The national seminary at Maynooth is to clearly separate the seminary environment from the wider university community The Irish Catholic understands. In a move that will be seen in some quarters as a nod to the past when seminary life was completely separated from the outside world, it is believed that the changes are…

  Coinciding in a year when Ireland will play in the European Football Championships and will host international athletics teams training for the Olympics in Britain, organisers of the International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) are incorporating sports into their programme and facilitating fans attending the Congress to keep up-to-date with sporting highlights. ”Wouldn’t it be interesting…

  A group of Christian churches in Co. Westmeath is hosting a conference next week focusing on how Christians can offer a solution to Ireland’s economic problems. Christian Voices Together is an initiative launched last year by the Christian churches in the Mullingar area to support people in the community who have been adversely affected…

  As he prepares to travel to ”beautiful Ireland” as Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown of Aquileia has paid tribute to the country’s legacy of missionaries. Delivering a homily at St Patrick’s Augustinian Church in Rome last weekend, the newly ordained archbishop recalled the enduring impact of Irish missionaries around the world, not least in…

A four-day Christmas charity fast by representatives of the Catholic and Protestant Churches in Wexford town has exceeded expectations by raising €43,000 in just four days despite the increased financial pressures in the country. Fr Jim Fegan, administrator of Wexford cathedral, and Georgina Rothwell, joining him for the first time in the absence of Reverend…

  A priest exonerated of sexual abuse has returned to full ministry in his Co. Down parish. Fr Sean Cahill stepped aside from Castlewellan-Kilmegan parish in February 2010 after an allegation was made against him. However, following an investigation by the PSNI, Fr Cahill was cleared of any wrongdoing in August. On New Year’s Day,…

  A national lay initiative which grew out of the Government’s decision to close Ireland’s embassy to the Holy See is set to grow in 2012 with a high-profile public meeting with political leaders scheduled later this month beside the Dáil. The group Ireland Stand Up describes itself as ”one of several national lay initiatives…

  Tyrone GAA manager Mickey Harte has said that the power of prayer has helped his family to carry on over the past year since his daughter Michaela was murdered while on honeymoon in Mauritius. Just days earlier, Michaela had married John McAreavey who was to discover his bride dead on January 10 in their…

  An Irish Jesuit based in the Philippines for 30 years said the country needs action more than compassion as relief programmes there continue to deal with the devastation of flash flooding caused by a tropical storm. Typhoon Washi struck from December 16 to 18, ravaging the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan on…

  Pope Benedict XVI has appointed an Irish Franciscan missionary to lead a diocese of nearly 400,000 Catholics in Honduras. Fr Michael Lenihan, a native of Abbeyfeale, Co. Limerick, will head up the newly-formed Diocese of Le Ceiba in the Central American nation. He was ordained a member of the Franciscan Order (OFM) in 1980…