The former governor of Mountjoy prison has said that sexual abuse in Irish prisons has become rampant due to overcrowding. Speaking with The Irish Catholic, former prison governor John Lonergan said that abuse is currently “widespread” among both male and female inmates due to cells being occupied by two, or sometimes three, people. “I’ve no…

Irish Jesuit theologian Fr Gerry O’Hanlon and former member of the Synod’s organising team said he left the Kilkenny Synodal Assembly on October 18th “strangely flat and disappointed,” noting that “the fire and elation of Athlone in 2022 were conspicuous by their absence.” He asks: “What had gone on? It is as if we were…

The worldwide head of the Dominican Order, Fr Gerard Timoner OP, visited Killacloghane Wood, Milltown, Co. Kerry, last weekend to mark the 372nd anniversary of the martyrdom of Venerable Fr Tadhg Moriarty OP, Prior of Tralee Abbey. Fr Timoner, the Master of the Order of Preachers, celebrated open-air Mass at the historic Mass Rock where…

While Mount Melleray Abbey may be empty after it was closed in January, a new hostel has breathed life into the 190 year old monastery. St Declan’s Way Hostel, settled beneath the Knockmealdown Mountains, along the holy path of St Declan, is a site for “the days between destinations,” catering to travellers who are looking…

The Pro Life Campaign hosted its annual national conference last weekend in the Gresham Hotel, Dublin, under the theme ‘Pathways to Progress – Working for a Pro-Life Future’. The event, chaired by broadcaster Wendy Grace, gathered hundreds of activists determined to keep hope alive for Ireland’s pro-life movement in the years following the repeal of…

“The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion – protected under Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – is not only under pressure, in many countries it is disappearing,” warned Regina Lynch, Executive President of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International and native of Co. Tyrone. Ms Lynch expressed…