Pressure is mounting on RTÉ this week after it was revealed that over 2,000 complaint letters have been sent in response to the ‘haunted bread’ incident on The Late Late Show. Fr Gerard Ahern of Abbeyleix, who has led the growing letter campaign to RTÉ since a guest on the flagship programme went unchallenged when…

The closure of Cistercian College Roscrea has been stalled as a result of a passionate campaign by parents and past pupils. Following the revelation that the Cistercian order was to close the boarding school due to financial pressures, a ‘Save CCR’ group has formed with the intention of sourcing funding for the school’s future. Speaking…

The current scale of humanitarian need is “unprecedented” warned Trócaire, as it launched Ireland’s largest annual fundraising campaign this week. The bishops’ overseas aid agency is targeting humanitarian relief for up to one million people with its Lenten campaign, which will see schools, communities and parishes coming together over the next six weeks to pledge…

Our Lady of Fatima statue tours Ireland A centennial pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima is making a tour of Ireland during the month of March. The statue of one of six commissioned by the Alliance of the Holy Family Int’l (AHFI) and the Human Life International – Austria, and blessed by Pope Francis…

School chaplaincy and pastoral support teams have a key role to play in protecting Irish adolescents’ mental health, it has been claimed. Speaking to The Irish Catholic ahead of the 2017 Self-Harm Awareness Conference, held in Dublin’s Aviva Stadium yesterday (March 1) Capuchin Bro. Martin Bennett said the conference’s focus was on adolescents. “Mental health…

Ongoing difficulties forced survivor’s hand The sole Irish member of the Pope’s child protection commission has stepped down, three years after joining the Vatican body. Dubliner Marie Collins, one of two abuse survivors who were founder members of the advisory body in March 2014, is understood to have informed the commission of her wish to…

The Iona Institute and the Pro Life Campaign (PLC) are among a number of life advocates set to address the Citizens’ Assembly next month. Following its own written submission to the Assembly as part of the consultation process around the gathering, Iona confirmed that it had received a formal invitation to make a 10-minute presentation…

A new community of the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother will be established in Roscommon at the invitation of the Bishop of Elphin. Last week Bishop Kevin Doran visited the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother Cantabria in the north of Spain to finalise the agreement with Mother Ana Maria…

The Presentation Brothers are hosting a series of Lenten talks which offer practical tips for living faith in Ireland today. The ‘Monday at the Monastery’ series of talks returns to the Presentation Brothers’ house in Glasthule, Co. Dublin for four Mondays during Lent. The series has proven popular since it began in 2013, as part…

President Michael D. Higgins meeting with Cardinal Jaime Ortega during his offi cial visit to Cuba last week. President Higgins told The Irish Catholic he was “delighted” to meet with the cardinal and they had “an hour long discussion on current events, local, regional and global”. Cardinal Ortega was Archbishop of Havana for 35 years…