As Finola Finnan, Trócaire’s deputy executive director, and the body’s policy officer Cliona Sharkey sit down with The Irish Catholic on the fringes of the Laudato Si’ and Catholic Investing conference, there is time enough to celebrate recent developments back home of direct relevance to the Irish bishops’ aid and development agency. Just before the…
Just 1.2% of applicants for admission turned down by schools in Dublin were on the basis of no baptismal certificate, a new survey by the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association (CPSMA) has shown. Prompted to undertake the study amid an ongoing debate around the so-called ‘baptism barrier’ and Minister for Education Richard Bruton’s proposed consultation…
As Catholic Schools Week begins, the CPSMA’s Seamus Mulconry speaks with Paul Keenan With the closing of the first month of the year, it is all too clear to those across Ireland involved with – and in defending – Catholic education that 2017 is set to be as busy a period as the preceding 12…
The fate of was all too inevitable. Immediately after the priest went missing from his home in the state of Coahuila on January 3, authorities of his Diocese of Saltillo issued appeals for the security forces to do all in finding him and for his captors to release him unharmed. But this is Mexico. Thus,…
It was the stuff of high drama and historic import. As the final minutes of 2016 ticked away in an expectant Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), New Year spectacles could do little to distract the eyes of the nation from talks taking place in the capital Kinshasa, the outcome of which would dictate the chances…
It says something of the state of the nation when a quiet day of non-events gains more column inches with the international media than a 5.3 magnitude earthquake just days before. An understanding of this apparent skewing of priorities comes when El Salvador is identified as the source for both stories. On January 4, media…
The Bishop of Achonry, in whose diocese the parish of Ballaghaderreen, Co. Roscommon is preparing to receive at least 80 Syrian refugees, has insisted people of the town will be “welcoming” of the new arrivals. Speaking to The Irish Catholic this week, and amid widespread media coverage of rows centred on the choosing of Ballaghaderreen’s…
Ireland’s Ambassador to the Holy See, Emma Madigan, has spoken of the “impressive and inspiring” address delivered by Pope Francis to the Diplomatic Corps on January 9. Ambassador Madigan joined with representatives from over 180 missions with links to the Holy See to hear the annual address from the Pontiff, which touches on those key…
The new Religious Education programme for primary schools, Grow in Love, is proving a winner with teachers and parents, according to feedback offered to those rolling out the programme. Fr Dan O’Connor, Episcopal Vicar for Education in the Dublin archdiocese described as “very positive” the response to information in-service days for teachers tasked with engaging…
Antoni Guterres promises a revived United Nations, writes Paul Keenan How long, if at all, one wonders, do staff at the United Nations pause to wish one another “Happy New Year”? The question is posed from a knowledge that the multitudinous issues with which the international body concerns itself do not ebb and flow with…