The Government has been urged to streamline the process for vetting people to work in schools amidst a huge backlog in the safeguarding system. Changes in the vetting process, to ensure that people are safe to work with children, led to a “very large upsurge” in applications for such clearance, according to Seamus Mulconry General…
On Saturday morning, Rome woke up to discover its walls and sidewalks festooned with anti-Pope Francis posters asking, “Where’s your mercy?” Under a dour shot of the Pontiff, the poster cited crackdowns on groups and individuals perceived as conservative-to-traditionalist. A few hours later, I got a phone call from a veteran Italian Vatican writer I’ve known for…
The wedding ceremony of a Donegal couple has become an internet sensation after singer Daniel O’Donnell led other singing stars in a musical ‘flashmob’ from the altar in honour of the newly-weds. In a move unexpected by either Patricia Swan or new husband Neil, after celebrant Fr Pat Ward had sung the opening line of…
The blasphemy law proves politically useful, writes Paul Keenan If politics is the art of ‘spin’, a masterclass of the art was offered to the world this week from Pakistan. Amid an angry row surrounding five abducted secular human rights activists, the nation’s Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan intervened on the issue of Pakistan’s…
A Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Dublin has questioned the awarding of the freedom of Dublin to former US President Barrack Obama. In a message on social media reacting to news that Lord Mayor Brendan Carr had proposed the honour during a City Council meeting, Fr Pádraig Ó Cochláin of St Canice’s in Finglas…
An Irish author whose exposé on the crimes of infamous US abortionist Kermit Gosnell has become a nationwide bestseller in America has attacked the New York Times for failing to feature the book on its respected Bestseller List. Documentary maker Phelim McAleer, who is co-author of Gosnell: The Untold Story of America’s Most Prolific Serial…
Staff Reporter The Irish Times newspaper has been forced to apologise to respected columnist John Waters for an article over two years ago that was “open to the interpretation” that he was homophobic. A note in the February 6 edition of the Irish Times, referred to “an opinion column in the edition of January 20,…
Leinster parishioners have submitted hundreds of complaints to RTÉ about how the Eucharist was ridiculed in the national broadcaster’s flagship chat show. More than 900 letters have been sent from parishes in Laois, Carlow, and Kildare, The Irish Catholic has learned, following a discussion on The Late Late Show in which the Eucharist was referred…
Gráinne McElwee, who previously worked with the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools in the diocese of Down and Connor, with her nephew Finn after becoming the newest postulant with the Adoration Sisters on Belfast’s Falls Road.
A leading homelessness campaigner has expressed reservations about the proposal for the State to set up a so-called ‘friendly vulture fund’ to aid people experiencing mortgage distress. Such a charitable organisation that would buy distressed loans from hard-pressed homeowners and allow them to stay in their homes would be a key step in tackling Ireland’s…
Greg Daly
John L. Allen Jr.
Paul Keenan
Courtney McGrail