The two Bishops of Derry are undertaking a 30-mile walk this week in honour of the city’s patron, St Columba, and to promote reconciliation within their community. Bishop Donal McKeown and CofI Bishop Ken Good begin their journey today at St Columba’s birthplace at Gartan in Co. Donegal and their destination is St Augustine’s Church…

An Irish priest working in Paris has said that living under the threat of terrorist attacks has become the new reality for the people of France. Fr Dwayne Gavin, chaplain to the Irish Community in Paris, told The Irish Catholic that there was a sense that the latest terrorist shooting was “inevitable” and “it’s going…

A leading canon lawyer has warned that prenuptial agreements could invalidate marriages, as farmers have indicated their support for such agreements being introduced into Irish law. Research from Macra na Feirme conducted at livestock marts over recent weeks has found that 72% of surveyed farmers believe prenuptial agreements should have a place in Irish law,…

Abdi Tari Ali Letter from Somalia I was on my knees fixing IV drips to patients’ arms as they lay on the ground in a makeshift treatment centre in the town of Luuq in Gedo Province, southern Somalia. I have treated cholera before, but I have never seen anything like this in terms of volume…

EXCLUSIVE Michael Kelly and Martin O’Brien Young Catholics need encouragement to become officers says Chief Constable The North’s most-senior policeman has called on Catholic leaders to do more to encourage young members of their community to consider becoming a police officer. In an exclusive interview with The Irish Catholic Chief Constable of the Police Service…

Three seminarians of the Pontifical Irish College, Rome, were ordained deacons on Easter Tuesday by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, at the Church of Saint Alphonsus on the Via Merulana in Rome. Rev. James Daly (57), originally from Midleton, Co. Cork, a former parish pastoral worker and teacher, and Rev. Robert Smyth (32), from Knocklyon…

John Reid Fianna Fáil is hopeful that the persecution of Christians in the Middle East will be condemned as a genocide, in a new Dáil motion due to be put before the house before the summer. Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Fianna Fáil’s spokesman on Foreign Affairs, Darragh O’Brien, said that he is in regular…

A pilgrimage in memory of Sr Clare Crockett, who was killed in an earthquake in South Amercia in 2016, will raise funds to rebuild the school where she was killed. Sr Clare, a member of the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother, died a year ago this week trying to evacuate children to…

Staff Reporter Bishop Francis Duffy has expressed his shock and sadness at desecration of a Longford church. It was discovered on Easter Sunday morning that St Michael’s Church, Shroid, in Longford parish was broken into and the tabernacle stolen. The church had not been in use over the Easter period when all parish ceremonies took…

A return to ‘structured dialogue’ between the Government and Church leaders would be of great value as society becomes more pluralist, it has been claimed. The Lisbon Treaty places an obligation on the EU to have a regular dialogue with religious and non-confessional organisations on EU policies and legislative proposals. Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern set…