Staff reporter A major conference on education due to be held in Dublin next month will address the future of faith-based schools in Ireland, both North and South. Organised by The Irish Catholic in collaboration with St Mary’s University, Twickenham in London, the October 20 event will be addressed by former UK Secretary of State for…

Although logically we know the end has to come for everyone, there are certain personalities so indomitable, so larger than life, that in practical terms we come to regard them as virtually immortal. Back in the late 1990s and 2000s, I said that when Pope John Paul II finally died, those most stunned would be…

Archaeologists in Israel believe they have uncovered the site of the biblical battle between David and Goliath. According to experts who have led excavations for the past seven years at a site today known as Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Elah Valley, the Old Testament city of Shaaraim has been found. The city is mentioned in…

The past is slowly catching up with President Duterte, writes Paul Keenan

Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick has called for a collective societal response in tackling addiction in Ireland. As he celebrated Mass to mark 50 years of the work of the Cuan Mhuire treatment centre in Bruree, Bishop Leahy said: “We owe it to one another in Ireland, as a collective work of mercy on the…

An Irish missionary nun is to receive a Presidential Distinguished Service Award for her lifetime of work in Sierra Leone and her courageous efforts in co-ordinating a response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak there. Sr Mary Sweeney, a Sister of St Joseph of Cluny and a native of Co. Donegal, has worked for over 40…

Ireland’s newest bishop has said the Vatican’s ‘baby bishops’ course was a valuable opportunity for networking and learning best practice from elsewhere in the world. Bishop-elect Fintan Monahan, who will be ordained Bishop of Killaloe this Sunday, September 25, said that the annual training course was “great – a very good experience, probably more so…

Mercy Sisters depart Rochfortbridge The Mercy Sisters have left their convent in Rochfortbridge, Co. Westmeath after 154 years working in the town. The last three nuns of the local congregation departed on September 18 after a special Mass of thanksgiving at Rochfortbridge church.  Far from being confined to the Westmeath town, since their first arrival in 1862, the…

A streamlined form for Irish couples getting married will be rolled out from the First Sunday of Advent, following delays caused by uncertainty over whether or not the form needed Vatican Approval. A decision was made some years ago to make the mandatory Pre-Nuptial Enquiry Form more accessible, with diocesan representatives meeting in Maynooth in…

Paul Keenan and Susan Gately The decision of the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) to campaign for abortion in the event of a referendum is a culmination of 15 years of activism by pro-abortion elements, a survey of recent annual meetings reveals. As far back as 2001, when the Fianna Fáil-led government proposed a constitutional amendment to overturn…