A pro-life group in Dublin’s Trinity College has criticised the visit of former Planned Parenthood Federation President, Cecile Richards, after she was invited to the university to receive an award for her pro-choice activism. Ms Richards was invited by the Philosophical Society to speak on campus and receive their Gold Medal of Honorary Patronage on…
Category: Irish News
Radical shake-up could see priestly training move to parishes
Under new plans being considered, men training to be priests would spend most of their time working in parishes rather than in the traditional seminary environment. It would see seminarians living in parishes with more time involved in active pastoral work alongside priests and lay pastoral workers and would, according to one bishop, give them…
Bishop hits out at ‘traditional Catholics’ for demonising Muslims
The bishop of Elphin has criticised those who identify as “Faith-filled” while spreading fear and mistrust of migrants and refugees, particularly those who are Muslims. Bishop Kevin Doran told this paper he has witnessed prejudice in Irish society and that there’s an “implication” that because people are Muslim they are more likely to be terrorists.…
EU president’s praise for Catholic teaching welcomed
A call from European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker for the EU to rediscover its Catholic roots is an invitation for politicians to bring Catholic values to bear in their work, Bishop Noel Treanor of Down and Connor has said. Addressing the spring assembly of COMECE – the European bishops’ conference – Mr Juncker spoke effusively…
Third petition as GPs ‘fight’ for conscience rights on abortion
Hundreds of Irish GPs have submitted a third petition to their representative body calling for a vote on abortion and freedom of conscience. Approximately 600 GPs hand-signed the petition calling for the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) to hold an extraordinary general meeting (EGM). Dr Orla Halpenny from Doctors for Life said that “members…
Friendly dialogue is key to progress, priest urges
While many Twitter users saw last week’s meeting of American Vice President Mike Pence with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and his partner as an in-your-face moment for the pro-marriage Christian politician, a Dublin-based priest has said the scene really shows gracious dialogue. Fr Bill Dailey, priest in Dublin’s Newman University Church, criticised Twitter users who were…
Pray for families of Greenvale tragedy – archbishop
The Primate of All-Ireland has asked for prayers and Christian outreach following the tragic deaths of three teenagers in a crowd crush outside the Greenvale Hotel, Co. Tyrone on St Patrick’s night. The three young people have been named as Lauren Bullock (17), a student of St Patrick’s College in Dungannon, and Connor Currie (16)…
Leadership style inspired by Church – top rugby coach
Faith isn’t a matter of praying for victory, Wales’s defence coach told a gathering of Catholics ahead of the Welsh rugby team’s 25-7 trouncing of Ireland last weekend. Speaking on ‘Faith in a Competitive World’ to over 120 people near Cardiff’s St David’s Cathedral, lifelong Catholic Shaun Edwards said that as a boy he had…
Parade offers ‘unreal’ joy in ‘tense’ Paris
Fr Aidan Troy, a priest who came to prominence shielding local schoolgirls from loyalist mobs in Belfast, has said families are terrified by conflicts between police and protesters in Paris, and that dialogue is the only way of ending the violence. Famous for his role in the Holy Cross Ardoyne protests in 2001, Passionist Fr…
Look beyond racist clichés, Irish-American cardinal urges
A prominent Irish-American cardinal has used St Patrick’s Day to hit out at anti-immigrant rhetoric, and called on Catholics to look beyond stereotypes to see people as they truly are. “In the 1870s, the code images for Irish people were drunken apes,” Cardinal Joe Tobin wrote on Twitter. “The same sort of calumny is used…