Exclusive There is a “crisis” among young people who “we are losing to self-harm, through addiction and reckless actions”, the Bishop of Derry has warned. Bishop Donal McKeown told The Irish Catholic that “our priests are constantly burying young people who die for want of a reason for living”, while also saying the Church…
Month: November 2024
You can’t force yourself to forgive, it is a healing
I remember my mother, before she died, warning me to fill out the list of the dead each November. And so every year I faithfully sit down and think of those I have known, those who have died in the last year and those who have passed my path in life. It can be a…
Tributes paid to Gabriel Doherty
Historian and broadcaster Gabriel Doherty died at the age of 56 last Friday, November 8. Mr Doherty was a lecturer at the University College Cork School of History and a widely published historian, he edited two books and contributed to many articles and historical journals. Mary E. Fitzgibbon, a spokesperson for Ireland Stand Up, a…
The end of an Era: New monastic community born
The Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (O.C.S.O.) also known as ‘Trappists’, on a historic move, has found a new community merging three established ones. The three communities are Mount Melleray Abbey from the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore, Mount St Joseph Abbey, Roscrea from the Diocese of Killaloe and Mellifont Abbey from the…
Increase in enquiries to diocesan priesthood gives ‘hope’ for future
Speaking ahead of the ‘Come and See’ retreat this weekend in St Patrick’s College Maynooth, an event organised for men exploring a vocation and reflecting “more deeply on a call” to diocesan priesthood, the National Diocesan Vocations Coordinator for the Irish Episcopal Conference said that the rise in the number of enquiries discerning a vocation…
‘Through silence, we allow the Lord to speak,’ Fr Barry White
Christ the King Cathedral, Mullingar, invites you to participate in these 40 Hours of Eucharistic Adoration, where faithful will come together as pilgrims of hope, seeking the face of Christ in the Eucharist beginning with the 7:30pm Mass on Friday, November 22, and concluding with Vespers and Benediction at 4pm on Sunday, November 24.…
The new evangelisation
An Irish stonemason, with little education, became one of the great evangelists of the last century. And his story is now entwined with the famous American bishop Robert Barron, himself the son of Irish emigrants, whose Word on Fire network has gone global. I heard the story at St Comgall’s School on the Falls Road…
Passing the faith on in Co. Cavan
The community of Kingscourt Parish, Co. Cavan celebrated on November 7 the launch of a new edition of Pass it On, a book of prayers, inspirational poems, quotes and motivational words of encouragement to be ‘passed on’ from one generation to the next. The first edition was published in 2012 as an initiative of the…
Cost of living and housing to the fore as politicians start knocking
Politicians have reported that the main issues emerging at the doors of houses across the country as they canvass their way around country lanes and sprawling estates primarily concern the “incredible” cost of living and the lack of housing, issues that are contributing to an “overwhelming sense that the Government has lost control of everything”.…
A sad student story
A very sad story emerged this past week about an Oxford student who killed himself: a story which revealed much about our times and values. Alexander Rogers was 20 years old and a third-year student at Corpus Christi college, studying science, and predicted to get a First. He was described at an inquest as “kind,…