In a dramatic shift in tone, a Vatican discussion document has stated that homosexual people have "gifts and qualities to offer".

'Sworn to Silence' a recollectuion of the clerical abuse of a boy, reflects on blame and shame in 1970s Ireland, says Dan Buckley

Given the strains within the Irish Catholic Church, some form of breakaway of significant proportions cannot be ruled out.

I was truly horrified to read that a woman gave a graphic account of her abortion to a congregation that contained an estimated 100 children at a mass in Mitchelstown, Co Cork.

Foreign priests like Fr Kazimierz Nawalaniec will ensure Irish Catholics will be able to attend a full Mass in 15 or 20 years time, according to the Bishop of Cork and Ross.

More than 80,000 pilgrims are due to attend the official closing ceremony of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Croke Park tomorrow.

The Association of Catholic Priests has accused the Archbishop of New York of destroying the reputation of priests “who had given lifelong service to the Irish Catholic Church”.

THE hope expressed by the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, that next weekend’s Eucharistic Congress will begin a process of healing for a deeply divided Irish Catholic Church is likely to prove a vain one.

"I do not believe that a child can be reformed by lock and key and bars, or that fear can ever develop a child’s character."

The Association of Catholic Priests has accused the Vatican of trying to silence its founding member Fr Tony Flannery and warned the move will exacerbate the perceived “disconnect” between the Irish Church and Rome.

Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin has said that the scandal of clerical child sexual abuse is not over and that safeguards for children must remain in place.

Serious failures in the handling of child sex abuse allegations against a priest in the Diocese of Cloyne are expected to be published tomorrow.

The Government today faced calls for an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse involving the former Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid.

Six separate reports on child protection measures in Catholic dioceses in Ireland will be published today.

TÁNAISTE Eamon Gilmore and his Cabinet colleagues have little to be proud of in announcing the closure of the Irish Embassy to the Holy See — depriving our majority Catholic population of a very revered lay tie with the Pontiff.

A CONFIDENTIAL 1997 Vatican letter did encourage some clerics not to co-operate fully with the state in protecting children, the Government has insisted.

OUR system of justice seems to be turned on its head these days. The High Court has ruled that Ian Bailey should be deported to France to face charges for a crime committed in this country. If our system is so flawed that we cannot dispense justice, surely the system should be changed.

WHILE the question of a papal visit to Ireland in June next year remains open, no plans have been made, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said yesterday.

The Australian Catholic Church is investigating whether any clerical abusers in Ireland had connections with its ministries.

AS an Irish Catholic committed to ecumenism I was deeply affronted by the accusation of Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to the effect that the Irish Catholic Church has lost all credibility.

A NEW law which will give people in long-term relationships many of the statutory rights of married couples is expected to be on the statute books before the summer.

The Archbishop of Canterbury tonight said he “had no intention of criticising or attacking” the Catholic Church after an interview in which he appeared to suggest the Church in Ireland had lost all credibility over the child abuse scandal.

The Pope has apologised to the victims of clerical sex abuse in Ireland, saying he is "truly sorry".

A GENUINE exercise in humility and reflection? Or a cynical attempt to buy some valuable time to allow the clamours for his resignation to die down?

CARDINAL Seán Brady has vowed to reflect on the views of child abuse victims, amid continuing calls for his resignation over allegations that he was involved in a cover-up of abuse by the notorious paedophile priest, Fr Brendan Smyth, 35 years ago.

PAEDOPHILE priest Brendan Smyth should have been stopped from the very first time it was known he was abusing children, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said last night.

THE future of Cardinal Seán Brady as head of the Irish Catholic Church is in doubt amid mounting calls for his resignation after allegations that he was involved in a cover-up of abuse by notorious paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.

AS a long-time fan of Dr Tony Humphreys, I was sorely disappointed with his column (Feelgood, December 18).

Ireland's Catholics were tonight urged to send a Christmas message to the Pope demanding he take action over the country’s child abuse scandal.

Garry O’Sullivan argues that, to have a credible long-term future, the Irish Catholic Church needs radical surgery

WHILE at university in Texas during the mid-1960s and early 1970s there was very little news about Ireland either on television or in the newspapers.

POPE Benedict XVI will head a delegation of senior Vatican officials who will meet with Cardinal Seán Brady and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin in Rome today to discuss the continuing fallout from the Murphy report for the Irish Catholic Church and senior bishops.

THIRTY-SIX men are due to begin studies this year to enter the Catholic priesthood – the highest number in over a decade.

MORE than half of the Irish Catholic Church’s 26 dioceses failed to respond to Irish Examiner queries about defection rates over the past five years.

Irish Catholic Church leaders are due to meet the Pope this evening for talks on the child abuse scandal.

A SENIOR African cleric will visit Cork next week to raise awareness of the suffering of people caught up in the Darfur conflict.

Catholic bishops are hitting out at the proposal to lower the age of consent to 16, saying it sends the wrong signal to young people and parents.

ANY chance the Irish Catholic Church might shed its obsession with the goings-on in the bedroom and take a peep into the boardroom?

PEOPLE may have felt a sense of betrayal over the disclosure that Bishop Eamon Casey had fathered a son, but in the last analysis it was their own sense of innocence that was exposed.

“This is not the end. It is not the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning.”

THIS year 22 young Irish men will begin studying for the priesthood in colleges in Ireland and Rome.

AFTER Abraham Lincoln died in 1865 a joint resolution of the US Congress praised his "qualities of courage, will and indomitable persistence of purpose, which never flagged or faltered ...

I REFER to Rónán Mullen’s column entitled ‘Dana should forget the Britney Spears approach and go local’ (Irish Examiner, September 15).

WHY is the Irish Catholic Church so determined to make church-going such an uncomfortable experience.