Pictured launching the 2016 Trócaire Lenten Campaign are Jessie Rogers (2) from Celbridge, Co. Kildare and Luka Farrell (3) from Longwood, Co. Meath. For the fi rst time the Trócaire box features Trócaire supporters from across Ireland who are fi ghting for justice for the world’s poor by fundraising, campaigning and volunteering. Photo: Mark Stedman/Photocall…
In what is being hailed as the biggest ecumenical development in decades, Pope Francis is to meet with the Russian Orthodox Patriarch on February 12 during a two-hour stopover on the way to Mexico. Describing the first ever meeting of a Pope and Russian patriarch, as “an event that, in the ecumenical journey and in…
A parish priest leading a campaign to keep community hospitals open in three rural towns in Co. Donegal has criticised Government policy for “failing rural Ireland”. Fr John Joe Duffy, parish priest in Stranorlar described plans to remove long-term beds, or residential nursing beds, from the community hospitals in Lifford, Ramelton and Stranorlar for a…
Attacks on a UN base in Timbuktu have “almost certainly” been perpetuated by an Islamist group, according to the secretary general of the Episcopal Conference of Mali. Claiming that Tuareg rebel groups are committed to peace agreements signed with the government, and that there is no fighting between them and either the Malian army or…
Archbishop Eamon Martin pictured with a group from Greenhills College, Drogheda who were among 1,000 students who attended the Seinn concert in Dundalk last week, together with teachers, parents, clergy and representatives of Boards of Management from the Archdiocese of Armagh to celebrate Catholic School Week.
Staff reporter The Bishops’ Council for Education has insisted that the ethos of Catholic schools will not be altered despite the Government rescinding Rule 68. Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan last week announced changes to the Rules for National Schools, specifically the rescinding of rule 68, which stated that “a religious spirit should inform and vivify the…
Rolling out the proposed new curriculum on religion and beliefs in faith schools would be a “gross contradiction”, a leading educationalist has warned. Prof. Eamonn Conway of Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, told The Irish Catholic that the proposed curriculum would amount to “schooling pupils, at best, in an agnostic understanding of their own religion”. “To…
An innovative Lenten project in the Derry diocese has received huge interest with thousands of orders coming from Irish dioceses and abroad. The Lenten scratch cards, or calendars, are produced by Thornhill Ministries as a catechetical tool and a novel way of helping people to engage with the Lenten journey. This is the third year of…
McArthurs prepare for appeal hearing A Belfast couple prosecuted for refusing to bake a cake promoting same-sex marriage have said the controversy has strengthened their faith in God and their married life. Daniel and Amy McArthur, who run Ashers Bakery, were speaking this week as they prepared to mount an appeal against an earlier court…
Archbishop Eamon Martin has urged the Government to “go out of its way” to support the family, especially the “uniqueness of the faithful and exclusive union between a married man and a woman and their children”. “In doing so, the State is not only caring for its citizens, but it is also strengthening and nurturing…
Mags Gargan
Courtney McGrail
Cathal Barry
Greg Daly