The Vatican is unlikely to invite Archbishop Diarmuid Martin to participate at a key summit on abuse due to be held in the New Year, one of the organisers has indicated. Pope Francis has called the heads of bishops’ conference from around the world – including Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin – to Rome in…
One of Ireland’s most iconic churches has re-opened to the public having been closed for visits due to acts of vandalism. The college chapel of the national seminary at Maynooth will re-open for four hours a week and members of the public are invited to come and pray or visit the historic neo-Gothic structure. While…
Care for victims has to be taken into account when priests credibly accused of abuse die, an abuse survivor and child protection campaigner has said. Speaking against the background of complaints from the Association of Catholic Priests that “proper funerals” are sometimes denied to priests who die while facing allegations of abuse, Mark Vincent Healy…
Families of the Ballymurphy Massacre are reliving the “harrowing” details of the killing of their loved ones as the inquest into their deaths continues, according to the parish priest of Ballymurphy. Fr Patrick McCafferty said that revisiting the tragedy for the victims’ families is “as raw today as it was almost 50 years ago”. This…
Aggressive nationalism is to blame for a rise in violence and other intimidation against religious minorities – and the West is failing to convert words of concern into action, according to a report by the charity Aid to the Church in Need. Assessing all 196 countries around the globe, the Religious Freedom in the World…
Priests located near ports play a “vital role” in combatting and identifying human trafficking and modern day slavery at sea, according to the Bishop of Ferns. Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Bishop Denis Brennan said that locally there is an effort made to encourage priests to mention human trafficking in their homilies, on local radio…
The International Union of Superiors General has called on women religious who have suffered abuse to come forward and report it to their congregations and Church and state authorities. “If the UISG receives a report of abuse, we will be a listening presence and help the person to have the courage to bring the complaint…
A Kenyan priest serving in Cameroon has been shot and killed by soldiers. Fr Cosmas Omboto Ondari was shot dead in Manyu, Cameroon, just days after the murder of another Kenyan priest, Jesuit Fr Victor-Luke Odhiambo, in South Sudan. According to the St Joseph Missionary Society Mill Hill Missionary’s Formation Centre in Cameroon, Fr Ondari,…
The diocese of Ossory is determined to move forward with plans to identify, recruit and train lay people to help run the diocese and local parishes according to the Coordinator of the Diocesan Pastoral Plan. After a conference of clergy and laity over the weekend Gemma Mulligan said there was a “really positive feeling that…
An effort by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Greece to start severing ties between the state and the Greek Orthodox Church, including taking priests off civil service payrolls, has opened up divisions within the church which has played a dominant role in the country’s life for centuries. Mr Tsipras and the head of the Orthodox…
Chai Brady
Greg Daly