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Welcome

Fáilte, Welcome

to the website for the Catholic Diocese of Cloyne, Ireland

Bishop William Crean

15 October 2026

Bishop William Crean greeting Bishop Petro Loza, Diocese of Sokal - Zhovkva

Bishop Petro Loza visited the Cloyne Diocesan Centre, Cobh on the 14th October 2026, to renew Fr. Roman Biletskyy's contract in the Diocese of Cloyne

Fr. Roman is currently ministering as Curate in the parishes of Fermoy, Kilworth and Araglin in the Diocese of Cloyne

Bishop William Crean greeting Bishop Petro Loza

Raising Hope

Caring for Our Common Hope together

In the midst of environmental crises, how can parish communities care more deeply for God's creation? Join us for a day to equip yourself and your parish community to walk more gently on the earth, with dynamic speakers, practical workshops and a 'marketplace' of support

Saturday, 21st November 2026
From 10am to 4pm
Clayton Hotel Silver Springs
Tivoli, Cork, T23 E244

To register please email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Suggested donation of €10 on the day

"God has written a precious book, whose letters are the multitude of created things present in the universe."
Pope Francis, Laudato Si', 85

Laudato Si' Conference

07 October 2026

February
Mitchelstown - Tuesday 9th
Ballyhea and Ballyclough - Thursday 11th
Castletownroche - Tuesday 23rd
Conna - Thursday 25th

March
Aghada - Thursday 4th
Imogeela - Tuesday 9th
Midleton - Wednesday 10th
Cobh - Thursday 11th
Killeagh - Tuesday 16th

Confirmation Dates 2027

BEHOLD I AM DOING A NEW THING
Says the Lord (Isaiah 42:19)

My friends,

This is the theme that has inspired our prayer and dialogue across the diocese over this past while. It reflects our desire to be attentive to the Lord’s invitation to change and adjust together to the new circumstances in which we find ourselves. It calls for a generosity of spirit on all our part, people and priests to create altered ways of sustaining one another in faith and life. While we are continually inspired by the deep roots of our Catholic tradition, we willingly embrace the challenge of adjusting our parish patterns to work more effectively with one another.

We thank all those taking up new appointments, lay people and clergy. We are ever indebted to all who quietly and generously give of themselves to ministry in their parish. We pray for one another, for a fresh outpouring of mutual service to one another in these turbulent times.

The following appointments will be effective from 12 Noon Saturday 12th September.

Very Rev. Anthony Wickham P.P. Newtownshandrum to retire and become Pastor Emeritus (P.E)
Very Rev. Michael Fitzgerald P.P. Blarney to take Sabbatical Leave
Very Rev. Canon Donal O’Mahony P.P. Charleville to continue as P.P. Charleville and also to be Administrator of Newtownshandrum
Very Rev. Eugene Baker P.P. of Buttevant and Adm of Churchtown- Liscarroll to be P.P. of Blarney
Very Rev. Christopher Donlon P.P. of Ballymacoda and Ladysbridge to be P.P. of Buttevant and Adm of Churchtown - Liscarroll
Very Rev. Tom McDermott Adm. Cobh to be P.P. of Milford
Rev. Mark Hehir C.C. Midleton to be P.P. of Ballymacoda and Ladysbridge
Rev. Gerard Cremin C.C. Cobh to be Administrator of Cobh
Rev. Damien Lynch C.C. Mallow to be C.C. Midleton
Rev. Micah Kibet Kemboi, Diocese of Kitale, Kenya to be C.C. Mallow
Rev. Tiernan Burke C.C. Youghal pro-tem, to be C.C. Cobh
Deacon Garrett Cody to serve as Co-ordinator of Support to PASTORAL AREAS

Yours sincerely,

+ William Crean

Bishop of Cloyne

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25th October 2026 - The widow and the orphan

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October 2026
August 2026
- New Appointments in the Diocese of Cloyne - 12th September 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

Migration

For today, the 30th Sunday in Ordinary time, the Nordic Bishops’ Conference has prepared a pastoral letter on migration. In today’s reading from the Book of Exodus, we read: ‘You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you Read More

Coram Fratribus

Misappropriation It’s a feature of our time that, turning on the radio while getting the breakfast things out, you might hear terms such as ‘Palantir’, ‘Istar’, ‘Mordor’ and ‘orcs’ on the morning news. They are borrowings from Tolkien, extracted from the coherently imagined universe of The Lord of the Rings, applied haphazardly to strategic policies that make us afraid. Are such borrowings legitimate? In a carefully argued essay published a few months ago, Professor Giuseppe Pezzini argues that, more often than not, they are not: ‘This appropriation of Tolkien rests on both misunderstanding and manipulation.’ Tolkien’s epic envisages the destruction of Sauron’s Ring of Power by the guileless hobbit Frodo. Today’s Tolkien enthusiasts seek to be ring-wielders, enamoured of the ring’s promise to assure ‘invisibility, control over other minds, and the prolongation of life’. They resemble Tolkien’s Saruman, whose epithet ‘the Wise’ is ironic. Saruman affirms: ‘We must have power, power to order all things as we will’. Seeing this tendency at work in post-war reconstruction, Tolkien declared in a 1958 speech, ‘Saruman has many descendants.’ He noted, ‘We hobbits have against them no magic weapons’, yet proposed a toast ‘To the Hobbits. May they outlast the Sarumans and see spring again in the trees.’ Pezzini’s text synthesises literary criticism and political commentary with the wisdom, not of Sarumanic calculation, but of the Shires.

Coram Fratribus

Amber Eyes To visit the Jewish Museum in Vienna is to face a long history of prowess, resilience, cultural brilliance, and awful destruction. The museum is based in two locations. On the Judenplatz you can visit the foundations of the medieval synagogue burnt down in the Viennese Gesera of 1420, the year of Torquemada’s birth. On top of these foundations, at street level, Rachel Whiteread’s Shoah memorial now stands, puzzling at first, profoundly moving when you get the point of it. In the Dorotheergasse, you’re taken through the modern history of Viennese Jewry, from the optimism sprung from the 1848 revolutions into the abyss of the Holocaust, then beyond. I was unprepared, so deeply moved, to find in the museum the hare with amber eyes of which Edmund de Waal has written so remarkably. This tiny, exquisite object, apparently fragile, has survived to tell a story that could fill a library. One has but to be able really to see it. The Jewish Museum is a reminder of what destruction wilful blindness has wrought, still wreaks. It exhorts us to keep our eyes open, and shows us how: by refusing to yield to forgetfulness.

Coram Fratribus

Migration For today, the 30th Sunday in Ordinary time, the Nordic Bishops’ Conference has prepared a pastoral letter on migration. In today’s reading from the Book of Exodus, we read: ‘You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.’ The Gospel tells us: ‘You must love your neighbour as yourself’. How do we do that in practice?
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
When God sent his Son into the world, he came as a migrant from heaven to earth. There was no room for him at the inn, only a poor manger among the animals. Hardly had he been born when people wanted to kill him, and he had to flee to Egypt. When God became man, he shared from the beginning the difficult fate that countless migrants throughout history have experienced.
In the Old Testament, we see how the people of Israel repeatedly had to seek refuge elsewhere or were forced into exile. Ever since then, God’s people has been a people on the move, on a pilgrimage toward God’s eternal kingdom. We have no permanent dwelling on earth.
At the same time, we are called to make ourselves at home where we live and to make the best of our earthly existence. Our final homeland is in heaven, but we must nonetheless build a just and good society where providence has placed us, doing our best to live together in solidarity and mutual care.
Every human being has the right to live a good, peaceful life. In our time, migration has often become a source of conflict leading to polarisation. Through her social teaching, the Church helps us find good solutions, encouraging people of good will to work together on this important issue, which belongs to the perennial history of mankind. Migration has occurred in all periods, in all parts of the world. The earth is our common home, where all people are entitled to find a place to live.
Migrants may unsettle us. They can also contribute to the good of the nations in which they settle. Whether they had to leave their own countries on account of famine, war, or persecution or whether they set out freely in search of a better life, migrants can be carriers of valuable insight, energy, and skills. They can come bringing resources that our own countries presently fail to generate.
In Antiquity, the Christian faith spread throughout the Roman Empire through missionaries and migrants who bore witness to their faith wherever they went. From Christianised Europe, the Good News later spread throughout the world.
More recently, the Catholic Church was rebuilt, after the centuries of persecution, in our Nordic countries by migrants who brought their Catholic faith to us. Priests and religious sisters from different parts of the world have, with selfless dedication, contributed to building up the Church throughout Northern Europe.
Migration has potential to lead to difficulties. Migrants must be carefully integrated into their new countries; otherwise, serious problems arise. Those who come from other cultures must be helped to grow into their new country. The Church teaches that migrants are ‘obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens’ (CCC 2241). This contribution must not be seen to exclude their legitimate right to preserve their own heritage.
There is a risk that migrants isolate themselves and fail even to attempt to adapt to their new circumstances. Over time, this tendency generates unease and conflict. Migrants are to be encouraged to integrate but not subjected to forced assimilation. Finding this balance is not always easy, but it is vital for the future of our countries.
Many European countries are increasingly closing their borders. Our time tends to build walls rather than bridges between peoples and countries. Each country naturally needs to assess how many migrants it is able to receive. When this does not happen, and when more people are received than can be integrated well, social problems result. These in turn lead to new strictures in policy, so that it becomes near impossible to enter within our borders even for refugees and asylum seekers, who stand under the protection of international norms to which our countries are obliged.
In some cases, this development has reached the point where it is considered good to send away as many people as possible, including those who are well integrated and who make significant contributions to our societies.
The Church must raise her voice in defense of those who are in danger of being subjected to unjust treatment without due cause.
Our Catholic parishes often function as integration workshop, where migrants are welcomed with love and respect and where they can learn how to live harmoniously in their nation of adoption. Our dioceses are melting-pots where cultures meet. Masses and catechesis are proposed in a range of languages. Practical assistance is given to help newcomers find their way through an unknown bureaucracy and unfamiliar social norms.
In these ways, migrants who join our communities learn how to live out their Catholic faith in their new country. They learn how to contribute to building up the local Church. Once they have become part of a parish, it becomes easier to grow into the wider society and to contribute to it through their own life experience and commitment.
Nordic culture has, throughout the centuries, been enriched by people from all over the world who have been welcomed among us and have become part of our society. It is our prayer and hope that this will continue to be the case.
To foster love of one’s nation, to value its traditions and heritage, is a good thing. Narrow-minded nationalism, however, must be abhorrent to Catholics and to all people of good will. Pope Leo XIV calls upon all of us to work for a world in which people of different cultures and religions can live together in peace, cooperation, and solidarity. He has visited places such as the Canary Islands and Lampedusa and to appeal for help for those who have been forced to flee to another and safer country.
Again and again, the Holy Father calls on us, too, to disarm our language. He asks us to be careful about the way in which we speak about each other, to avoid rhetorical excess. We remind ourselves and all of you of this point. We find nowadays that public coverage of and discourse about immigration tend to become harsher, less nuanced, and more aggressive. This can turn into a form of manipulation we have to resist.
As Christians, we cannot close our hearts to the defenceless and vulnerable people who turn up on our doorstep. We must recognise Jesus in the person in need who counts on us for help. Europe is searching for a new balance in this area. We must be realistic about our limitations, human and material. Still, we must be ready never to reject a suffering brother or sister who calls on us for help.
We, the bishops of the Nordic countries, thank all those who have come to our countries from abroad and who, in various ways, have contributed valiantly to the development of our Church and society. We pray for our countries that they may continue to welcome people who, in communion with all of us, are prepared to work for a world in which all can live in peace and justice, reconciliation and unity.
We place our countries under the protection of the Immaculate Virgin Mary — the ‘Mother of Migrants’ as we pray in the litany. We ask for her intercession, that we may ever more faithfully follow Jesus Christ in his love for the poor and vulnerable.
+Erik Varden OCSO, Trondheim, Tromsø – Præses
+Anders Cardinal Arborelius OCD, Stockholm
+Czeslaw Kozon, København
+David Tencer OFMCap, Reykjavik
+Raimo Goyarrola, Helsinki
+Fredrik Hansen, Oslo
* * *
Here are some excerpts from the recent magisterium of Our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, highly relevant to this topic.
‘Dear migrants, before saying anything else to you, I want to bow before your dignity. You are not just numbers or files. You are people who have left behind families and homes. You have dreams that no one has the right to despise. However, I also want to tell you that your lives must be protected. Do not surrender your lives to those who trade with them. Do not believe those who promise easy paradises in exchange for your body, money, silence or freedom. Those false promises are “siren songs”; they are industries of death. This tragedy must serve as an appeal to the conscience of the nations of origin of the migrants, which must establish conditions for peace, justice and development. It is also an appeal to the conscience of the transit nations, which are called to protect the vulnerable and not leave them in the hands of criminal networks. It is likewise an appeal to the conscience of Europe, which cannot claim to uphold human dignity while growing accustomed to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic becoming unmarked graves, as well as that of the international community, which is called to effective and persevering cooperation. The Church, too, must allow herself to be challenged. Welcoming migrants cannot be a secondary matter that is left to a few volunteers. We kneel before the altar to adore Christ present in the Eucharist, from whom we receive the strength and the motivation to live charity; for this reason, we cannot then “pass by” the small boats and rafts, for all service and every commitment spring from prayer and lead back to it.’ Address at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on 11 June 2026.
‘There is no love of God without love of neighbour, and there is no neighbour if I do not draw near. To pause, to be moved, to bend down, to weep before another’s pain — as Jesus did — means entering into the dynamic of love, the very movement in which God has revealed himself.My dear friends, those who allow themselves to be drawn into this dynamic of compassion and mercy begin to live differently, to be citizens in a different way and to work differently. Then the civilisation of love — the one envisioned by my holy predecessors John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II — can truly emerge. Together with a great number of prophets and martyrs of the last century, they understood that only mercy can respond to the depths of the human heart and the horrors of war by opening the way to a new beginning. Now, standing on the shoulders of these giants, we have entered a millennium in which we must give spiritual, cultural, legal, political and economic expression to the civilisation of love. May the enormity of the suffering we witness help us grasp the radical nature of this call.’ Homily given at Lampedusa on 4 July 2026.
‘The first contribution we can make toward a more humane civilisation is to be mindful of our words. “Let us disarm words and we will help to disarm the world.” Words have enormous power, something we experience in our daily interactions; for example, spoken words can change our mood for better or for worse. “Peace begins with each one of us: in the way we look at others, listen to others and speak about others. In this sense, the way we communicate is of fundamental importance: we must say ‘no’ to the war of words and images, we must reject the paradigm of war.” We must all, therefore, examine our conscience regarding the words we use, the prejudices we have and the explicit or implicit aggression that lies within them. We have a real opportunity to contribute to the common good each time we speak the truth, offer wise advice, support those in need of comfort, denounce injustice and give a voice to the voiceless.’ Magnifica Humanitas, par. 214.
When we Norwegians reflect on the subject of migration, we do well to remember that ours is a nation of emigrants. In the period 1825-1940 some 900,000 Norwegians left their poor homeland in search of a better life elsewhere. The complete population of Norway in that period was about 2 million. Gustav Wentzel’s painting The Emigrants from 1902 catches the mood. Photograph: Wikipedia.

Coram Fratribus

No Luxury I find Bartók’s first piano concerto difficult to listen to on recordings. It might work, I suppose, if you’ve a super-sophisticated sound system with spaced-out impact; with headphones or a single speaker, the strong percussional character of the work overwhelms the ear. To hear Yuja Wang perform it live with the Wiener Symphoniker this evening, though, was thrilling. Suddenly I become aware of how melodious it is. Wang’s technical virtuosity is the stuff of legends. She is also an interpreter of great, intelligent sensibility. That was as evident in the Bartók as in the lovely Piano Concerto by Barber, which I’d never heard before, but which I shall now study carefully. After the interval, the orchestra played Schumann’s second symphony. It filled the grand auditorium of the Musikverein with joy. Yuja Wang said not long ago: ‘For me, music isn’t a luxury or some pleasant additional extra. Music is a necessity, something without which I couldn’t be fully alive.’ This evening gave that statement substance.

Coram Fratribus

Security Alert You may have noticed that Coram Fratribus was off-line this week. This was a measure taken in light of the PHP security warning that affected the internet. The warning, provided by whistle-blowing AI, exposed vulnerabilities that provide access to a given server’s ‘file system or database‘. One can see why dastardly agencies, human or virtual, seek to take advantage of such vulnerabilities. What any of them might gain from accessing Coram Fratribus, a humble reality quite without geopolitical or commercial interest, is less obvious. This incident revealed a feature of contemporary life that conditions us more and more. Since we’re all hooked up to, and caught in, one world-wide web, a single destructive operation makes itself felt across the board – from security services to parish newsletters. All the while, we keep entrusting all our resources and anything we know about anything to this ultimately fragile system. It seems bonkers: a mouse-click and all the world’s frozen pizzas thaw. What if someone simply pulls the plug of the grids that now run everything? That the world is subject to fragilities beyond human control is one thing; that we keep making ourselves ever more fragile is another. It’s something we should think hard about.

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Bishop William Crean greeting Bishop Petro Loza of Ukraine

Bishop William Crean greeting Bishop Petro Loza, Diocese of Sokal - Zhovkva