Parishes in the Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnois need to prepare for a future without parish priests, Bishop Francis Duffy has warned. In a letter entitled ‘Sustaining our Faith Community’, Dr Duffy said while the diocese currently has 53 clergy serving its 41 parishes, by the time children baptised this year are confirmed the diocese…
Expressions of support for Marie Collins from members of the Vatican’s child protection commission are a “validation” for her position, the former commission member has said. Mrs Collins stepped down last month from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors after almost three months on the body of which she had been a founder…
A motion calling for the title ‘Saint’ to be reinstated in all ward names at Wexford General Hospital has been passed by Wexford County Council. Fianna Fáil Cllr John Fleming urged the HSE to reinstate the ‘proper title’ of the individuals after whom the wards had been named. The wards were renamed after the hospital…
Eight Christian aid workers kidnapped in South Sudan have been freed unharmed. The eight members of the US-based Samaritan’s Purse charity were reportedly snatched by armed gunmen on March 13 in the central Mayendit area. Despite subsequent claims by the county’s military that the aid workers were being held for ransom, no such demand was…
Ireland’s most senior Churchman has expressed the hope that an end to the political impasse in the North will be the legacy of Martin McGuinness who has died aged 66. Archbishop Eamon Martin also paid tribute to Mr McGuinness as a “man of prayer”. The archbishop said that he had “no doubt” that Mr McGuinness’…
The Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations has urged the international community to forge an enduring peace for Syria. As the conflict in the Middle Eastern nation reached its sixth anniversary in March, Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic told a sitting of the UN in Geneva that “six years of ongoing conflict indicate the failure…
The “heartbroken” family of Derry footballer Ryan McBride is being supported in their grief by the community’s “spirituality of presence”, according to their parish priest. The hugely respected Derry City captain died suddenly on Sunday when he went for a nap after training. He leaves his father Lexie, sisters Colleen, Siunin and Caitlain, his grandfather…
The latest news is as grim as any emanating from the bloody battlefields of the Middle East currently dominating airtime with the international media. But this is Africa and, more specifically, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Thus, as embedded journalists in Iraq warned us to prepare for the worst as mass graves turned up amid…
Taoiseach’s Enda Kenny’s St Patrick’s Day comments in the White House have been welcomed by chaplains to the Irish community in the US. Speaking alongside US President Donald Trump the day before St Patrick’s Day, Mr Kenny said of the saint: “He too of course was an immigrant. And though he is, of course, the…
A Chaldean Catholic church whose image announced the fall of Mosul in 2014 has been liberated. When so-called Islamic State (ISIS) swept through Iraq in June 2014, a ‘before-and-after’ picture of the Church of Our Mother of Perpetual help in Mosul emerged showing the crucifix topping the building replaced by the black banner of the…
Greg Daly
Mags Gargan
Paul Keenan