The principal of Cross and Passion College Ballycastle welcomed the “wonderful opportunity”, which will allow the secondary school to expand while maintaining its Catholic ethos. Planning permission has been granted for a shared campus between the Catholic school and Ballycastle High School, a local Church of Ireland school in the Co. Antrim town. Principal Paul…

There has been anger across the political spectrum in response to the cancellation of confirmations, communions and baptisms. Tánaiste Leo Varadkar revealed that the services were to be banned in response to a question during a press conference early last week. Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín TD stated that his office has been “inundated” with calls…

Hospital chaplains in the North have described the conferring of the George Cross to the NHS from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II as “a great honour”. The George Cross was awarded to the NHS to mark decades of public service, Buckingham Palace announced on Monday. It is the highest award for gallantry and heroism in the…

Several young people were chased away from Clonard Monastery in Belfast by locals after they were said to be interfering with a statue and trying to dislodge a stone cross. Fr Peter Burns CSsR, Rector of Clonard Monastery, told The Irish Catholic that on Monday evening young people were “trying to interfere with” a statue…

Author and political commentator Douglas Murray said he’s been “struck” by the conversion to Catholicism of some of his friends recently. “I’ve been very interested in recent years watching contemporaries of mine who have seen through, looked at, stared at some of the same problems that I have and have come to conclusions of their…

It was a busy weekend on the Reek, Fr Charlie McDonnell of Westport Parish said, as Masses and Confessions were available for pilgrims for the first time in two years. Fr McDonnell said it was “heartening” to be able to provide religious facilities for people doing the pilgrimage. “Normally we’d only have one day to…

The numbers of women from the North choosing to terminate their pregnancies has dramatically increased since the procedure was made legal last year. As of June 11, the Department of Health had received 1,624 notifications of abortions, despite the lack of a full and formal commissioning of the procedure in the region. A further 371…

Across Ireland there were up to 55 local ‘Rallies for Life’ on July 3, in which pro-lifers urged the public and TDs to rethink abortion legislation in view of the impact of abortion. The local rallies took place in lieu of the national pro-life march due to the pandemic. Organisers have said that the events are important…

In their annual reports, chaplains in Ireland’s 12 prisons have called for new recruitments, as services are squeezed due to the “intense needs” and the often “challenging” nature of the work. While the appointment of a head prison chaplain has been a “great boost”, the 2020 chaplains’ reports highlighted ratios as high as one chaplain…