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‘Surrounded’ 3rd Sunday of Lent Year A – 8 March 2026

Members of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference gathered this week for their Spring 2026 General Meeting in Columba Centre of Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth.  The President of the Conference is…

Bishop Coll is quoted in an Irish Catholic article (see below) Michael Sean Winters writes in NCR that ‘the documents and the historical event of Vatican II were the result…

Today’s readings about water and thirst remind us that this is a baptismal season. The holy water of baptism blesses and protects the faithful in every danger, it washes away…

Note: Healing Mass in Lady’s Island this Wednesday 4th at 3pm Tues 3rd March – A Remarkable Story While facilitating a retreat in Ballyvaloo Conference Centre recently I was privileged…

Western People 24.2.2026. Since the awkward amalgamation of Galway and Clonfert dioceses in February 2022 a different strategy has been adopted by the Catholic Church – a ‘merging’ rather than…

For Jesse Jackson 1941-2026 We have lost a great American. Our ages span the same year of war, 1941, exactly six months apart. Significant years of conflict and political turmoil…

Casual Thought Provoked By The Cherry Blossom And Trump These are strange times. I must be dithering. Or dawdling around faraway days (which now seem wonderful but never were) or…

For two centuries, after the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century, the Irish people were persecuted for their loyalty to Catholicism as the British State converted to various forms of Protestantism….

The Issue A Chairde Gael, A letter calling on the GAA to promptly cease its business relationship with Allianz was handed into Croke Park on Wednesday, 20th August 2025. It…

A Timely Epiphanic Proposal, 2026 Dear Archbishops and Bishops of the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference, The recent Vatican assertion “women are not fully in the likeness of Jesus” is mistaken, offensive, and…

This article is from the current edition of The Furrow. Last October, November and December (2025) there were several significant occurrences along the Irish and Universal synodal pathways. In what…

‘Stepping Into It!’ 2nd Sunday of Lent Year A – 1 March 2026

Further to media reports on Guidelines for the use of Churches for Reposing of Remains which have been published by Bishop Paul Connell, Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnois, please note the following…

Now that we are ten days into the season of Lent, our goal is clarified in today’s liturgy. The Gospel of the Transfiguration reminds us that we are destined for…

Announcement by Pope Leo XIVHis Holiness Pope Leo XIV has appointed Archbishop Francis Duffy, to minister simultaneously as Archbishop of Tuam and as Bishop of Killala. The two Dioceses concerned, united in persona episcopi, will…

Western People 17.2.2026 In 2014 when news broke that 796 children had died in the Mother and Baby Home in Tuam and there were no burial records even though death…

Note: In Ladys Island next Sat 28th from 10-4pm there will be a Wood You Believe Healing Seminar entitled The Hidden Journey of Life – Discovering your Purpose.  Applications to…

In the month in which we celebrate International Women’s Day, The Messenger carries several articles about the strength and resilience of women. Marking the Feast of St Patrick, we find parallels between the…

‘Crude Invitations?’ 1st Sunday of Lent Year A 2026 – 22 Feb 2026