Staff reporter Ireland’s most senior Churchman has assured priests that their dedication and resilience in difficult circumstances does not go unnoticed by the hierarchy and is a key point for discussion during meetings in Rome. Speaking at the opening Mass for the bishops’ ad limina pilgrimage to Rome, during which they will meet with Pope…
Northern pro-lifers are determined to make the protection of unborn children a key issue in the North’s coming election. Northern Secretary James Brokenshire announced elections for a new Assembly on March 2, following the collapse of the Executive after the resignation of Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister and the refusal of Sinn Féin to…
Corrymeela asked voters to consider ‘a worse alternative’ Inclusion and cooperation should be priorities in the North’s upcoming elections, Ireland’s oldest peace and reconciliation centre has said. In a statement following the announcement of the March 2 election, Corrymeela community leader Pádraig Ó Tuama said that while reconciliation is difficult, “the alternative is worse”. Insisting…
If you can help young migrants, you should do so immediately, Dromore’s Bishop John McAreavey has urged communities. Welcoming the Pope’s message for 2017’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees, Dr McAreavey, who chairs the Council for Justice and Peace of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, praised the Pontiff’s focused on the theme of ‘Child…
Staff reporter President Michael D. Higgins has led tributes to Nobel peace prize winner John Hume as the veteran peacemaker turned 80 this week. President Higgins described Mr Hume as “the moral architect of an inclusive peace process” that delivered the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. The president said that Mr Hume – who turned…
Eight people took their own lives in Cork last weekend according to a Dáil deputy from the city. “My phone was hopping all weekend. If it was a minibus with eight people killed it would be national news,” Sinn Féin TD Pat Buckley told The Irish Catholic. Deputy Buckley, who lost two brothers to death…
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity began yesterday (Wednesday) with an official inauguration service at the Church of Ireland parish in Taney in south Dublin. This year the event occurs while the Catholic bishops are in Rome at their ad limina meeting with the Pope, so no Catholic bishops will be present at ecumenical…
The North’s coming election is about a struggle between the two traditions on this island, writes Bishop Donal McKeown Bishop Donal McKeown The entire Brexit project remains a step into the unknown for everybody. Thus we remain unclear as to the possible effects, especially on border counties. But what history tells us is that Belfast,…
The bishops of Malta have issued guidelines allowing for people living in “irregular” unions to receive Communion. In a new 35-page document dealing specifically with implementation of the section of the papal exhortation Amoris Laetitia on divorced-and-remarried Catholics (Chapter VIII), the bishops go beyond the language of the exhortation to stress to their priests that…
Sisters Sky and Willow Shaw at the launch of the Under the Weather Campaign. Information on a wide range of common conditions like colds, flu and tummy bugs, is available at www.undertheweather.ie from the HSE and health professionals, for adults and children. Photo: Photocall Ireland
Greg Daly
Susan Gately