The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have offered to house a family of refugees at their retreat centre in Cork. Fr Michael Curran MSC, leader of the Myross Wood community, is currently working alongside the Irish Red Cross to put the suggested relief plan into action. Myross Wood House has already been inspected by an…

Pope Francis’ decision to switch Vatican oversight for shrines and sanctuaries to the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelisation has been welcomed by the priests who run Ireland’s principal shrines. Until this weekend, shrines and sanctuaries came under the jurisdiction of the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy, but on Saturday, April 1, the Pope transferred them…

A local parish priest has expressed concern at a non-religious Passion play with a female Jesus, due to be played out across the streets and civic spaces of Ballyfermot and Cherry Orchard in Dublin. On Holy Saturday Brokentalkers theatre company is presenting a re-imagining of the Passion of Christ through a confrontation between a homeless…

Irish bishops have been working with their British counterparts to protect the rights of Irish people in Britain, following the country’s decision to leave the European Union. Liam Allmark, public affairs manager for the Bishops Conference of England and Wales, told The Irish Catholic that Bishop Nicholas Hudson, an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of…

Following the launch of the American version of Dancing with the Stars, TV tough guy Mr T has said the plans to knock out his dancing competition the same way he beat cancer – with God on his side. Best known for starring in The A Team and Rocky III, Mr T has revealed that…

Irish parishes will need to adjust to the reality that the declining number of vocations to the priesthood here will mean more African priests taking up the mantle, Ireland’s former papal nuncio has said. Speaking to The Irish Catholic as he prepared to leave for his new posting in Albania, Archbishop Charles Brown said that the decline…

Ireland will see its first Blessed in 17 years with the date set for the beatification of Fr John Sullivan SJ in May. The beatification of Fr Sullivan will take place in St Francis Xavier’s, Gardiner Street, Dublin, on Saturday, May 13. Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregations for the Causes of Saints will…

Seriously ill children from rural Ireland could die en route to the proposed new national children’s hospital in the heavily-congested city centre of Dublin, a bishop has warned. Bishop Phonsie Cullinan, the Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, is backing a grassroots campaign to urge the Government to move away from the current proposed site at…

A motion calling for the title ‘Saint’ to be reinstated in all ward names at Wexford General Hospital has been passed by Wexford County Council. Fianna Fáil Cllr John Fleming urged the HSE to reinstate the ‘proper title’ of the individuals after whom the wards had been named. The wards were renamed after the hospital…

A group campaigning for the abolition of Ireland’s constitutional protections for the unborn returned a grant of $24,999 to the US-based Open Societies Foundation after being directed to do so by the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO), The Irish Catholic has learned. According to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, the Abortion…