New diocesan youth coordinator in Derry, Lizzie Rea, believes her mission is “to try and get young people back into the Church by helping them to see its good points and its value.”
The witnesses “were ordinary people who lived in a very ordinary little village” and included “men, women and children ranging in age from four-year-old John Curry (who spoke no Irish) to Bridget Trench in her seventies (who spoke no English).”
Vatican spokesman, Alessandro Gisotti, has warned that official pilgrimages should not be “interpreted as an authentication of well-known events, which still require examination by the Church”.
Children of the Eucharist founder Antoinette Moynihan asks for prayers as she and Irish colleague begin ministry in primary school in Malta this week.
In relation to the shortage of priests in the Church, Fr Brian McKevitt said it was no wonder there was a shortage, as no young man would want to join “an outfit that doesn’t even believe in itself or doesn’t believe in its own mission”.
19 new seminarians have begun their formation for Irish dioceses, eight of whom have begun a propaedeutic year in locations in Ireland and abroad.
These presumed apparitions don’t have a lot of value. This I say as a personal opinion – Pope Francis.
The Holy See is still studying the apparitions in Medjugorje and so far has made no pronouncement on them.
Ordination of two new deacons will be followed in July by the ordination of two Pallottines to the priesthood.
Youth 2000 and Medjugorje played a part in vocation stories of Rev Brendan McCarrick sac and Rev Jaimie Twohig sac.
Prominent Vatican watchers in the Italian media are reporting that a papal commission has found no evidence of supernatural activity at Medjugorje.
“We are close to coming to a decision," the Pontiff told press on flight back to Rome from Sarajevo regarding the investigation into the alleged Marian apparitions at Medjugorje.
Festival celebrates 25th anniversary with young people from more than 60 countries.
US tour by Medjugorje visionary, Ivan Dragicevic, cancelled.
