Staff Reporter Marie Collins’ first training event for Vatican officials since her resignation from Pope Francis’ child protection commission was “encouraging” and “very positive”, the leading advocate has said. Mrs Collins announced her resignation in February from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, citing frustration with obstructive curial officials. Despite this, she joined…

The Vatican department that tackles the cases of priests accused of abuse has accelerated its handling of such cases, the head of Ireland’s child protection board has said. Teresa Devlin, CEO of the National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC), told The Irish Catholic that she believed the development was…

Government demands that schools reduce uniform costs to ease parents’ financial pressures have been criticised as reactive and unacceptable micro-management by the president of the body which represents faith-based schools in Ireland. Speaking at the AMCSS/JMB annual general meeting in Killarney, Fr Paul Connell said the planned changes would do “little or nothing to reduce…

Pope Francis’ visit to Egypt last week may have been one of the shortest overseas trips so far in his papacy, but it may prove one of his most important. Friday morning saw the Pope arriving at Cairo airport and being officially welcomed to Egypt at the Heliopolis presidential palace, before joining the chief imam…

Mags Gargan and Greg Daly ‘Resentment’ an inaccurate reporting Church leaders have been urged to stand up to negative bias in the media, after a recent spate of ‘Church-bashing’ during emotive debates around abortion. This comes after Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said there was a “justified resentment” among priests, religious and committed Catholics at being “unfairly…

Fine Gael to push ahead on referendum The visit of Pope Francis for the World Meeting of Families is set to be overshadowed by the Government’s likely push for a referendum on abortion next year, senior Church sources have indicated to The Irish Catholic. Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar – the man tipped by many…

A Belfast church is set to open a soup kitchen service for the city’s homeless, in response to Pope Francis’ call to reach out to those in need with concrete acts of mercy. St Patrick’s Church in Donegall Street hosted a Mass of Hope for Belfast’s homeless community on Wednesday and will begin distributing food…

Limerick’s diocesan day of lay-led liturgies has been a big success, according to early reports. The morning of Tuesday, April 25, saw lay-led liturgies of the word in every Limerick parish, while diocesan clergy were away on in-service formation. “There were about 150 to 200 people in the cathedral,” Noirín Lynch of the Diocesan Pastoral…

Staff reporter Irish priests have welcomed Pope Francis’ decision to celebrate a Mass for modern martyrs while wearing the stole of a martyred former student of the Irish College in Rome. “I think it’s very significant,” Fr Gerard Magee, chaplain at Queen’s University Belfast, said of the Pope’s decision to wear Fr Ragheed Ganni’s stole…

McGuinness praised in New York as man of peace Martin McGuinness was “a man of history, a man of destiny, a man of peace”, according to Msgr Robert Ritchie, who celebrated the late Deputy First Minister’s month’s mind Mass on Monday in St Patrick’s Cathedral, New York. Delivering a eulogy at the service, in which…