Today is the Feast of the Assumption all over the Christian world, a feast day first instituted by Emperor Maurice in 600 AD and bigged up by Pope Nicholas 1 around 850 AD to rival Christmas and Easter.

THE Mayor of Limerick yesterday led condemnations of the desecration of a statue and grotto in Ballinacurra Weston.

FACED with a crisis in vocations, falling church attendance and a society now floundering in a spiritual vacuum, we are approaching make-your-mind-up time both for the laity and the religious of the Catholic Church.