Irish Catholic newspaper to cater for religious Poles

THE Irish Catholic newspaper is to dedicate a section of its weekly publication to the country’s growing Polish community.

A variety of news, feature and opinion pieces will be aimed at the estimated 150,000 Polish nationals who have made their home in the State. Of those, the vast majority are Catholic.

Editor Garry O’Sullivan said the move was an exciting departure for the newspaper.

“Ireland is changing fast and the Church in Ireland is changing as well,” he said.

“We want to meet that challenge. We have identified a desire among Polish Catholics living in Ireland to read more about their faith and to know more about the Church in Ireland.”

A growing number of parishes in the country are holding weekly Polish Masses to serve the needs of its community. They include St Michan’s and St Saviour’s Churches in the Dublin Diocese, which boasts three Polish priests.

Fr Gerry Kane, coordinator of Pastoral Care of Foreign Nationals said: “Roughly, there are around 80,000 Polish people living in the Dublin dioceses and a high population of them are church-going Catholics.

“We need to have services to provide for them, but we are not setting up a ghetto.”

The Barryroan parish priest said the services bring foreign nationals together, giving them the chance to support each other both spiritually and socially.

The Irish Catholic is coordinating its content of the page with the recently-established Polish Chaplaincy in Ireland, which cater for the pastoral needs of Poles living in Ireland.