The repeated failure to publish annual clerical changes is having the effect of hiding how the Archdiocese of Dublin is struggling with serious manpower shortages, clergy have said. 2017 will be the second successive year when diocesan changes have not been made public, concealing the extent to which sick and retiring clergy are not being…

A parliamentary committee to consider Ireland’s constitutional protections for unborn children appears to be a pro-abortion “propaganda exercise”, two committee members who are considering stepping down have said. Highlighting how among the ‘expert witnesses’ addressing the committee was the New York-based Centre for Reproductive Rights, which has been fundraising in the US to overturn Ireland’s…

Bishop Kevin Doran has welcomed two votes at Fianna Fáil’s Ard Fheis in support of Ireland’s constitutional protections for the unborn, saying that they have sent an important message about the right to speak of the right to life. Party members voted by three to one to back a motion urging the party “to oppose…

National Evangelisation Teams (NET) Ministries Ireland will supply the highest number of missionaries ever to work in local parishes and schools around Ireland. The 40 young people were all commissioned by Bishop Alan McGuckian. Nine are from Ireland, 15 are from America, 11 from Canada, four from the UK and one is from Australia. Conor…

Catholic addiction counsellors and organisations are warning that unregulated online gambling is causing children to become problem gamblers in later life, in a phenomenon that could escalate. Young people of any age can access gambling websites with the tick of a box that ‘proves’ they’re 18. Games can be played online for free but players…

Greg Daly & Mags Gargan Members of two of Ireland’s best-known monastic communities followed in their forerunners’ footsteps on Monday night when Storm Ophelia left the monks without electricity and praying by candlelight. “We were lucky, really,” Roscrea Abbey’s Bro. Malachy Thompson told The Irish Catholic, explaining that the Offaly Cistercian community had been on…

RTÉ are currently looking for people to take part in a Christmas themed programme that asks ‘what does Christmas mean to you?’ People are invited to express what brings the meaning and wonder to Christmas for them whether it’s presents, food or family. “Or is it about giving rather than receiving, and celebrating the coming of…

Concerns have been raised after it emerged the Church of Ireland (CoI) is a shareholder in the holding company behind NAMA, with a priest saying he would hate to think that the Church would profit from peoples’ misfortune. In an answer to a parliamentary question Finance Minister Pascal Donohue revealed that the Representative Church Body…