The Rose of Tralee has insisted that she has always felt welcome at Mass despite her homosexuality. Maria Walsh, who won last year’s pageant, said she has “never been turned away” from a Catholic Church and has a “really great relationship” with the parish priest in her hometown of Shrule in Co. Mayo. The 28-year-old,…

A weekend retreat for consecrated men and women was held in All Hallows College in Dublin as part of the celebration of the ‘Year for Consecrated Life’. Sr Briege McKenna opened the retreat asking “If we added together the years of consecrated life lived by all of us here in this room, how could we…

The group Faith in Marriage Equality (FIME), which campaigned for a ‘yes’ vote in the same-sex marriage referendum,  has described a recent meeting with Archbishop Eamon Martin as a “positive step to open dialogue with the Catholic Church”. Dr Richard O’Leary of FIME said the group was “positively received” by the archbishop at his residence…

A priest among a group of hillwalkers from the Diocese of Ferns who survived the devastating earthquake in Nepal was “astounded” by people’s generosity in helping to raise over €170,000 for relief efforts in the country. Fr Tom Dalton was one of eight people from Wexford who had just landed in Nepal when the earthquake…

Corrymeela, Northern Ireland’s oldest reconciliation community, will celebrate 50 years of peace-making with a unique summer festival from Friday, July 31 to Sunday, August 2 at its centre in Ballycastle, Co. Antrim. Aperture is a festival of diversity, arts, debate, politics, faith, music and celebration. There will be panel discussions on human rights, the Good…

Social media site Twitter exploded over the weekend with users posting about what it was like growing up as a Catholic. The hashtag #growingupcatholic was trending in Ireland for a time over the weekend, while tweeters posted fond memories of their youth. Most people tweeted about their experiences at Mass, the sacraments and religion class…

The priest behind the decision to cancel the Reek Sunday pilgrimage for the first time in living memory, has said the unprecedented “treacherous” weather conditions put lives at risk. Fr Charlie McDonnell, administrator of Westport parish, first got a call at 5.15am on Sunday morning from the custodian of the chapel on the summit advising…

Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako has said that the tiny Christian community of Iraq are hopeful that Pope Francis will make a visit to the troubled land. “We need his presence among us, so that he can give us so much strength, so much hope, not only for Christians but for everyone,” the…

An un-named Jesuit priest was the top bidder in a fiercely-contested auction of stained glass church windows made by the renowned Harry Clarke Studios. The Dublin-based priest paid €31,000 – 10 times the estimate — for a single stained glass panel depicting ‘Saint Francis Xavier preaching in the Orient’. The priest was also the successful…

Staff reporter Readers of The Irish Catholic are invited to the launch of a new study guide to the Pope’s encyclical on the environment. Trocaire’s Executive Director Éamonn Meehan will launch the book authored by theologian Fr Eamonn Conway and The Irish Catholic journalist Cathal Barry in Dublin next week. The key document acts as…