Just 1.2% of applicants for admission turned down by schools in Dublin were on the basis of no baptismal certificate, a new survey by the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association (CPSMA) has shown. Prompted to undertake the study amid an ongoing debate around the so-called ‘baptism barrier’ and Minister for Education Richard Bruton’s proposed consultation…
Senators calling for a prayer room in a newly-refurbished Seanad could take inspiration from the success of the dedicated chapel for Catholics in Britain’s Houses of Parliament, the duty priest there has said. Appointed in 2009 following a request from Catholic MPs to the Diocese of Westminster, Fr Pat Browne – a native of Rathoath…
Killaloe’s Bishop Fintan Monahan has welcomed an ambitious new plan to revive rural Ireland and said the Church will do its best to be proactive in maintaining rural life. The bishop’s comments come following the announcement of ‘Realising our Rural Potential: Action Plan for Rural Development’, a €60 million plan intended to revive Ireland’s rural…
Students from the choir of St Mary’s College, Derry, singing at an ecumenical service at First Derry Presbyterian Church during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz Braña has been named as the new prelate of Opus Dei. The body’s former Auxiliary Vicar thus becomes the third successor to Saint Josemaria, and replaces Msgr Javier Echevarría, who died on December 12. Msgr Braña was born in Paris in 1944 to a Spanish family in exile. He graduated from the…
Irish bishops felt encouraged to face challenges by their Roman encounter, writes Michael Kelly It’s easy to dismiss the traditional ad limina visits that bishops make to Rome as out-dated. In an age of email and instant messaging, it hardly seems necessary for bishops from all over the world to travel to Rome every five…
Pope Francis has called for people to “wait and see” what newly-inaugurated US President Donald Trump does in his leadership role and not rush to judgement. Amid a weekend of protests worldwide and angry denunciations on both sides of the political divide in America, Pope Francis’ was a voice of calm as he warned against…
The Catholic bishops of Venezuela have called on the government of President Nicolas Maduro to set a date for elections as the nation continues to sink into economic disaster. Following a plenary meeting of the hierarchy, the bishops issued a pastoral exhortation, ‘Jesus Christ, the Light and the Way for Venezuela’, in which they state…
Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta has voiced his sadness at negative reaction to the Maltese bishops’ new guidelines on the implementation of Amoris Laetitia. Following the January 13 issuing of Criteria for the Application of Chapter VIII of Amoris Laetitia which advised priests that divorced-and-remarried Catholics who are “at peace with God…cannot be precluded from…
A team of archaeologists in the Holy Land has uncovered a large perimeter wall dating to the 10th Century BC, which some experts believe is linked to a biblical battle referred to the in the Second Book of Samuel. The team, working in Israel’s southern Arava desert – within the ancient borders of the Kingdom…
Paul Keenan
Greg Daly
Courtney McGrail
Michael Kelly