A ‘Blessing of the Roads’ ceremony will be incorporated into Easter Sunday ceremonies for many Co. Mayo parishes next weekend, with priests supporting an awareness campaign to reduce road deaths. The campaign from the Road Safety Office of Mayo County Council, supported by both local Catholic and Church of Ireland leaders, will see clerics blessing…

The Pope’s decision to appoint a Chilean bishop accused of turning a blind eye to abuse has been described as “baffling” and “disappointing” by the sole Irish member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Francis appointed Bishop Juan Barros to head the small diocese of Osorno. As a young man, Bishop Barros…

Mairead McKibben, Year 14 student, takes a selfie with Archbishop Charles Brown and fellow students during his visit to Assumption Grammar School, Ballynahinch, Co. Down. The nuncio rededicated stained glass windows from Cardinal Cahal Daly's private oratory, which were donated by his niece, Máire Daly, who is Head of RE at the school.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has been accused of “confusing” the media in relation to the Church’s stance on same-sex marriage ahead of the referendum next month. Catholic activist and editor of the Catholic Voice newspaper Anthony Murphy insisted the Archbishop of Dublin would “have to accept some responsibility” if the referendum is passed “for failing to…

Archbishop Eamon Martin has made a new appeal for information to help find the remains of the six people known as “The Disappeared”.   The primate made the appeal when he celebrated Palm Sunday Mass in Armagh with family members of the victims who were killed and secretly buried by republicans during the Troubles. Archbishop…

Seminaries need to better prepare future priests for living a celibate life according to a senior psychiatrist. Prof. Patricia Casey, who said she personally “had no difficulty with married priests”, rejected suggestions that compulsory celibacy was too difficult for priests. “Priests have done it for many years and it seems to me that only in…

The leader of the Knights of St Columbanus has warned that the proposal to amend Article 41 of the Constitution is “an unjust attack on the family founded on marriage”. Supreme Knight Barry MacMahon said the proposals laid down in the Government’s Children and Family Relationships Bill “depart radically from the natural moral law” and…

President Michael D. Higgins and his wife Sabina with Sally O'Neill, a leading human rights advocate and Trócaire’s Head of Region for Latin America, based in Honduras, at a lunch to mark her retirement and honour her contribution to overseas development and human rights over almost four decades.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin will lead Good Friday procession

Four Irish families travelled to the UN in Geneva to join with other families, medical experts and policymakers at a conference at the United Nations in Geneva to launch a global campaign aiming to end the use of the term 'incompatible with life' and to seek better care for families whose children are diagnosed with…