Sarah Mac Donald

The church in Ireland is launching a Year for Vocations as it grapples with a steep decline in seminary numbers and with aging priests.

"Something special happened here," the president of the Irish bishops' conference said at the end of a continental assembly of European Catholics, held as part of the pope's process to reinvigorate the Synod of Bishops.

Bombay Cardinal Oswald Gracias, one of Pope Francis' closest advisers, is strongly denying reports that he sought to intervene in the case of Bishop Kannikadass William Antony, who is accused of fathering a child.

Loretto Sr. Jeannine Gramick, one of the pioneers in ministry to gay and lesbian people in the Catholic Church has said she believes the institution will one day offer sacramental marriage to same-sex couples.

 In a joint message for St. Patrick's Day, the Catholic and Anglican archbishops of Armagh said the war in Ukraine is a lesson to Northern Ireland to "never take peace for granted." 

Fr. Tony Flannery, an Irish Redemptorist, noted that the issues he had written that led to being sanctioned "are now being discussed widely and freely right around the Church, with no fear of sanctions."

After a year at the head of the Archdiocese of Dublin, Archbishop Dermot Farrell said, "Radical change is coming in the church," which will see a renewal of energy and new forms of ministry.

Mary McAleese expressed reservations about Pope Francis' leadership of the Catholic Church, telling a British church reform movement that he is "a conservative leader" blessed with enemies who make him look more liberal than he is.

Book Review: In Robots, Ethics and the Future of Jobs, Fr. Seán McDonagh highlights the need to address the potential repercussions of artificial intelligence and other developing technologies.

A prominent member of a church reform group in Ireland has expressed outrage in a letter to Irish Bishop Denis Nulty over his reference to Mary Magdalene's "colorful past" in an April 11 homily for a televised Mass.

Pope Francis has chosen Bishop Dermot Farrell of Ossory as Archbishop Diarmuid Martin's successor in Dublin.

With Ireland on something of a green wave, Fr. Dermot Lane said he believes the Irish bishops should "seize the moment" to promote Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si' and its teachings on care for the Earth.

Women are disproportionately hurt by climate change and corporate human rights violations throughout the world, according to a new study by Trócaire, the aid and development agency run by the Irish bishops.

Columban Fr. Liam O'Callaghan is coordinator of the ecology commission for the Hyderabad Diocese in southern Pakistan. Translating Laudato Si', researching water filters for marginalized people to use and educating about care for the Earth are some ways he tries to influence change.

Speaking to the Association of Leaders of Missionaries and Religious of Ireland (AMRI) Turkson, the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, talked about climate change, growing inequality, the threat of war, and the sex-abuse scandals of the church as signs of the times.

New research suggests women had a greater role in the early church's ministries and liturgies than previously thought, and were present at church altars as deacons, priests and even bishops.

After weekly protests over the threat posed by climate change, thousands of students are expected to assemble outside the Irish parliament March 15 as part of a global day of action.

The fear of busloads of protestors demonstrating against Josepha Madigan's position on abortion and divorce led the Sisters of Mercy to cancel the Irish minister's event from taking place on their grounds. 

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin warned there was "a danger of complacency or inertia or of slippage into false confidence" in the church's fight against clerical abuse.

Tiernan Brady of Equal Future, a coalition of 100 LGBT groups and Catholic religious from over 60 countries, said the youth synod is the "closest thing the church gets to a democratic process" and that it is an opportunity to discuss real challenges.