Welcome, Fáilte - Diocese of Cloyne

Light a Candle at St Colman's from 1 Dec 2024

Light a candle at St Colman's

Welcome

Fáilte, Welcome

to the website for the Catholic Diocese of Cloyne, Ireland

Bishop William Crean

03 March 2026

Carrigtwohill Parish Pilgrimage to Fatima 7th - 14th September 2026

Spiritual Director: Fr. Patrick Winkle

Direct return flights from Cork to Faro, with Bus to and from Fatima included
Full Board - breakfast, lunch and dinner each day
7 nights Hotel Steyler
Limited number of places
€1045 (single supplement extra) - limited single rooms, insurance is also extra
20kg baggage included with Aer Lingus flight.
Guided tours and full spiritual programme

Please make enquires to Fr. Patrick Winkle 021-4882439 or Joe Walsh Tours 021-2427190 or 01-2410800
Or book direct online with Joe Walsh Tours

2026 CARRIGTWOHILL PATRICK WINKLE 07 SEP CORK FARO Fatima Pilgrimage 2026

04 February 2026

Cloyne Diocesan Pilgrimages 2026

The Annual Lourdes Mass - Friday 13th February 2026

Church of the Immaculate Conception, Kanturk, P51 TY36 at 7.30pm
Bishop William Crean will be the Chief Celebrant of the Mass

Cloyne Diocesan Pilgrimage to Knock - Sunday 10th May 2026

Parishes to make their own travel arrangements

Cloyne Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes 29th May – 3rd June 2026

All bookings for the Cloyne Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes should be made through Joe Walsh Tours by telephone 01-2410800, online at Joe Walsh Tours or by post to 89 Harcourt Street, Dublin 2, D02WY88. No booking is definite until a non-refundable deposit payment of €350 per person (plus insurance premium where applicable) has been receipted by Joe Walsh Tours. Early booking advisable.

Pilgrims who would like to travel with the Special Assisted Section should apply to: Cloyne Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes, c/o Parish Secretary, 27/28 Bank Place, Mallow, Co. Cork. Tel: 022-20276. This special assisted/sick section is accommodated at the Accueil Notre Dame. Acceptance for travel with the special section for the sick is subject to approval of the Pilgrimage Medical Board. The closing date for receipt of application is 31 March 2026.

Cloyne Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes 29th May - 3rd June 2026

04 October 2025

Bishop William Crean meets Pope Leo on recent pilgrimage to Rome

Watch this short video clip

Bishop Crean meets Pope Leo

Pastoral letter from Bishop William Crean

on pastoral planning for the future

My dear people,

To live is to change, is a pearl of wisdom from St. John Henry Newman, a convert to the Catholic faith in the 19th Century. To live in the 21st Century is an experience of constant change, social, cultural and technological. Viewing “Reeling in the Years,” the television series depicting life in former times is a dramatic reminder of the extent of the change we have experienced.

The Church whose life and presence within our communities and parish has had to adjust to and
manage the change taking place in society. One particular pattern has been evident for some years
now is the decline both in profession of Christian faith and its practice through the attendance at Holy Mass,
which, for the believer, is an obligation in faith. The consequence of this generational shift from family and
parish community attendance has seen a similar decline in responding to the call to Priesthood and Religious life. Despite this pattern in the Diocese of Cloyne, in all the parishes there are faithful practicing prayer congregations who witness to and support one another in faith.

Pastoral Letter

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Latest Homily

17 May 2026 - “Know that I am with you always”

Latest Articles

March 2026
- Fatima Pilgrimage 2026 - Carrigtwohill Parish
February 2026
- Cloyne Diocesan Pilgrimages 2026
October 2025
- Bishop Crean meets Pope Leo
September 2025
- "Behold I'm doing a new thing" says the Lord (Isaiah 43)
February 2025
- Recent picture of St. Colman's Cathedral, Cobh. Co. Cork
October 2024
- Light a Candle at St. Colman's Cathedral

Coram Fratribus

Vigsling på Stiklestad

Prekenen ble holdt ved velsignelsen, og vigslingen av alteret, i Stiklestad katolsk kapell som i dag, på Sigrid Undsets fødselsdag, ble gjenåpnet etter grundig restaurering.
I politikken kan det gå hardt for seg. Den ene dag står en smørblid leder med Read More

Coram Fratribus

7. Sunday of Easter

This Sunday falls on 17 May, Norway’s National Day.
Acts 1.12-14: The disciples went back to Jerusalem.
1 Peter 4.13-16: Rejoice when you share in the sufferings of Christ.
John 17.1-11: My glory shines in those who are mine.
For forty days after Read More

Coram Fratribus

Alight ‘The formative impact over time of praying day and night in a Cistercian church comes from the interplay of light and shadow. The world we have made full of glaring lights and those maddening fixtures that switch themselves on at the merest twitch of a spider, making an option for subdued light impossible, can cause us to forget what it is to be at ease in such in-between-ness. Bright light is not always what is needed to reveal an object’s perfection. The gloss of oriental lacquerware shows to best effect in flickering candlelight; gilded medieval statuary takes for granted the flux of dawn and dusk. In the glare of a spotlight the gold just looks vulgar.’
From Alight with Hidden Glory, published this week.

Coram Fratribus

Cistercian Shape I was glad to be able to provide the following blurb for Nathaniel Peter’s excellent book on the early Cistercian movement, just out: ‘The early iconography of Cîteaux tends to show Cistercians engaged in purposeful work: chopping wood, sowing fields, building houses. The Order’s fecundity was enabled by a spirit of enterprise. The enterprise, though, was theologically informed. Nathaniel Peters traces the shape of a twelfth-century movement that somehow produced, at the same time, mystical literature, novel architecture, and advances in sheep-farming. His elegant study of the intersection of Trinitarian and Eucharistic doctrines in three Cistercian thinkers points towards a timeless truth: the sacramental, incarnational realism of Christian doctrine. That is an emphasis we need right now, in times given to virtual flights of fancy.’

Coram Fratribus

Vigsling på Stiklestad Prekenen ble holdt ved velsignelsen, og vigslingen av alteret, i Stiklestad katolsk kapell som i dag, på Sigrid Undsets fødselsdag, ble gjenåpnet etter grundig restaurering.
I politikken kan det gå hardt for seg. Den ene dag står en smørblid leder med nellik i knapphullet på en fjong balkong, hyllet av folket; neste dag hiver samme folk ham hjertens gjerne ut av vinduet. Sånn er det nå; sånn var det før. Da Olav Haraldsson i 1015 ankom Norge i en knarr, krevende sin kongsrett, møtte han nok motstand; men velviljen var større.
Folk foretrakk tross alt et norsk septer fremfor danskekongens åk. Olav fikk ti gode år. Han innstiftet kristenretten, samlet landet, fostret tanken om hva det vil si å bestå som nasjon. Nordmenn syntes det var fjågt, først. Så begynte de å murre.
Olav bad liksom om for mye. De nye lovene la bånd på lokale kakser, vant til å fremstå som konger på haugen. Plutselig syntes det ikke så dumt allikevel, å ha en konge som satt langt borte.
De norske storbønders forhandlinger med Danmarks Kong Knut tvang Olav ut av landet. Hvor skulle han hen?
Han reiste til Kyiv-riket, hvor Kong Jarisleiv og dronning Ingegjerd, som Olav i sin ungdom hadde godblunket til, tok ham varmt imot. Halvannet års tid tilbragte Olav hos dem. Jarisleiv muntret ham opp etter evne. Han foreslo for Olav å glemme Norge. Han tilbød ham Bulgaria. Været er bedre der.
Olav, skriver Snorre, vurderte tilbudet, men tenkte også mer radikalt. Skulle han si fra seg kongsnavnet og reise som pilegrim til Jerusalem, dit han hadde vært på vei seksten år før? Han kom så langt som til Cadiz i Spania den gang. Da viste en mann seg for ham i en drøm og sa: ‘Dra tilbake til odelen din, du, for du skal bli konge over Norge til evige tider’. Som tredje mulighet vurderte Olav å bli munk. Eksiltiden i Gardariket var til fordypning. Olav gjorde opp regnskap med seg selv. Han lutret sin motivasjon.
Jeg tenkte på erfaringen hans der da jeg selv, den 10. mai 2023, ruslet rundt i Kyiv mens byen pustet ut etter et urolig døgn: Russland hadde bombet iherdig dagen før. Jeg var, sammen med Kardinal Arborelius, på solidaritetsbesøk på vegne av Den nordiske bispekonferanse. Andektig stanset vi ved muren rundt Kyivs blå kirke, der endeløse oppslag minnes Ukrainas falne ved fronten. Så ble vi tatt med til Sancta Sophia-katedralen, byens helligdom, et herlig bygg.
Man har til alle tider visst at Kong Jarisleiv var byggherren der, men det har vært litt om og men i forhold til datering. Arkeologiske funn gjør at historikerne nå er enige: Kirken ble påbegynt i 1011. Den vil alt ha stått kneisende da Olav kom til landet i 1028. Bygget var Jarisleivs stolthet. Jeg nekter å tro at han ikke, plystrende tilfreds, vil ha tatt med sin norske gjest dit på en grundig befaring.
Så er det gripende å stå nå, som nordmann, i Sancta Sophia, og skue opp mot kuppelen. Den viser en mosaikk av Kristus Pantokrator, Allherskeren.
Domen er vigslet til Kristus som det inkarnerte uttrykk for Gud Faders Visdom. Hengivenhet til Visdommen var del av Olavs politiske og, jeg våger ordet, eksistensielle prosjekt. Derav kom en del av motstanden som gjorde at han hadde måttet rømme landet. Kirken i Kyiv gav arkitektonisk og billedlig uttrykk for hans gjennomtenkte sans for meningen med livet.
Minnet om Sancta Sophia vil vel ha opplyst Olav da han på nytt fikk en utslagsgivende drøm: Olav Tryggvason viste seg for ham og sa: ‘Hva venter du på? Reis til ditt eget rike som du har fått ved arv!’ Ja, så red han fra Kyiv-riket hit til Stiklestad, til drømmen om himmelstigen, til øksa, sverdet og stenen han falt ved.
Da vi innså, litt senere utpå året i 2023, at vårt katolske kapell her på haugen måtte restaureres grundig, virket det naturlig å synliggjøre aksen mellom Gardariket og Værdalen. Pantokrator-motivet som nå pryder apsis får oss til å tenke på kuppelen i Sancta Sophia. Motivet står rett overfor glassmaleriet av Hellig-Olav på kapellets vestvegg. Han står dere og skuer mot Kristus mens han gjør seg rede til slag.
Visdommen Kristus bringer er rettesnor for siste, bestemmende fase av Olavs liv.
Det er visdom som, verdslig sett, kan synes som dårskap. ‘Ingen har større kjærlighet enn han som gir sitt liv for sine venner’. Det var nettopp ved å gi sitt liv, etter å ha kastet sverdet fra seg, at Olav, i døden, vant landet. Derved gir han den dag i dag, hvis vi akter ham, landet retning som vår evige konge.
Vår samtidige verden gir stort sett Visdommen på båten. Jaroslavs Rus’ er ennå daglig gjenstand for forrykte angrep. Olavs Norge er sårbart for forføring av ufornuft.
Så er det nyttig å se mot apsisbildet her i kapellet og huske: Visdommen Kirken bærer og vitner om, er ikke et valgfritt verktøy til selvforbedring; det står for prinsippet som en dag vil dømme både oss og valgene vi tar.
Ansikt til ansikt med Guds Visdom, tegner to veier seg mot horisonten: dødens vei og livets vei. Vi kan ikke gå begge samtidig. Vi må velge.
Det var noe Sigrid Undset var seg inderlig bevisst i 1930, da hun sørget for at kapellet her fikk oppstå. Undset hadde ufeilbarlig teft for hva som var i gjære i Europa. Hun foraktet fascismen av hele sitt hjerte. Fascismen forvrenger, så hun, menneskers virkelighetssans, for den nærer luciferiske drømmer om allmakt. Når mennesket tror seg selv ‘pantokrator’, det ypperste kriterium for alle ting, da er det i stand til den verste grusomhet. I et essay fra 1935 advarer Undset mot det hun kaller ‘fetishismens isolation — tilbedelsen av selvgjorte ting og idéer. Dét’, skriver hun, ‘er i bunn og grunn selvtilbedelse, og fordi menneskene selv ikke kan bestaa uten overnaturlig hjelp, betyr det opløsning og død.’
Undset så ‘fetishismens isolation’ som en vesentlig fare på 30-tallet. Vi vet hva den førte til da, selv om folk i stadig større grad velger å glemme.
Er vi oss bevisst hvor den tendensen kan komme til å føre oss i dag, nå som den igjen finner voldsomme, hatefulle uttrykk?
Dét at bildet av Guds hellige Visdom, synliggjort som selvoppofrende kjærlighet, nå fremstår fredelig her på Stiklestadhøyden, som på sett og vis er Norges hjerte, forekommer meg som et profetisk tegn og en kilde til selvransakelse frem imot tusenårsjubileet for Olavs offer i 2030. Amen.
En lydversjon av prekenen finner du her:
https://coramfratribus.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Stiklestad-20.-mai-2026.mp3

Coram Fratribus

7. Sunday of Easter This Sunday falls on 17 May, Norway’s National Day.
Acts 1.12-14: The disciples went back to Jerusalem.
1 Peter 4.13-16: Rejoice when you share in the sufferings of Christ.
John 17.1-11: My glory shines in those who are mine.
For forty days after Easter Jesus goes in and out among the disciples. He sticks to their small group. He does not put on compelling son-et-lumière performances over Jerusalem. There’s no trace of triumphalism in him who vanquished the worst of man’s enemies, death himself. He proceeds with quietness. He converses and explains; he shares meals; he hosts them when he performs gestures the Eleven recognise from the Last Supper. His explicit intention is that the Gospel should reach the ends of the earth. But he doesn’t envisage this happening through compulsion or shock collective impact. No, his liberating message is to spread from soul to soul, from person to person.
If I want to see the world transformed by Christianity, I have to be transformed by it myself. There’s no other way. It is useful to recall that in these times of culture war.
On the fortieth day ‘he was lifted up’ after having promised, once again, that the Church would receive the Holy Spirit, power from on high. Believers must get used to Christ’s being present on different terms. They must learn to live sacramentally, ready to recognise him in baptism, in the breaking of bread, the forgiveness of sin, the anointing of the sick. From now on they must be conscious that daily life is divinely illumined.
A Christian isn’t call to stand around purposelessly gazing heavenward. Angels made this clear when they, on the day of Christ’s Ascension, told the Eleven a little brusquely: ‘Why do you stand looking into heaven?’ The message is clear: a pressing earthly task is waiting. That task is entrusted to the Church until Jesus ‘will come again even as [the apostles saw] him go into heaven’ (Acts 1.8-11).
That is where today’s reading picks up the thread, telling us how the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet. In term of physical distance, it was a short walk. Symbolically speaking, it was an interplanetary voyage.
How can the promises and commandments of Jesus gain access to a world, a society that has not had a share in the apostles’ experience? How can the Gospel, like leaven, be kneaded into the dough of humanity at large, to raise it?
The apostles will have pondered such things during the Pentecost Novena as they, with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, waited to be equipped, mystically, to face a task that seemed to them utterly excessive.
That same task challenges us today. Like the apostles then, we are called, now, to climb down from the Upper Room into the streets. We are charged with communicating faith to our world. We cannot withdraw into protected enclaves. To be a Catholic is not to be a member of a special-interest society or a secret fraternity. Catholics are by definition universally minded, asked to share with generosity the treasure committed to their keeping.
It is good to think of this commission today, on Norway’s National Day. Historically this day commemorates the establishment of our constitution in 1814. We express our will to exist as a nation, we claim our right to self-determination. But it happens without aggression.
On the news this morning I listened to a report about yesterday’s happenings in London. Two different marches wound their way through the city’s streets. Both held the banner of England high. But the perception among the respective marchers of what that banner stands for was diametrically opposed. Four thousand policemen were mobilised to keep the two marches apart, for fear a clash might erupt in a street fight.
In Norway everyone, thank God, joins a single procession. It belongs to the children, above all. Adults can take part as guests. We wave our flags, we say to each other, and to perfect strangers: ‘Congratulations!’ But our togetherness for Norway is not a movement against anyone else. It wouldn’t occur to a Norwegian to mark the 17th of May with a military parade. Only the guards before the royal palace carry guns, and they’re ornamental.
Today we express our gladness on account of all the good things we enjoy in this country: the liberty, generosity, and justice that mark Norwegian society. We look back with gratitude, forward with hope. But we cannot permit ourselves to be naive. We remember the Fathers of the Nation from 1814 reverently. But we know that the Norway they founded was built on a degree of exclusion. The second paragraph of the original constitution is openly anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic. It appears it isn’t typically Norwegian, after all, to be inclusive. That wasn’t the case 212 years ago at Eidsvoll; and it isn’t the case today. In many ways society is narrowing. An ice-cold totalitarian wind is blowing through Europe. We feel occasional gusts of it up here, where we are, too.
It is vital, therefore, to keep building our national unity, the beautiful things about the Norway we love, on a firm foundation.
The apostles’ soul-wrestling with the import of Christian responsibility during the days between Ascension and Pentecost gives us a paradigm to follow. An early Christian text written not long after the book of Acts points out that Christians are to be to the world what the soul is to the body. Now, there‘s a task.
In the Gospel we have heard Jesus’s cry: ‘Father! Everything mine is yours. My glory shines in those who are mine.’ We are to make sure that that glorious light does not go out, that it keeps shining brightly like a lighthouse, a dependable coordinate for navigation globally and in our local Norwegian reality.

Coram Fratribus

Trapped Only this morning, on a visit to the medieval cathedral in Trondheim, did I notice this detail of adornment on the baptismal font, carved in the early twentieth century to patterns found on old fragments. It shows the devil, man’s enemy – whom the Fathers called ‘the hater of good’ – trapped in the branches and foliage of the Tree of Life. The message is clear: baptism strips him of power. Faced with the grace that issues from incorporation into Christ’s Body, he has no freedom of movement. A baptised Christian already has the resources needed for spiritual battle. He or she must just learn to put them to good use. The Christian task is to let the grace of baptism be realised through free choices for good, as we have no truck with the evil one, refusing to give him attention he does not deserve. The trapped one may growl, but has no power to harm unless we restore it by contradicting our baptismal pledges, and so give him freedom to roam.

Thursday May 21st, Rosary, Mass and Adoration at 7.30pm in our chapel in Ballybutler 🙏 1 Comments

Cloyne Diocese will u get the mass shown

4 Likes

Posted: Yesterday

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Brendan, May 16th.
St. Brendan, is best known for his famous voyages and for his achievements as a monk labouring for Christ in the early days of Christianity in Ireland.
Like St. Brendan we Read More 2 Comments

Brendan WilmotAndrew Coleman what a scholar Andy not like me lol

Glanire Commercial Cleaning Long hours and steady focus like Brendan’s voyages—that’s what keeps us ahead here.

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Posted: 5 days ago

Feast of Our Lady of Fatima
Today is the feast of Our Lady of Fatima. It was on this day in 1917 when Our Lady appeared to three children in Fatima and asked them to pray for sinners and an Read More 6 Comments

Our Lady of Fatima pray for us 🙏🙏🙏

Saints of the Gospel Amen 🙏Amen 🙏

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Posted: Last week

Today we celebrate the first anniversary of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate.
Holy Father, we thank God for your pastoral leadership and tireless work for peace & on behalf of those who suffer in the world. We remember your intentions in prayer.
Trocaire Read More 1 Likes

Posted: Last week

See you this evening 😎 1 Likes

Posted: 2 weeks ago

Fatima Pilgrimage 2026 - Carrigtwohill Parish

Carrigtwohill Parish Pilgrimage to Fatima 7th - 14th September 2026

Cloyne Diocesan Pilgrimages 2026

Cloyne Diocesan Pilgrimages 2026

Bishop Crean meets Pope Leo

Bishop William Crean meets Pope Leo on recent pilgrimage to Rome

"Behold I'm doing a new thing" says the Lord (Isaiah 43)

Pastoral letter from Bishop William Crean

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