Kenny says Francis has timed his visit to coincide with the 22-26 August World Meeting of Families in Dublin.

The World Meeting of Families will focus on Pope Francis's theme: The Gospel of the Family: Joy for the World. Read more

In announcing the date, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the referendum would underline Ireland's reputation as a tolerant and inclusive nation.

Mr Kenny said that most members of the Irish Parliament were in favour of same-sex marriage.

He hoped support for the referendum would be maintained.

The proposal to be put to Irish voters will read: "Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex."

The Catholic Church in Ireland has opposed legalising same-sex unions.

But an opinion poll published in the Irish Times late last year found more than two thirds of voters would back gay marriage in a referendum.

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In 2011, the Irish government closed its Vatican embassy after Prime Minister Enda Kenny accused the Holy See of deliberately thwarting a probe into sex abuse allegations.

The Vatican had strongly rejected the claim.

Among the topics the new ambassador Emma Madigan discussed with Pope Francis were Northern Ireland and the plight of religious minorities worldwide.

The ambassador said the tone of the conversation was informal and very relaxed.

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The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill — the first legislation allowing abortion in the Republic of Ireland — passed its second stage by 138 votes to 24.

Abortion is currently illegal in Ireland but the bill would allow abortions to take place where there is deemed to be a risk to the life of the mother, including if there is a threat of suicide.

Four politicians who defied their leader, Prime Minister Enda Kenny, by voting against the bill have been expelled from the governing Fine Gael Party and told to vacate their offices.

A Sinn Fein politician also defied his party, and a Sinn Fein spokesman said this was regarded as a serious breach of party rules and he would face unspecified disciplinary action.

The Sinn Fein politician, Peadaar Toibin said: "It is with great sadness that I have had to separate from my party on this, but I cannot vote for a medical evidence-free bill that will result in the death and disablement of children."

Just hours before the vote, Cardinal Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland, appealed to Fine Gael politicians to rebel against Mr Kenny.

"In practice, the right to life of the unborn child will no longer be treated as equal. The wording of this bill is so vague that ever wider access to abortion can be easily facilitated," said Cardinal Brady.

In an earlier statement, the cardinal said: "This bill will provide the widest possible legal justification for deliberately and intentionally destroying the life of the unborn child, with no time limits and no mechanism for ensuring that the right to life of the unborn is adequately vindicated as required by Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution. In practice, the right to life of the unborn child will no longer be treated as equal."

Sources:

BBC

Catholic Herald

Zenit

Image: BBC

"By any standards it was a cruel, pitiless Ireland, distinctly lacking in a quality of mercy," Kenny said, as dozens of former Magdalenes watched tearfully from parliament's public gallery overhead.

Kenny told lawmakers his government has appointed a senior judge to recommend an aid programme for the approximately 1000 women still living from the residential workhouses, and pledged government funding for a national memorial.

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The Irish government has previously denied direct involvement in the system, which was run by four religious congregations: the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Good Shepherd Sisters, the Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of Charity.

The report's lead author, former Irish Senator Martin McAleese — husband of former Irish president Mary McAleese — said until now the facts and figures of the workhouses had been shrouded in "secrecy, silence and shame."

The investigation found that 10,012 women were committed to the workhouses from 1922, the first year of Ireland's independence from Britain, to the closure of the last two laundries in 1996.

It found that the average length of stay was just seven months, not the lifetime imprisonment commonly depicted in fictional works.

Though Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny held back from a formal apology, he expressed regret that the residents of the Magdalene laundries were stigmatised as "fallen women," a euphemism for prostitutes.

The investigators "found no evidence to support the perception that unmarried girls had babies there, or that many of the women of the Magdalene Laundries since 1922 were prostitutes. The reality is much more complex."

About 27 per cent of the women were ordered into the facilities by an array of state employees: judges, probation officers, school truancy officials, social workers, doctors at psychiatric hospitals, or officials at state-funded shelters for unwed mothers and their babies.

Some 16 per cent entered laundries voluntarily, 11 per cent were consigned there by other family members, and 9 per cent were sent there on the recommendation of a priest.

The report disputed depictions in popular culture of physical beatings in the institutions, noting that many Magdalene residents had transferred there as teenagers from other Catholic-run industrial schools where such violence was common, and some survivors failed to distinguish between the two.

It found no evidence of such attacks in the nuns' care and, specifically, no complaints of sexual abuse by the nuns.

Sources:

Associated Press

The Journal

Image: RTE News

However despite the Vatican's expression of shame and apology to victims of sexual abuse, the Irish Government has not backed away from its earlier harsh criticism of the Holy See.

"Having considered carefully the Cloyne report and the response of the Holy See, the Government of Ireland remains of the view that the content of the confidential letter in 1997 from the then apostolic nuncio, Archbishop [Luciano] Storero, to the Irish bishops, regardless of whether or not it was intended to do so, provided a pretext for some members of the clergy to evade full co-operation with the Irish civil authorities in regard to the abuse of minors. This is a matter of great concern to the Irish Government."

"The Government of Ireland must point out that the comments made by the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) and other political leaders accurately reflect the public anger of the overwhelming majority of Irish people at the failure of the Catholic Church in Ireland and the Holy See to deal adequately with clerical child sexual abuse and those who committed such appalling acts," the statement went on to say.

In welcoming the Vatican's commitment to dialogue and co-operation, Prime Minister, Enda Kenny added he expected the Vatican's fullest co-operation in ensuring children are safe from paedophile priests.

Kenny was adamant, anything but full co-operation from the Vatican with the workings of the Murphy Commission into Clerical child abuse in the Cloyne diocese would constitute unwarranted interference into the operation of the enquiry.

Sources

• Irish Times
• Belfast Telegraph
• RTE Ireland
• Image: The Great One's blog

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 abuse and address past cases with openness and determination.

Father Lombardi said the Vatican was preparing a more detailed response to the Cloyne Report, and that his own comments to Vatican Radio did not constitute an official Vatican reaction.

He said accusations that the Vatican was somehow responsible for what happened in Ireland went well beyond the language of the report itself, which was carefully worded when speaking about responsibility.

The accusations "show no awareness of what the Holy See has, in fact, accomplished over the years to help face this problem effectively," he said.

He pointed to norms on sexually abusive priests that were introduced in 2001 and updated last year. He also cited Pope Benedict's strong statements on clerical sex abuse in Ireland, the pope's meeting with Irish bishops in 2010 and his decision to order an apostolic visitation to Ireland to investigate the situation.

Father Lombardi addressed two particular issues that came out in the Cloyne Report:

— A 1997 letter from the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy to the papal nuncio in Ireland has drawn sharp criticism by some because it indicated Vatican uneasiness about the Irish bishops' 1996 policy document, "Child Sexual Abuse: Framework for a Church Response," and its compatibility with church law.

Father Lombardi said that, as the Irish bishops stated at the time, their document was "far from being the last word on how to address the issues." In that context, he said, the Vatican's critical observations were legitimate and reflected concern that Irish policies and sanctions against abusers would be in vain if they were ultimately found to be in contradiction with church law.

Even if "one can debate the adequacy of Rome's intervention at that time in relation to the gravity of the Irish situation," he said, the Vatican letter should not be interpreted as an effort to hide priestly sex abuse cases.

— On the issue of mandatory reporting of abuse allegations to civil authorities, the Vatican also raised objections. But Father Lombardi noted this did not mean church officials should not respect the laws of Ireland, which at that time did not obligate reporting of such cases. Mandatory reporting was a much-debated issue even in civil society at the time, he said.

Father Lombardi said it was unfair to criticize the church for failing to insist on mandatory reporting in a country that had not deemed it necessary to make it part of civil law.

He said the Cloyne Report constitutes "a new step on the long and difficult path of searching for the truth, of penitence and purification, of healing and renewal of the church in Ireland." He said the Vatican is participating in this process with a sense of solidarity and commitment.

Sources

• Sydney Morning Herald
• Catholic News Service
• Image: Clerical Whispers