Co. Kildare, Bishop of Kildare and…
Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, say that they feel “crushed” by soaring unemployment caused by the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and the disappearance of pilgrims. Speaking to The Irish Catholic they also expressed fears for their continued presence as custodians of the holy places saying many Christian families are planning to leave the…
Nobody is making moral appeals to Hamas in Gaza, because it is “incapable of moral responsibility, being a terrorist organisation that would prefer every Gazan die provided every Israeli died too”, according to an Irish Jesuit theologian based in the US. Fr Séamus Murphy SJ, an expert in ‘just war’ doctrine and Associate Professor of…
The Irish Synodal Pathway needs to be “much longer” than the five years initially proposed, the synod’s steering committee has told the Irish bishops conference. The Irish synod, launched in March 2021, was slated to end in 2026 with a national gathering, after five years of consultation and prayer. However, shortly after the Irish bishops…
An engagement between an expert invited to the Oireachtas to discuss euthanasia and a senator has been sharply criticised following a video clip of the exchange reaching millions of people online, with concern expressed about the integrity of the process. The exchange saw internationally renowned law boffin Prof. Dr William Binchy being described as a…
Lecturers and staff at Mary Immaculate College (MIC) are “frustrated” over a continued “vacuum” of information regarding a proposed structural alignment with University of Limerick (UL), The Irish Catholic can reveal. Correspondence sent to staff following union engagement with MIC President Prof. Eugene Wall and seen by this paper reiterated the union’s view that it…
Bishop Alan McGuckian has called for the release of Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and Catholic Jimmy Lai, who has been imprisoned for nearly three years. The bishop of Raphoe, along with nine other bishops from eight countries, signed a petition calling on the “government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to immediately and unconditionally release…
Chai Brady
Ruadhán Jones