Padre Pio relics to visit Down and Connor The Diocese of Down and Connor will bring the relics of St Padre Pio to the diocese from November 6-11 to mark 20 years since he was declared a saint. Pope St John Paul II canonised Padre Pio in 2002, drawing crowds of an estimated 300,000 to…

What’s the point of Christmas without Christian symbols like a crib, Dublin-based priests have asked after the cancelling of the traditional nativity scene outside the Lord Mayor’s residence in Dublin. The live animal crib, which has been a fixture outside the Mansion House since 1995, will be replaced by a “winter wonderland” in plans announced…

A new prayer campaign hopes to encourage people to come forward and provide fresh information about the so-called ‘disappeared’ – people who were abducted, killed and secretly buried by paramilitaries in the North. Fr Joe Gormley of Derry Diocese, who works closely with the families who are desperate to give their loved ones the dignity…

A 22-year-old man appeared in court this week charged with stabbing a priest six times in his home in Waterford. Indian priest Fr Bobit Augusthy of the Order of St Camillus, originally from Kerala, was hospitalised after the attack in his house which he shares with two other priests near Waterford Regional Hospital in Ardkeen.…

Staff Reporter US scholar of the ancient world, Thomas Cahill, best known for his lauded How the Irish Saved Civilization, died at the age of 82. Mr Cahill’s wife, Susan, said the cause of death was a heart attack. How the Irish Saved Civilization brought to widespread popularity the theory that Irish monks preserved western…

We must respond to the “urgency” of the Gospel to create a new expression of the Faith in a secularised cultured, said the new Bishop of Ossory. Bishop-elect Niall Coll said Ireland has a “long history of Christian witness” and “we have to believe the Holy Spirit is with us, that we’re going to do…

Senator Rónán Mullen has expressed his worry that Ireland’s trade relationship with China is “compromising our Government’s vigilance” on human rights issues China stands accused of. These comments come as Government officials confirm that a Chinese “police station” in Dublin has been ordered to close. A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs said no…

Irish Benedictine monk and former prior of Glentsal Abbey Fr Placid has died aged 104 in Limerick this week. Born Michael Murray in Lismore, Co. Waterford in 1918 he made his simple profession in 1937 and was subsequently sent to Belgium where he studied philosophy and started studying theology. His community in Belgium fled the…