Most Dublin parishes are struggling to stay afloat and many are not sustainable in the long term, The Irish Catholic understands. It comes after the publication of the first of two sets of accounts the diocese will issue this year bringing unprecedented financial transparency. A source told The Irish Catholic that based on current figures…

Thousands are expected to descend on the Jesuit church on Dublin’s Gardiner Street this weekend, as Ireland hosts its first ever beatification ceremony. Fr John Sullivan SJ, a Catholic convert, will be named Blessed on Saturday in a ceremony led by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and attended by Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for…

Staff Reporter The Bishop of Kildare & Leighlin has said he was “honoured” to take part in the Darkness into Light walk at the weekend to raise awareness of suicide. Beginning at 4.15am in towns and cities across the world, over 150,000 people walked from darkness into dawn light in a movement against suicide which…

Staff reporter Rev. Earl Storey has been appointed as the new editor of the Church of Ireland Gazette. He replaces long-serving editor Canon Ian Ellis who is stepping down after 16 years in the role. Rev. Storey, who was ordained for the Church of Ireland in 1982, will take up the new role on June…

Archbishop Thomas White RIP The death has occurred of a former priest of the Diocese of Ossory and Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Thomas A. White. The former Papal Nuncio to Rwanda, Ethiopia and New Zealand, passed away on Sunday, May 7. Archbishop White studied for the priesthood in St Kieran’s College, Kilkenny, and later in Rome…

A Co. Tyrone priest has given his phone number out from the church altar at a teenagers’ funeral, in a direct appeal to young people in need to seek help. Fr Daniel McFaul told mourners at St Mary’s Church in Killyclogher that Elle Trowbridge was “a young and beautiful lady…who was caught in the live…

Staff Reporter Marie Collins’ first training event for Vatican officials since her resignation from Pope Francis’ child protection commission was “encouraging” and “very positive”, the leading advocate has said. Mrs Collins announced her resignation in February from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, citing frustration with obstructive curial officials. Despite this, she joined…

The Vatican department that tackles the cases of priests accused of abuse has accelerated its handling of such cases, the head of Ireland’s child protection board has said. Teresa Devlin, CEO of the National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC), told The Irish Catholic that she believed the development was…

Government demands that schools reduce uniform costs to ease parents’ financial pressures have been criticised as reactive and unacceptable micro-management by the president of the body which represents faith-based schools in Ireland. Speaking at the AMCSS/JMB annual general meeting in Killarney, Fr Paul Connell said the planned changes would do “little or nothing to reduce…