The Western Theological Institute has conferred degrees on the first graduates of its four-year programme.
The eight full-time students from the school of humanities at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) in Galway were conferred last week with BA (Hons.) degrees in theological studies and business practice.
The course is the only one of its kind which combines the disciplines of business and theology in Ireland.
It was developed by Dr Eugene Duffy, of the Western Theological Institute, and staff in GMIT. Fr Duffy is also a lecturer on the course.
He said its success "is evident in the fact that all of the graduates are already continuing post-graduate studies or are in employment.
"In a time of growing economic prosperity it is important, as the President of Ireland pointed out recently, that we also have a sense of the wider values that will guide the best use and distribution of those resources that we are now accumulating."
The Western Theological Institute was established in 1997 by the six Catholic bishops in the west to provide theological and pastoral resources for the area.