Ask any Catholic serious about their Faith what the biggest challenge the Church faces is and they will almost universally say a variation of the same thing: reaching out and engaging young people. Often when a priest is assigned to a new parish, he will be met with earnest parishioners who implore him “you’ll have…
In just over three weeks’ time voters will be asked whether or not to delete the reference to blasphemy from the Constitution. It will pass by an overwhelming majority. Only the Islamic community are likely to oppose the move. Catholic bishops have already expressed the view that God can look after himself. In reality, the…
Next month’s Synod of Bishops in Rome will focus on the issue of youth and vocational discernment. Often when we speak of ‘vocation’ in the Church we mean the specific and unique call to priesthood and religious life. This is hugely important and as recent research in this newspaper showed, the situation in terms of…
For those who participated in events surrounding the World Meeting of Families or the Papal visit, feelings of joy will continue to warm their hearts. Whether it was in the intensive preparations that took place in the dioceses around the country, the pastoral congress in the RDS or events led by Pope Francis this was…
We’re not great in the Church at telling people our good news stories. It’s a bit odd given that the Church exists for no other purpose than to proclaim the Good News of Christ. Whether it’s out of a sense of humility, or trepidation that past wrongs could come back to haunt us, Irish Catholics…
One of the primary duties of the Pope is to confirm Catholics in their Faith. That is the principle motivation behind all papal travel. Irish Catholics experienced something of this during the momentous visit of Pope Francis at the weekend. Leading up to the Holy Father’s arrival, the media coverage was relentlessly negative. From fears…
Ask practising Catholics to tell you about their Church and their faith, and on the whole, you get glowing reports. There will be complaints, and stories of inadequacies, and reservations about this or that teaching, and no one knows the faults of the Church — collectively, and in this or that place — better than…
Sometimes you’d be forgiven for thinking that there is nothing to celebrate in being Catholic and Irish in modern Ireland. Hostility towards the Church is extremely high and truth be told it was always going to intensify in the run up to the visit of Pope Francis and the World Meeting of Families. A poll…
About six months before Benedict XVI was due to visit Britain in 2010, a rather unfortunate memo from the foreign office was obtained by The Sunday Telegraph newspaper. The fruit of a brainstorming session amongst officials, the paper was called ‘The ideal visit would see…’ and included suggestions that the Pope’s visit could be marked…
There’s a depressing sense of déjà vu in the Church as allegations continue to multiply that the former Archbishop of Washington DC Theodore McCarrick sexually took advantage of young seminarians. Dr McCarrick – who resigned from the College of Cardinals at the weekend – is also accused of two counts of sexual abuse of children.…
Michael Kelly