Bishop Brendan Leahy 
Bishop Leahy launches new religious education programme
Bishop Brendan Leahy launched Credible Catholic, a new religious education programme for Catholic Voluntary Secondary School in Ireland, January 26.
Credible Catholic is “a wonderful programme that quenches the thirst of the mind, expands the outreach of the heart and points in the direction of doing many good actions”, said Bishop Leahy, chair of the bishops’ council for catechetics.
Dr Leahy added that the programme promises to be of great value to teachers and students, as it “responds to Jesus’ call to love not just with our heart but also with our mind”.
The programme is an optional resource “which will be very helpful to teachers of religious education”, a spokesperson for the bishops’ council said.
“Credible Catholic aims to stimulate dialogue, encourage reflection and critical reasoning, foster religious literacy, build community, and nurture faith, and in doing all of these things, to promote student wellbeing,” the spokesperson continued.
Bishop Leahy was joined at the webinar by Dr Alexander O’Hara, national director for catechetics of the Irish Catholic bishops’ conference; Dr Tom Finnegan, lecturer in theology and religious education, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick; and by Ms Kate Liffey, Chaplain at Saint Brendan’s Community School, Birr, Co. Offaly.
The Credible Catholic programme, which features seven modules, is free and the multi-media materials can be downloaded from www.catholicschools.ie/crediblecatholic.
Nine-week novena to St Patrick broadcast online
A nine-week novena in honour of the father of Catholicism in Ireland, St Patrick, was launched in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, January 19.
The novena takes place on Wednesday evenings at 7pm, to pray for the renewal of the Faith in Ireland at this time. The novena began January 19 in St Patrick’s Cathedral and will run until March 16.
The second broadcast took place in Our Lady Queen of Peace Church, Slemish, and on February 2 will be broadcast from St Patrick’s Church, Saul, Co. Down. It will conclude Wednesday March 16 in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh.
The churches included in the broadcast schedule are: St Mary’s Church, Westport, Co. Mayo; St Patrick’s Church, Rathvilly, Co. Carlow; St Patrick’s Well, Limerick, Co. Limerick; St Mary’s Church, Pettigo, Co Donegal.
St Patrick and Shalom World Prayer will broadcast the Novena every Wednesday in different Churches across Ireland. Visit www.swprayer.org for more information.
