Limerick looks to Paris for inspiration Limerick diocese is looking to Paris for inspiration in dealing with the fall off in vocations. Bishop Brendan Leahy led a delegation of clergy from the diocese to the French capital to learn from their approach to the declining numbers of priests. “We decided to go to Paris to look at how parishes there…

Renua election candidates have accused Fine Gael of acting on false pretences by continuing to claim special allowances for Lucinda Creighton and other former party members. “Each political party gets a certain amount of money from the State in respect of each TD and senator to support the work of parliamentarians,” Ms Creighton’s husband Senator…

The Christian radio station, Spirit Radio has reached a weekly listenership of over half a million people, according to a new survey. To mark the station’s fifth year broadcasting it commissioned a poll carried out by Amarách Research which showed that listenership has doubled in the last two years. CEO of Spirit Radio, Rob Clarke…

The housing crisis should be a key issue in the general election, four Church-related social justice organisations have said. With family homelessness having risen by 90% last year and numbers on local authority waiting lists having more than doubled since 2005, the quartet claimed that many families and individuals are not benefitting from the national…

The Diocese of Palm Beach has rejected as “completely inaccurate” claims by an Irish priest that he was “frozen out” by the Catholic Church for raising safeguarding concerns about a fellow priest. The US diocese was responding to an article in the Irish Independent which reported on the case of Strabane native Fr John Gallagher…

Irish folk singer Dolores Keane has spoken of how her Catholic faith helped her in her fight against alcohol addiction. In an interview on the Meaning of Life with Gay Byrne, the singer explained that prayer had played a big part in her life growing up, but she then lost her faith until she sought…

Catholic schools should not be governed by league tables or results, but by mercy and inclusion, according to the head of the Catholic primary schools body. Fr Tom Deenihan, General Secretary of the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association (CPSMA), said the danger of focusing on league tables is that “we would value the educationally gifted…

Congratulations to Kathleen Magennis from Dublin, who won our Christmas crossword competition. The first prize is a fully inclusive pilgrimage for two to Lourdes in 2016 with Pilgrimages Abroad. The three runners-up who will receive a copy of The Francis Effect DVD are: Mrs P. Gray, Dublin 9; Kathleen Murray, Co. Cork; Margaret McNulty, Limerick.…

Bishop Brendan Leahy has said it would be “great” for Christian unity if Churches could agree on a common date for Easter. The Bishop of Limerick told The Irish Catholic it would be a “truly great thing to have a common date for Easter”. Noting that Pope Francis had suggested recently that he would like…

A well-known priest has accused the Irish hierarchy of lacking the “dynamism” that is needed to renew the Church here. Fr Paddy Byrne told The Irish Catholic that the bishops “have to account for their own dynamism and if they are going to question it at a parish level they must question it among themselves”.…