Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has denied a report in the Phoenix magazine that he has held regular private meetings with Irish Prime Minister, Enda Kenny. The Phoenix’s page three article implied that Martin might have influenced Kenny’s recent attack on the Vatican. In a statement, the Archbishop denied the implications, saying the article had Read more
The Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza is being transferred to the Czech Republic. Leanza, recently summoned back to the Vatican for ‘consultations’ resulting from the “Cloyne Report”, is at the centre of the fallout between the Catholic Church and the Irish Prime Minister. Appointed to Dublin in February 2008, Lenza was due to Read more
The Vatican’s decision to recall its diplomatic envoy to Ireland is not viewed as a hostile move by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs. Bruised under unprecedented criticism resulting from the accusation in the Cloyne Report that the Holy See sabotaged efforts by Catholic bishops to report clerical sexual abuse cases to the police, the Vatican made a Read more
Sexual abuse victims in Ireland may no longer be able to sue the Catholic Church for damages if a landmark court ruling determines priests are not considered as employees. In a case heard this month the Church claimed it is not “vicariously liable” for priests’ actions. This is the first time the Church has used the Read more
David Quinn, the most perceptive Catholic observer of Church affairs in Ireland today, has been working overtime in response to the latest public assaults on the Vatican. Writing for the Irish Catholic, Quinn compares the fury of the current Irish government with the ardor of the Jacobins, warning that the Vatican is always the main Read more
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who was recently snubbed as a speaker at the Vatican’s first major conference of bishops and heads of religious orders on clerical child abuse, said he feels angry at the ‘non-response’ of the church to children who had been abused or put at risk. There are groups in the Vatican and the hierarchy, Read more
Catholic priests in Ireland say they will not reveal peoples’ sins told to them in confession, despite the Irish government requiring priests to report alleged incidents of child abuse. “More than any other issues, it is probably the one that will unite both the liberal and conservative winds of the Church,” Fr Tony Flannery said Read more
A leading church official rejected harsh criticism of the Vatican in the wake the Cloyne report. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, told Vatican Radio July 19 that much of the criticism failed to take into account the efforts of Pope Benedict XVI and other church officials to prevent future cases of child sexual Read more
In light of the ‘souring’ relations between the Irish Government and the Vatican, Pope Benedict’s visit to Ireland is likely to be ‘shelved’. Relations between Ireland and the Vatican have cooled recently in response to the revelations that the retired bishop of Cloyne, John Magee, allegedly acting under Vatican orders, failed to report that 19 Read more