Michael Kelly to step down as IC Editor

Long-serving Editor of The Irish Catholic Michael Kelly has announced that he will step down from the position early in 2024, after more than 12 years in the Editor’s chair. Mr Kelly, a native of Co. Tyrone, served as the paper’s Rome Correspondent before joining the Dublin office in 2005. He was appointed Deputy Editor in […]

Warning of parish ‘class divide’ if lay ministry not funded properly

There is a growing danger of a “class divide” emerging between parishes if there isn’t proper financial investment in lay ministries, the country’s first ever parish manager has warned. Lay leaders have also said that it will be “impossible” to encourage co-responsibility and encourage laypeople to take on more responsibility if there isn’t proper pay… […]

When St Nicholas Intervened in the Life of Aquinas 750 Years Ago

Exactly 750 years ago on this date—December 6, 1273—Friar Thomas Aquinas received his supreme mystical experience that led to what Josef Pieper called “the silence of St. Thomas.” I maintain that more than coincidence unites this divine crowning of Thomas’s life with the devotional cultus of St. Nicholas, whose feast has always been celebrated in […]

Bishop Johan Bonny and the Crisis in Ethics

Above: Antwerp, Belgium. Photo credit. Johan Josef Bonny has been the bishop of Antwerp in Belgium since 2009. He has made problematic individual statements in contradiction to the Church’s teaching about various ethical questions including sexual ethics, the blessing of same-sex couples, and most recently euthanasia. Regarding the latter, he stated this past September “Euthanasia is […]

Sacrosanctum Concilium Turns 60

Above: one of the televised sessions of Vatican II. The liturgical reform document, Sacrosanctum Concilium, was promulgated sixty years ago today on December 4th, 1963. Introduction Turning 60 can be traumatic: all of a sudden retirement looms on the horizon, less than optimal physical fitness or even the prospect of bad heath beckons—if it has […]

At Least On Sunday – 1st Sunday of Advent: When a door shuts…

Early on living in Rome I learned always to close doors so they latched and to block or latch windows, often the tall, vertical kind that meet in the middle.  Why?  Because when the wind is blowing, by opening a door in one area, the air flow changes, and – BAM! – a door or […]