When Covid-19 reached Ireland six years ago, this country responded with a solidarity that surprised even ourselves. We closed our doors, cancelled our funerals, queued in the rain and checked on neighbours we had never spoken to, all in the name of protecting the vulnerable and saving lives. We can debate the necessity of some…

Ireland has a “unique opportunity” to remind the EU of the core Christian values that led to it being founded after World War II, the Catholic hierarchy has said ahead of Ireland assuming the EU presidency for six months starting on July 1. After their summer quarterly meeting last week, the bishops discussed what this…

The Bishop of Down and Connor took time to visit international staff at a Belfast hospital, after the homes and businesses of immigrants were viciously targeted last week in his diocese. “You are not alone,” the Bishop told nurses and other staff after a wave of orchestrated violence in which families were forced from their…

It is becoming ever more challenging to find priests to fill vacancies in parishes, the Bishop of Achonry and Elphin, Dr Kevin Doran, has said. He is urging parishes to build up administrative and lay support to ease the workload of priests who often have to minister to several parishes at once. Speaking to Shannonside…

A process of consultations with Bishops and faithful is expected to begin in the coming months to ascertain the appetite for several proposals for unions (or amalgamations) of dioceses in Ireland. The main consultations, this paper believes, are concerning the proposal that Clogher Diocese would amalgamate with Kilmore and Cloyne with Cork. However, it is…

Priests gathered at the annual Maynooth Union reunion have been urged to cherish and renew the friendships at the heart of their ministry, in a warm address that drew on Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical on artificial intelligence. Welcoming alumni back to St Patrick’s College for the gathering — held every year since the Union’s…

Bishop Niall Coll has announced the following clerical appointments in the Raphoe Diocese, to take effect on July 11 and 12. These appointments mark Bishop Coll’s first major parish changes as Bishop of Raphoe, and see several priests moving to new roles in the diocese. Very Rev. Denis Quinn, PP, will retire as PP, Carrick.…

Over 100 leading EU law and policy experts were in the West of Ireland recently for the European People’s Party (EPP) Group’s Summer University – the group to which Fine Gael belongs. Fine Gael MEP for the North West, Maria Walsh, said she was delighted to welcome the group to the West of Ireland and…

A Co. Laois nun remembered for helping generations of young women in Portlaoise find work is to be honoured with a permanent memorial at her former convent. Mother Columba, the late principal of the Presentation Convent in Portlaoise, has been described as “a legend” for her efforts to secure jobs for pupils in the civil…

In preparation for the Synodal Gathering this coming October, members of the Pioneers have been invited to include discussions on the seven Irish Synodal Pathway Working Group themes in their meetings, Fr Robert McCabe, Central Spiritual Director for the Pioneers, told The Irish Catholic.  Fr McCabe said there are some questions he is sharing with Pioneer members…