Anne Lucey Parishioners in Kilcummin are taking the fight to keep their parish priest to Rome as their row with the Bishop of Kerry worsens.

A group of Catholic priests has criticised the Vatican’s diplomatic representative in Ireland, claiming the papal nuncio has pursued policies that are “inadequate to the needs of our time, at odds with the expectations of people and priests, and out of sync” with the Church.

Parishioners attending a picturesque Cork church have less than two weeks left to stop it becoming the first in the city to be forced to close due to a lack of vocations.

The Catholic Church in Britain was in turmoil today after its most senior cleric, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who faces allegations of “inappropriate” behaviour, announced he is stepping down.

More than 150 people picketed the residence of the Papal Nuncio in Dublin this afternoon in protest at the Catholic Church's treatment of well-known Irish missionary Fr Tony Flannery.

Pope Benedict’s official representative in Ireland has described 2013 as “an incredibly important” year “for the sanctity of human life” and urged people of conscience from all religions and none “to work vigorously and courageously to protect human life from conception to natural death”.

RTE’s Joe Little reported that a few hundred people attended the recent We Are Church protest outside the residence of the Papal Nuncio in Dublin.

More than 200 Catholics staged a silent vigil outside the Papal Nunciature in Dublin in protest at the Vatican’s silencing of several Irish priests.

The new Papal Nuncio has said that Pope Benedict XVI asked him to "solidify and strengthen" the relations between Ireland and the Holy See.

The Vatican has summoned its representative in Ireland to Rome for "consultations" on the Cloyne report into clerical child sex abuse.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has told the Dáil that the Cloyne Report on clerical sex abuse "excavates the dysfunction, the disconnection, the elitism that dominates the Vatican today".

NOW I have some idea of the thinking behind Lewis Carroll’s Mad Hatter’s tea party.

Children's Minister Frances Fitzgerald has indicated that there may be other investigations into clerical child sex abuse in Ireland following yesterday's publication of the damning report into the Cloyne diocese.

THE Church showed favour to accused priests and systematically failed abuse victims, a junior minister who fought to reveal the truth in Cloyne has said.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has come under pressure from Cabinet colleagues to summon the Pope’s Irish ambassador over Rome‘s role in the Cloyne scandal.

Cardinal Sean Brady, the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, has described the failings outlined in today's report into clerical abuse in Cloyne as "deplorable and totally unacceptable".

ONE of Ireland’s highest ranking Catholics has denounced the Church for becoming self-centred and arrogant — on the same day as a senior minister denied claims the Government backed away from demanding child abuse information from the Vatican.

THE Pope is not welcome to these islands given the disgraceful response of the Vatican and his clergy to systematic sexual violation of our defenceless children over generations.

CARDINAL BRADY is a learned man and the many bishops, priests and lay people who have worked with him over the course of his esteemed career speak of him with the highest regard.

CARDINAL BRADY is a learned man and the many bishops, priests and lay people who have worked with him over the course of his esteemed career speak of him with the highest regard.

THE Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, has denied his absence from a press conference by the Irish Hierarchy in Rome earlier this week was linked to any tension with his fellow bishops.

SURVIVORS of clerical sex abuse and the One in Four support group are due to meet with Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin tomorrow to discuss the ongoing fallout from the bishops’ meeting with the Pope in the Vatican.

SURVIVORS of clerical sex abuse have said the emergency summit between the Pope and Irish bishops in Rome was a complete failure.

THOSE who work with the victims of rape have expressed disappointment at the outcome of emergency talks in the Vatican that addressed the clerical sex abuse crisis in the Irish church.

SURVIVORS of clerical sex abuse have called on the Pope to force the resignation of bishops they say did nothing to challenge “the culture of cover up”.

The Government was concerned republicans would meet the Pope during the Papal visit sparking possible sectarian tension and violence, official documents show.

The Pope’s Ambassador to Ireland today said the Vatican was ashamed by the devastating findings of a damning inquiry into clerical sex abuse in Dublin.

The Papal Nuncio to Ireland says a response on the findings of the Murphy report on clerical sex abuse can be expected from the Pope.

Last week the Irish Examiner called for Bishop Donal Murray of Limerick to resign without delay. His prevarication is effectively undermining the positions of other prominent Church figures.

A group that campaigns for church accountability will deliver an open letter to the Pope today, calling for a thorough inquiry into the failures of bishops to protect children.

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Micheál Martin is to meet with the Papal Nuncio to Ireland to discuss the Vatican’s failure to supply information to the Dublin archdiocese abuse inquiry.

SEX abuse survivor group One in Four has called for Pope Benedict XVI to intervene in Ireland’s latest clerical scandal by “sacking some of the priests involved”.

The Catholic hierarchy was today facing a damaging rift after a bishop publicly clashed with a senior colleague over the inexcusable mishandling of child sex abuse.

The Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin is to write to the bishops named in the Dublin Diocesan report into child abuse to tell them he is not happy with some of their responses to the inquiry.

The Papal Nuncio in Ireland is defending his decision not to respond to a draft report from the Commission of investigation into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin.

LILYBAEUM no longer exists.

Pressure was mounting tonight for the resignation of senior clerics who shielded paedophile priests to protect the reputation of the Catholic Church.

THE Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, has strongly hinted that senior bishops criticised in the Murphy Report should consider their positions.

WHILE at the National Archives previewing the State papers, which were officially released yesterday, I happened to be sitting beside Prof Ronan Fanning when I came across a letter written to him by the Irish ambassador to the US in 1977.

LAST week’s Sunday Tribune featured a not-very-revealing article about the contenders to succeed Desmond Connell as Archbishop of Dublin, and installed the Bishop of Derry, Dr Séamus Hegarty, as the favourite.