Members of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference gathered this week at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, for their Summer 2026 General Meeting. Archbishop Farrell is the Vice-President of the Conference. Issues discussed during the meeting included:

• Civil unrest in Belfast
• Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical letter, Magnifica Humanitas, on humanity in the AI era
• Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church
• ‘Day for Life’ 2026 message: The Wonder of the Child in the Womb
• Department of Education and Youth’s Primary Schools Survey
• Synodality: in Ireland and Universally
• New EU Envoy for FoRB outside the EU, and persecution of Christians in Nigeria
• Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union
• Trócaire: Ebola outbreak in DR Congo
• TheWay.ie, progress on new unified digital platform to share the Good News
• Supporting international priests ministering in Ireland
• Maynooth Union annual celebration of milestone anniversaries of ordination classes

The full statement is available here

Bishop Donal Roche joined TheWay.ie to look back on his first two years as Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Dublin and to reflect on the challenges facing the Church in Dublin. The video can be watched on YouTube.