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

02 March 2026

Walking in the Bible for Lent - Carrigtwohill Parish

Gentle reflections with questions welcome
8pm – 9.15pm

As a Parish we wish to explore the Bible during Lent, looking at the readings for the Easter Vigil as a way of guiding the exploration. Interested in walking through the Bible with others: Bible for curious and faithful. Discovery the wonder of the Scripture. Tues 3rd March, Tues 10th March, Wednesday 18th March and Tuesday 24th March

All are Welcome

Venue - Parish Sacristy

TAIZE PRAYER
Friday evenings at 7pm in St. Mary's Church, Carrigtwohill

Walking in the Bible for Lent - Carrigtwohill Parish

16 February 2026

Baptised and Sent - Lenten programme in Macroom

This Lent, parishes, schools and groups across Ireland are invited to journey together through a set of reflective resources inspired by Baptised and Sent which is the preparatory document for the 2025 National Pre-Synodal Assembly in Kilkenny

Grounded in the conviction that baptism is the foundation of our identity, dignity and mission, these resources help us return to the heart of Christian life: being reborn in Christ and sent out by the Spirit in service of the Gospel

You are warmly invited to join with us each Monday evening during lent in St. Colman’s Church Parish Centre, Macroom from 7pm to 8pm

Each weeks’ Lectio Divina, offers us an opportunity to reflect on the upcoming Sunday Gospel, which is prayerfully linked to key insights from Baptised and Sent.

Facilitated by Bill Kelly

St Colman's Macroom

10 February 2026

Camp Creideamh, Catholic Faith Camps for teenagers, boys and girls, will take place again in Knockadoon (East Cork) over the dates 7th – 13th June. For those who are Post-Primary school age.

Activities will include catechesis, prayer, sports, hillwalking, kayaking, swimming, music, arts and crafts and other activities.

For bookings go to the website Camp Creideamh

For more information please call Fr. Eamon Roche on 086 9972539

Camp Creideamh - Knockadoon

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Latest Homily

1 Mar 2026 - “It is good for us to be here”

Latest Articles

March 2026
- Fatima Pilgrimage 2026 - Carrigtwohill Parish
- Lent 2026 - Carrigtwohill Parish
February 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

On Woundedness

The snippets below are from a conversation with Fran Otero on the occasion of the launch of Healing Wounds in Spanish. You can find the whole interview on the site of Ecclesia, here, or in PDF, here.
Should you wish to follow Read More

Coram Fratribus

To Communicate Hope

From the eleventh and last conference of this week’s Lenten Retreat. Italian text below.
On 11 October 1962 Pope Saint John XXIII solemnly opened the Second Vatican Council. The Council’s ‘greatest concern’, he said, would be ‘that the sacred deposit of Christian Read More

Coram Fratribus

On Consideration

From the tenth conference of this week’s Lenten Retreat. Italian text below.
St Bernard wrote a treatise On Consideration. It enjoyed the widest circulation of any of his works. This may seem odd, for the text is in essence a letter addressed Read More

Coram Fratribus

On Woundedness The snippets below are from a conversation with Fran Otero on the occasion of the launch of Healing Wounds in Spanish. You can find the whole interview on the site of Ecclesia, here, or in PDF, here.
Should you wish to follow a conversation with Ana Zarzalejos on the same subject, you can find it in video format here.
In your opinion, what are today’s world’s wounds?
It is risky to generalise. I suggest we restrict ourselves to the West – or Europe. One wound is mistrust. Another is disappointment as a result of mistrust, which often leads to loneliness and isolation. We also carry the wound of anxiety, which becomes more pronounced as we awaken to the extent of our political, economic and ecological instability.
Lent seems like an apt time to meditate on Christ’s wounds and ours. How can we do this?
By delving deeper into the liturgy of the Church. The liturgy is an extraordinary tool for teaching, and the Church is a great teacher. The liturgy, through its signs, texts, actions, presences, and absences, focuses our attention and sharpens our awareness. If we allow the liturgy to speak to us, if we participate in it, we will be drawn into the mystery. If we allow the liturgy to speak and do not turn it into something banal and boring, the mystery of Lent will be revealed to us and we will be prepared for Easter.
Is liturgy key to evangelisation?
I believe it is crucially important. It is not the only factor, but it is the most significant one. It has always been that way.
What do you think should be the priority of the Church today?
At the risk of disappointing you, I would say it is the coherent proclamation of Christ’s Gospel: proclaiming to the world that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead, that death is dead, that forgiveness is possible, and that human beings are called to holiness.
Then a last question. How do you interpret the new world order that seems to be emerging?
With uncertainty, perplexity, unease. These are times for decision-making. We who live in free countries must ask ourselves if we are truly committed to the life we live and the values we claim to defend and share — freedom, equality, hospitality; if we are prepared to make sacrifices to stay free, or would rather sell our freedom if only we are left to live undisturbed.
A fourteenth-century German Pietà, now in the Met Cloisters.

Coram Fratribus

Magic Flute In general I hold to the principle: Don’t mess with Mozart. Why footle about with something that, most of the time, touches perfection? Andrea Binetti’s adaptation, though, is delightful. It works, musically and dramatically. Designed for children, this one-act version, lasting exactly an hour, is realised with a small orchestra and only six singers, most of whom take several parts. When I read in the programme that Giacomo Segulia will sing ‘Monostatos and the Three Ladies‘, I thought: Hm? But even that worked, really quite triumphantly. This spare production conveys the enchantment of Mozart. There were children in the audience. They loved the show, that was obvious. Those of us who were, at least in age, grown-up, loved it no less. In the programme Binetti cites Pirandello’s line about the theatre being a place in which one can ‘play at being serious’. I left the theatre feeling rejuvenated and full of joy.

Coram Fratribus

Im- and Expressionism In a spare moment last week I went to see an exhibition currently on at the Museum of the Ara Pacis called ‘Impressionism and Beyond‘. I don’t think I’ve ever found a clearer, more pedagogical account of the movement from impressionism to expressionism. A display cites this statement by Mallarmé: ‘The search for truth, characteristic of modern artists, which enables them to see nature and reproduce it, as it appears to the exact and pure gaze, must compel them to adopt air almost exclusively as their medium, or at least to become accustomed to working in it freely and without constraints.’ I’m not sure I quite understand what this means. I’m not even sure it can fully be understood. Who in this world has an ‘exact and pure gaze’? Still, when you stand before a canvas such as this one of Mont Sainte-Victoire by Cézanne, it’s hard not to think: ‘Well, there’s something to it.’

Coram Fratribus

To Communicate Hope From the eleventh and last conference of this week’s Lenten Retreat. Italian text below.
On 11 October 1962 Pope Saint John XXIII solemnly opened the Second Vatican Council. The Council’s ‘greatest concern’, he said, would be ‘that the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine should be guarded and taught more efficaciously. That doctrine embraces the whole of man, composed of body and soul. It bids us, pilgrims on this earth, tend towards our heavenly home.’
Less than a week after the pope’s discourse, the Cuban Missile Crisis broke out. Man looked set to blow himself out of the water of his earthly sojourn, with no thought of an eschatological goal. With the wounds of World War II still raw, our race was generating ghastly new prospects of self-destruction.
A climate of precariousness surrounded the Council; at the same time this period was charged with fervent hopes for a new society founded on human rights, fair trade, and technical advances. The Council wished to speak into the time’s ‘anxious questions about the current trend of the world, the place and role of man in the universe, the meaning of man’s […] strivings, the ultimate destiny of reality and of humanity’. Not only did it address the questions. It pointed towards their resolution, announcing that Christ, crucified and risen, incarnates the future of mankind. The Council set the Church the task of enunciating Christ in such a way that he will appear clearly and compellingly as the answer to the present time’s most urgent issues without compromising for a moment the sacred deposit of doctrine.
Christ is the light of the nations, Lumen Gentium. He alone, doing the Father’s will, acting in the Spirit, can renew the face of the earth. In him we put our trust, not in passing stratagems.
He can act through us if we consent to being patient. Lent shows us that God, suffering the wound of his philanthropy, is at his most active in his Passion. The hope he entrusts to us is not hope in a finally modernised, digitised, sanitised Vale of Tears. Our hope is in a new heaven, a new earth, in the resurrection of the dead.
The time in which we live is hungry to hear this hope proclaimed. We have considered some signs surrounding us: new religious awareness among the young; the return of the category of truth to public discourse; a search for roots. Global institutions and alliances are breaking down. We are exposed to strategic, ecological, and ideological peril. It is natural that people of sense and good will should ask what, in the midst of such uncertainty, stands a chance of lasting. Tired of building their lives on sand, they seek solid rock. Meanwhile, their heart is disquieted. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council affirmed, in Gaudium et spes, that the best aspirations and darkest dread of the present time must raise an echo in the hearts of Christians. For a Christian is no stranger to anything that is ‘genuinely human’.
Reminding the Christians in Corinth of his coming among them, Paul wrote: ‘I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or in wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.’ The categorical centrality of Jesus’s saving Passion suffused the doctrine of this peerless preacher of reconciliation, mercy, graced transformation, joy, and eternal life. Courage is required to follow his example in a culture that tempts us to market a happier Gospel prognosticable in terms of fixed processes and set results. Around us, the cross-overshadowed naves of ancient cathedrals are handed over to mini-golf. Sanctuaries are used for secular skits designed, in desperation, to display ‘relevance’. Meanwhile, a stone’s throw away, in the secular arena, the young disconsolately sway, softly singing that life is an open wound and that there is no balm in Gilead.
Our time is crying out for the Gospel in fullness. The young lamenting in our parks with heavy hearts hunger for it. They do listen when it is presented ‘with authority’ by Christians able at once to expound and display the truth of it without compromise, showing Christ’s gracious power to renew and to transform lives.
***
O BONITAS
***
L’11 ottobre 1962 Papa Giovanni XXIII apriva solennemente il Concilio Vaticano II. “Quel che più di tutto interessa il Concilio – disse – è che il sacro deposito della dottrina cristiana sia custodito e insegnato in forma più efficace. Tale dottrina abbraccia l’uomo integrale, composto di anima e di corpo, e a noi, che abitiamo su questa terra, comanda di tendere come pellegrini alla patria celeste”.
Meno di una settimana dopo il discorso del Papa, scoppiò la crisi missilistica cubana: l’umanità sembrava decisa a sbarazzarsi dell’esistenza terrena, senza pensare ad alcun orizzonte escatologico. Con le ferite della seconda guerra mondiale ancora aperte, la nostra razza stava generando nuove e spaventose prospettive di autodistruzione.
Un clima di precarietà circondava il Concilio; allo stesso tempo, questo periodo era carico di fervide speranze per una nuova società fondata sui diritti umani, sul commercio equo e sul progresso della tecnica. Il Concilio desiderava parlare delle “ansiose questioni sull’attuale evoluzione del mondo, sul posto e sul compito dell’uomo nell’universo, sul senso dei propri sforzi individuali e collettivi, e infine sul destino ultimo delle cose e degli uomini”. Non ha solo affrontato i problemi: ha indicato la loro risoluzione, annunciando che Cristo, crocifisso e risorto, incarna il futuro dell’umanità. Il Concilio ha affidato alla Chiesa il compito di annunciare Cristo in modo tale che egli appaia chiaramente e in modo convincente come la risposta alle domande più urgenti del tempo presente, senza compromettere minimamente il sacro deposito della dottrina.
Cristo è la luce delle nazioni, Lumen Gentium. Solo Lui, facendo la volontà del Padre, agendo nello Spirito, può rinnovare la faccia della terra. In lui riponiamo la nostra fiducia, non in stratagemmi passeggeri.
Egli può agire attraverso di noi se accettiamo di essere pazienti. La Quaresima ci mostra che Dio, sopportando la ferita alla sua filantropia, nella sua Passione raggiunge il culmine del suo agire. La speranza che ci affida non è la speranza in una valle di lacrime finalmente modernizzata, digitalizzata e sanificata: la nostra speranza è in un cielo nuovo, in una terra nuova, nella risurrezione dei morti.
Il tempo in cui viviamo ha fame di ascoltare questa speranza proclamata.
Abbiamo considerato alcuni segni che ci circondano: una nuova consapevolezza religiosa tra i giovani; il ritorno della categoria della verità nel discorso pubblico; una ricerca delle radici. Le istituzioni e le alleanze globali si stanno sgretolando e ci troviamo esposti a pericoli strategici, ecologici e ideologici. È naturale che le persone di buon senso e di buona volontà si chiedano cosa, in mezzo a tali parametri mutevoli, abbia possibilità di durata: stanche di costruire le loro vite sulla sabbia, cercano una roccia solida. Nel frattempo, il loro cuore è irrequieto. I Padri del Concilio Vaticano II hanno affermato, in Gaudium et spes, che le migliori aspirazioni e il terrore più cupo del tempo presente devono suscitare un’eco nel cuore dei cristiani, perché un cristiano non è estraneo a nulla che sia “genuinamente umano”.
Ricordando ai cristiani di Corinto la sua venuta tra loro, Paolo scrisse: “non mi presentai ad annunciarvi il mistero di Dio con l’eccellenza della parola o della sapienza. Io ritenni infatti di non sapere altro in mezzo a voi se non Gesù Cristo, e Cristo crocifisso”. La centralità assoluta della Passione salvifica di Gesù ha pervaso la dottrina di questo ineguagliabile predicatore di riconciliazione, misericordia, trasformazione della grazia, gioia e vita eterna.
Ci vuole coraggio per seguire il suo esempio in una cultura che ci tenta a diffondere un Vangelo più allegro, prevedibile in termini di procedure fisse e risultati prestabiliti. Intorno a noi, le navate delle antiche cattedrali, oscurate dalle croci, vengono trasformate in campi da mini-golf. I santuari sono usati per scenette secolari progettate per mostrare una supposta “rilevanza”. Nel frattempo, a due passi di distanza, però nell’arena del mondo, i giovani ondeggiano sconsolati, cantando dolcemente che la vita è una ferita aperta e che “non c’è più balsamo in Gilead”.
Il nostro tempo richiede a gran voce la pienezza del vangelo. I giovani che, nei nostri parchi, cantano con il cuore pesante ne hanno fame: ascoltano quando viene presentato “con autorità” da cristiani capaci di esporre e manifestare la verità senza compromessi, mostrando la grazia di Cristo che può rinnovare e trasformare le nostre vite.

Apse mosaic from Sant’Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna.

Coram Fratribus

On Consideration From the tenth conference of this week’s Lenten Retreat. Italian text below.
St Bernard wrote a treatise On Consideration. It enjoyed the widest circulation of any of his works. This may seem odd, for the text is in essence a letter addressed to a specific person in a singular predicament. Bernard wrote it for a confrère of his, an Italian monk named Bernardo dei Paganelli who, already a priest of the church of Pisa, had entered Clairvaux in 1138.
In 1145 Paganelli became Pope Eugene III.
While contemplation deals with truths already known, consideration, in Bernard’s vocabulary, seeks truth in contingent human affairs, where it can be difficult to notice. It can be defined as ‘thought searching for truth, or the searching of a mind to discover truth.’
Considering the problems of the Church, Bernard offers no institutional remedies. He rather advises Eugene to surround himself with good people. The better the Church’s central offices are run, the greater the benefit will be for the Church worldwide.
The qualities Bernard asks him to look out for and cultivate are immortal. Needed are collaborators ‘of proven sanctity, ready obedience, and quiet patience; […] catholic in faith, faithful in service; inclined towards peace, and desirous of unity; […] farsighted in counsel, […] industrious in organisation […], modest in speech’.
Such people ‘habitually devote themselves to prayer, and in every undertaking place more confidence in it than in their own industry or labour. Their arrival is peaceful, their departure unassuming.’
In so far as the Church operates in these terms will she reflect the organisation of the angels’ hierarchies. Whoever considers her then will see her principal mission: that of giving God glory.
To consider earthly necessities rightly, we must seek, through them, what is above. This is not, Bernard tells Eugene, somehow to ‘go into exile: to consider in this way is to return to one’s homeland’.
Bernard asks himself: What is God? Omnipotent will, benevolent virtue, unchangeable reason. God is ‘supreme blessedness’ who, for love, wishes to share his divinity with us. He has created us to desire him. He broadens us to receive him, justifies us to merit him. He leads us in justice, moulds us in benevolence, enlightens us with knowledge, preserves us unto immortality.
Whatever else prelates have to think about, and it is much, they must consider these things first. Thereby their consideration of practical matters, too, will be illumined, ordered, blessed.
A prelate must, in Bernard’s view, be principled, holy, and austere. But he should also be the Bridegroom’s friend, delighting in sharing that friendship with others.
Augustine liked to describe episcopal office as a sarcina, a legionary’s bundle. It is a raw image conceived by one who knew the desolation and fear of campaigns in the North African desert. He goes on, though, to improvise on his own set theme. Though the pastoral burden does have a fearful aspect, it is fearful only if we fail to notice who puts the burden on our shoulders. For it is no less a participation in the sweet yoke of Christ, who lets us discover that the cross-bar entrusted to us is luminous and light, that a share in it is joyful.
Augustine once wrote: ‘Perduc sarcinam tuam quia levis est si diligis gravis si odisti‘, that is: ‘Bear your own load to the end. If you love it, it will be light. If you hate it, it will be heavy.’
‘Yours, good Jesus’, wrote Bernard in his Life of St Malachy the Irishman, ‘is the deposit which has been entrusted to us; yours the treasure hidden in our possession, to be given back at the time you shall ordain for its reclaiming.’
***
San Bernardo scrisse un trattato dedicato proprio a La Considerazione. Fu un best-seller, che godette di una diffusione più ampia di qualsiasi altra sua opera. Ciò può sembrare strano, poiché il testo è in sostanza una lettera indirizzata a un uomo specifico in una posizione unica. Bernardo lo scrisse per un confratello, un monaco italiano di nome Bernardo dei Paganelli che, già sacerdote della chiesa di Pisa, entra a Clairvaux nel 1138.
Nel 1145 Paganelli diventa Papa Eugenio III.
La contemplazione si occupa di verità già note. La considerazione cerca la verità negli affari umani contingenti, dove può essere difficile scorgerla. Può essere definita come “il pensiero interamente proteso, oppure la tensione dell’animo, alla ricerca della verità”.
Considerando i problemi della Chiesa, Bernardo non offre rimedi istituzionali, consiglia piuttosto a Eugenio di circondarsi di persone buone: meglio sono gestiti gli uffici centrali della Chiesa, maggiore sarà il beneficio per la Chiesa in tutto il mondo.
Le qualità che Bernardo gli chiede di cercare e coltivare sono valide in ogni tempo: servono collaboratori “di provata integrità, disponibili all’obbedienza, pazienti e miti; […] di sicura fede cattolica, fedeli nel ministero; amanti della concordia, della pace e dell’unità; […] prudenti nel consiglio, […] sagaci nell’amministrazione, […], modesti nel parlare”.
Tali persone “amano e gustano la preghiera e in essa confidano la propria speranza più che nella loro sagacia o nel lavoro; il loro ingresso è senza strepito, il commiato senza pompa”.
Nella misura in cui la Chiesa opera in questi termini, rifletterà l’organizzazione delle gerarchie angeliche. Chiunque la consideri allora vedrà subito la sua missione principale: quella di dare gloria a Dio.
Per considerare correttamente le necessità terrene, dobbiamo cercare, attraverso di esse, ciò che è al di sopra. Questo non è, dice Bernardo a Eugenio, in qualche modo “andare in esilio: considerare in questo modo è tornare in patria”.
Bernardo si chiede: che cos’è Dio? Volontà onnipotente, virtù benevola, ragione immutabile. Dio è “somma beatitudine” che, per amore, desidera condividere con noi la sua divinità. Ci ha creati per desiderarlo, ci dilata per riceverlo, ci giustifica per meritarlo. Egli ci guida nella giustizia, ci plasma nella benevolenza, ci illumina con la conoscenza, ci preserva per l’immortalità.
Di qualunque altra cosa i prelati debbano occuparsi, e sono molte, queste realtà devono essere considerate prima. In tal modo anche la loro considerazione delle questioni pratiche sarà illuminata, ordinata, benedetta e feconda.
Un prelato, secondo Bernardo, deve essere dotato di principi, deve essere santo e austero, ma dovrebbe anche essere amico dello Sposo e gioire nel condividere quell’amicizia con gli altri.
Agostino descrive spesso l’ufficio episcopale come una sarcina, il fagotto del legionario. È un’immagine un po’ brutale, concepita da chi conosceva la desolazione e la paura delle campagne nel deserto nordafricano. Agostino continua, tuttavia, a improvvisare sul tema da lui stesso impostato. Sebbene il fardello pastorale abbia un aspetto spaventoso, è spaventoso solo se non riusciamo a notare chi ci mette il fardello sulle spalle. Poiché non è altro che una partecipazione al dolce giogo di Cristo stesso, che ci fa scoprire che la croce affidataci è luminosa e leggera e che poterla condividere è motivo di gioia.
“Porta il tuo fardello fino alla fine – dice Agostino in un sermone – se lo ami, sarà leggero; se lo odi, sarà pesante”: “Perduc sarcinam tuam quia levis est si diligis gravis si odisti”.
“Tuo, o buon Gesù – scrisse Bernardo nella sua Vita di San Malachia, l’Irlandese – è il deposito che ci è stato affidato; tuo è il tesoro nascosto in nostro possesso, da restituire nel momento in cui disporrai di riaverlo indietro”.

Photograph: CS-BB.

Trócaire Box Appeal 2026 https://youtu.be/sBbQviu1baw 1 Likes

Posted: 22 hours ago

Statement of the Spring 2026 General Meeting of the Irish Bishops’ Conference
Synodal Pathway - Ireland National Vocations Office Trocaire @ ⬇️
https://www.catholicbishops.ie/2026/03/04/statement-of-the-spring-2026-general-meeting-of-the-irish-bishops-conference/

Posted: Yesterday

Walking in the Bible for Lent - Carrigtwohill Parish
Gentle reflections with questions welcome.
8pm – 9.15pm
As a Parish we wish to explore the Bible during Lent, looking at the readings for the Easter Vigil as a way of guiding the Read More 3 Likes

Posted: 3 days ago

🌼Today is the Feast Day of St David. 🌼
According to tradition, St. David was the son of King Sant of South Wales and St. Non. He was ordained a priest and later studied under St. Paulinus.
Later, he was Read More 8 Likes

Posted: 4 days ago

Trócaire Annual Lent Lecture 2026 - Trócaire Stay up-to-date with Trócaire's work overseas, get news on key global social justice issues, and find out about our latest campaigns in Ireland and how you can get involved. 1 Likes

Posted: Last week

Fatima Pilgrimage 2026 - Carrigtwohill Parish

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

Lent 2026 - Carrigtwohill Parish

Walking in the Bible for Lent - Carrigtwohill Parish

Baptised and Sent - Lenten programme in Macroom

Baptised and Sent - Lenten programme in Macroom

Camp Creideamh - Knockadoon 7th - 13th June 2026

Camp Creideamh, Catholic Faith Camps for teenagers, boys and girls, will take place again in Knockadoon (East Cork) over the dates 7th – 13th June. For those who are Post-Primary school age.

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