Limerick diocese is launching preparations for the World Meeting of Families next year with a special ‘Family Fun Day’ in Mary Immaculate College. Everyone in the diocese is invited to the free event on October 8 so “that there is a real experience of the whole diocesan family coming together for a joyful moment”. From…
Category: Irish News
Nationalist flags at funeral ‘desperate attention-seeking’
A statement about the draping of an INLA-linked flag over a coffin at a Co. Derry funeral was intended purely to attract attention, an SDLP MLA has said, describing the episode as “disgusting”. Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) member David Ward’s funeral in Dungiven saw his coffin draped with the Irish flag and the INLA-linked…
‘Watered-down Catholic education will attract no one’
The Archbishop of Dublin has warned against schools watering down Catholic education and called on the whole faith community to get involved in the debate on patronage, as it is “too important to be left to the polemicists and bureaucrats”. Celebrating Mass on Monday evening at the Church of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom at…
RTÉ doc to highlight work of chaplains
An uplifting observational series starting on RTÉ this week will highlight the essential guidance, support and inspiration provided by chaplains. The Ministry of Hope series follows three Irish chaplains over a whole year, as they reach out to people at their moments of greatest vulnerability, to counsel and care for them. Margaret Sleator was one…
Bishop criticises Direct Provision as unsatisfactory
The Direct Provision service for asylum seekers is “very unsatisfactory” and the system needs to be more respectful according to the Bishop of Clonfert. Bishop John Kirby, of the Bishops’ Council for Emigrants, spoke at a Mass in London celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Irish Chaplaincy Service in England, set up as Irish priests…
Pro-choice children’s minister ‘extraordinary’ and ‘ridiculous’
It is “ridiculous” for the State’s Minister for Children to be in favour of permitting the abortion of unborn children, according to the member of the Audit Committee of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs who resigned last week. Speaking to The Irish Catholic, former Deloitte Ireland chairman John Pittock said when Minister Katherine Zappone…
Pope has admitted abusive priests were moved about, says Collins
The most striking thing about Pope Francis’ meeting with the Vatican’s child protection commission last week was that he admitted that priests accused of abuse were moved about by their bishops, child protection campaigner and former commission member Marie Collins has said. At one point in his first ever meeting with the entire Pontifical Commission…
Lourdes pilgrims to shun Ryanair after cancellation
An official of the Oblates Youth Service said they would be “cautious” booking with Ryanair again after their 79 strong group was stranded for hours in a French airport coming home from Lourdes. Over the weekend, after the Lourdes volunteers had been assisting the elderly and the sick for a week, the group’s flight…
TD’s claim that priest wrote Constitution is ‘madness’
Leading legal and historical scholars of Bunreacht na hÉireann have rejected claims by an independent TD that the Irish Constitution was written by a priest. Speaking in the Dáil, Dublin South-Central TD Joan Collins said: “The Constitution is not fit for purpose and needs replacement. It was written by a Catholic priest in the 1930s…
Return Nobel Peace Prize demands Irish missionary
An Irish missionary based in Myanmar has called for Burmese leader, Aung San Suu Kyi to return her Nobel Peace Prize because of her refusal to condemn the “genocide” of Rohingya Muslims in her country. Columban Fr Neil Magill, who has been teaching in Myanmar for 11 years, described the “brutal persecution against the Rohingya…