A Mater Hospital board member who claimed the facility would ignore new abortion laws as they contradict its Catholic ethos has resigned after being overruled by colleagues.

For some time now the authority of the Catholic Church in Ireland has been waning visibly.

The Catholic Church in Germany is considering approving some morning-after pills for rape victims after a leading cardinal said the pills did not induce abortions and could be used in Catholic hospitals.

THE Church is in the doghouse again. You can’t do worse, in public relations terms, than to have people think you would put their lives at risk.