The Irish Church does not do managed decline. It never has. It lets the clock run down, keeps the show on the road for one more season, and then eventually presents the result — a parish has to be merged or a college closed, the community and or staff quietly told the numbers have run…
There is something very admirable about the Irish Synodal Pathway. The people involved — and this newspaper has spent considerable time examining who they are and what they do — are genuine in their commitment to the Church and to the reform they believe it needs. They are not cynics. They are not time-servers. Many…
Sunday May 3, 2026 marks the 35th Birthday Remembrance of the newly Canonised St Carlo Acutis. To mark this special occasion, the first Birthday Remembrance since Carlo was Canonised last September, Mass will be offered on Sunday May 3, 2026 at 12pm in Holy Family Church, Ardfinnan, Co Tipperary – the home of the First…
After a promising Easter, the Church faces its most urgent question The priests can breathe now. After the long procession of Holy Week — the oils, the darkness, the fire, the alleluias — Easter Monday brings something like silence. They’ve earned it. The reports filtering in from parishes around the country tell an encouraging…
The difference of views between Bishop Niall Coll (I-Gen and Gen Z youth) and Fr Brendan Hoban (writing recently in The Western People) is about more than one bishop’s reading of youth culture or one priest’s irritation with it. It goes to the heart of the deepest question facing Irish Catholicism: where, exactly, is renewal…
Public debate about the role of women in the Catholic Church tends to orbit around one question: Will the Church ordain women? In some circles, that question narrows even further: will women at least be ordained deacons? But the latest work emerging from Study Group 5 of the Synod on Synodality offers a sobering reminder:…
Bishop Niall Coll’s recent remarks mark a significant moment in the lead-up to the upcoming October synod, indicating an episcopal push towards inclusivity, particularly for the younger generations who often feel disconnected from the synodal process. His insights reflect a growing recognition that many of today’s youth have no memory of a Catholic Ireland and…
Dr Mary McAleese’s Irish Times column recently argues [an argument that she has been making since at least 2018] that infant Baptism “denies babies their human rights” because it enrols them—without their consent—into lifelong Catholic membership with binding obligations and (in her view) a “no-exit policy.” She ridicules the language of “renewing baptismal promises” (since…
In the physiotherapy room at the Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in Amman, Jordan, Iyad (17, Palestine) is laughing as he is passing a football with his friend Hossam (21, Iraq). It’s part of Iyad’s physiotherapy session. “It helps me a lot when Hossam joins,” says Iyad. “We joke a lot, but we…
When we think about the legacy we will leave behind, it’s not just about material possessions—it’s about the values we hold dear: love, compassion, and care for those most in need. One of the most profound ways to live those values beyond our lifetime is by making a will and considering a legacy gift to…