Best known for his work in healthcare, especially in Ireland where many healthcare sites bearing his name dot the land, the Portuguese saint John of God is celebrated by the Church March 8. Born in 1495, Joao Cidade had an unsettled and haphazard early life, being orphaned at a young age before finding employment as…
This is a common refrain in our times: I’m definitely spiritual, but I’m not religious. Or again, I personally believe in a higher power or a god, but I wouldn’t associate with a religion. I’ve heard this line personally on many occasions, and I think it expresses the fact that many people are aware that…
A leading voice in Catholic education has welcomed the dropping of references to gender being “experienced along a spectrum” from the new SPHE curriculum following consultation with the public. CEO of the Catholic Education Partnership Alan Hynes told The Irish Catholic that they’re “glad to see that the final draft reflects some of our concerns…
While “everybody wants peace” in Ukraine and is striving for it, Ukrainian Catholic Bishop Kenneth Nowakowski has said that at the one year anniversary of the war in Ukraine it’s “not something we can talk about”. This comes after 12 senators and TDs penned a letter in The Irish Times condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine…
The youngest member of the American boy band, Hanson, best known for their 1997 hit single ‘MMMbop’ was ordained a deacon in the Georgian Orthodox Christian Church in February. Zac Hanson’s ordination to the diaconate took place at St Nina’s monastery in Maryland, after he apparently converted to Orthodox Christianity more than a decade ago,…
If there’s one, unavoidable reality in our world it’s that of suffering. No matter how you try to buffer or shore up your existence, suffering will manifest itself one way or another. The only way to avoid it would be to neither love nor feel – but would such a life be any different from…
February 24 saw the one year anniversary of the outbreak of war in Ukraine, and both Ukrainian and Irish communities gathered in Donneycarney parish to mark the occasion. Speaking to The Irish Catholic newspaper, Chaplain to the Ukrainian Community in Ireland Fr Vasyl Kornitsky said that the one year anniversary was a “very anxious day”…
An Irish Columban missionary in Pakistan has criticised the “religious extremism” behind violent attacks in the country following a deadly terror attack at the end of January. A bomb detonated January 30 inside a mosque in Peshawar in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa killed 101 and left hundreds more wounded. The mosque is located inside a…
Traditionalist communities in Ireland are facing further uncertainty after the Vatican Press Office published a rescript confirming that dispensations from the July 16, 2021, motu proprio Traditionis Custodes are reserved to the Apostolic See. The document, published in Italian and signed by Cardinal Arthur Roche, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments,…
Saint of the week On February 23, the Church brings St Polycarp to our attention. An unusual name, Polycarp is one of those ‘titans’ of the early Church, a man who learned from those who had walked directly with Christ himself during his time on earth. Born in 69AD, little enough survives of him and…