Catholic schools and religious education experts have criticised State proposals to remove religious education as a core element in Ireland’s primary school curriculum. Under a consultation document issued by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, no space is explicitly set aside in school curriculum for religious education, in contrast to the current curriculum, introduced…
An iconic statue of the crucified Christ has been reinstated outside a church on Belfast’s Falls Road. The 20-foot ‘Passion of Christ’ figure fell from the cross outside St Paul’s Church in February. Clerics and parishioners acted quickly to move the statue and used a trolley to take it from the scene. A spokesperson for…
Pupils from Blarney Street CBS in Cork City Centre taking part in an Easter egg hunt in aid of Trócaire.
Marriage and family outreach movements with international aspects have been urged to promote next year’s World Meeting of Families. Speaking at a gathering of 17 groups convened by the Irish Bishops’ Conference’s Council for Marriage and the Family, Fr Tim Bartlett, Secretary General of the World Meeting of Families 2018, thanked the assembled representatives and…
Priests could have a role in sharing sensitive information which would help families left grieving after the Troubles, the Primate of All Ireland has said. Archbishop Eamon Martin told a Mass for the Disappeared in St Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh, there are people on all sides who carry secrets, “memories of their own involvement in…
Pro-life campaigners in the North have called on people to push the SDLP to explain why they have suspended three councillors who abstained from voting in a motion that called for women not to be intimidated by “harassment” from anti-abortion campaigners. The Belfast City Council vote, calling for councillors to condemn any such harassment across…
Fr Paul Farren (second right) with Pope John Paul II Award participants from the Diocese of Derry who performed a Passion Play in St Eugene’s Cathedral in Derry at the weekend.
Over 1,000 young people, who are currently participating or have received the Pope John Paul II Award in the last ten years, gathered at Knock Shrine on April 5 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the award. When the award was launched in Derry in 2006 by the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazarotto, it was…
Kerry diocese celebrates Ceiliúradh na nOg Over 350 students, representing 14 post-primary schools from throughout the diocese, attended the Ceiliúradh na nÓg celebration day in the Brandon Hotel in Tralee, Co. Kerry. The students presented their projects which they carried out over the academic year. The purpose of Ceiliúradh na nÓg is to develop the…
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made waves this week with a blistering statement about reports that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had used chemical weapons in a recent attack on a rebel stronghold, calling it “brutal, unabashed barbarism.” Tillerson’s rhetoric raised eyebrows, given that just last week, during a visit to Turkey, Tillerson had said…
Greg Daly
Courtney McGrail
Mags Gargan
John L. Allen Jr.