Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald has told a United Nations review that a Citizens’ Assembly will consider the Eighth Amendment on abortion as part of its remit.

Two Italian journalists who wrote books detailing Vatican mismanagement are to face trial, along with three people accused of leaking them the information.

His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State at the Holy See declared that the outcome of the marriage referendum is ‘a defeat for humanity’ — after the votes were cast, as if he were administering a balming poultice.

Irish Catholic bishops have come out against confidentiality agreements in cases where a priest has fathered a child, according to correspondence between it and newly formed organisation Coping International.

Pope Francis says it is OK to smack your children to discipline them — as long as their dignity is maintained.

Pope Francis says it is OK to smack your children to discipline them – as long as their dignity is maintained.

The Vatican’s economy minister has said hundreds of millions of euros were found “tucked away” in accounts of various Holy See departments without having appeared in the city-state’s balance sheets.

Pope Francis ousted the all-Italian board of the Vatican’s financial watchdog agency yesterday and installed a more international set of experts following clashes between the board and the agency’s director.

Pope Francis has announced the first major overhaul of the Vatican’s outdated and scandal-plagued bureaucracy in a quarter-century, creating an economics secretariat to control all economic, administrative, personnel, and procurement functions of the Holy See.

The Vatican has hit back at a UN human rights committee that issued a scathing report on sex abuse by priests accusing it of straying beyond its mandate and discrediting the UN as a whole by adopting the “prejudiced” positions of anti-Catholic advocacy groups.

A UN human rights committee denounced the Vatican for “systematically” adopting policies that allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children over decades, and urged it to open its files on paedophiles and the bishops who concealed their crimes.

The Vatican “systematically” adopted policies that allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children over decades, a UN human rights committee said today.

A UN human rights committee has denounced the Vatican for adopting policies that allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children over decades, and urged it to open its files on the paedophiles and churchmen who concealed their crimes.

Charlie Flanagan TD, chairman of the Fine Gael parliamentary party, said the closing of our embassy to the Holy See could be reviewed once we had an economic upturn.

The Government intends to open a ‘scaled-down’ diplomatic mission to the Holy See, which it closed ostensibly to ‘save money’.

The Vatican came under blistering criticism from a UN committee for its handling of the global priest sex abuse scandal, facing its most intense public grilling to date over allegations it protected paedophile priests at the expense of victims.

A top Vatican official has told a UN committee that responsibility for the Magdalene Laundries scandal lies solely with the Irish authorities.

The Vatican has come under blistering criticism from a UN committee for its handling of the global priest sex abuse scandal, facing its most intense public grilling ever over allegations that it protected paedophile priests at the expense of victims.

The Vatican is gearing up for a bruising showdown over the global priest sex abuse scandal, forced for the first time to defend itself at length and in public against allegations it enabled the rape of thousands of children by protecting paedophile priests and its own reputation at the expense of victims.

Pope Francis has criticised abortion as evidence of a “throwaway culture” that wastes people as well as food, saying such a mentality is a threat to peace.

Pope Francis lamented that a “gay lobby” was at work at the Vatican in private remarks to the leadership of a key Latin American church group — a stunning acknowledgment that appears to confirm earlier reports about corruption and dysfunction in the Holy See.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has wished the new Pope well as he leads the Catholic Church “in the many challenges it faces”.

Catholic cardinals have gathered at the Vatican for their final day of talks before the conclave to elect the next pope.

The last cardinal who will participate in the conclave to elect the next pope arrived in Rome today, meaning a date can now be set for the election.

It’s “cash only” now for tourists at the Vatican wanting to buy museum tickets, souvenirs, and other services after Italy’s central bank decided to block electronic payments, including credit cards, at the tiny city-state.

It is “cash only” now for tourists at the Vatican wanting to pay for museum tickets, souvenirs and other services after Italy’s central bank decided to block electronic payments, including credit cards, at the tiny city-state.

Pope Benedict XVI has posted his first tweet.

A Vatican court has convicted a Holy See computer technician of helping the former papal butler in the theft of confidential documents and given him a two-month suspended sentence.

Religious orders can avoid getting the consent of the Charity Commissioners when they are transferring protected property if they conduct deals under canon law instead.

Government spending on embassies and consulate offices fell by almost 3% last year, achieving savings of €1.6m for the exchequer.

A legal battle centred on sex abuse ended in a victory for the Holy See, writes John Breslin in Chicago

The Pope’s butler has been arrested in its embarrassing leaks scandal, adding a Hollywood twist to an already remarkable tale of power struggles, intrigue and corruption in the highest levels of Catholic Church governance.

The Vatican has launched an internal, criminal investigation into the leaks of confidential documents which alleged corruption and financial mismanagement and exposed power struggles among Holy See officials, a Vatican prelate said today.

A senior civil servant appointed non-resident ambassador to the Vatican is to open talks with the Pope’s representatives on sharing an embassy building with other diplomats assigned to Rome.

GOD-hating, priest-baiting, loony leftie Eamon Gilmore secured a key plank of his evil secular masterplan to make us a nation of pagans by shutting down the Vatican embassy.

The Government was wrong to close Ireland’s embassy to the Vatican, a former head of the Department of Foreign Affairs has said.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has insisted that diplomatic relations with the Vatican remain “very strong” despite a furore over the closure of Ireland’s embassy to the Holy See.

Using economics to justify closing our embassy to the Holy See prompted one Dublin mother to say stop, writes Mary E Fitzgibbon

AS a practising Roman Catholic and proud to be so, I am appalled at the bias in reporting by certain sections of the media in regard to our clergy.

MR EAMON GILMORE’S justification for closing our embassy to the Vatican — i.e. that it yields no economic return — reminds me of Stalin’s famous rhetorical question at the Yalta Conference: “How many divisions has the Pope?”

MANY Irish people are appalled at the Government’s planned closure of the Irish Embassy to the Holy See.