A petition of 1,200 signatures is to be handed into the Bishop of Kerry in the coming days as a standoff escalates between him and parishioners of Kilcummin, Co Kerry, over the decision to remove the parish priest.

Fr Tony Flannery has said the Bishop of Cloyne’s intervention to stop him addressing a parish event in East Cork shows the Church’s claim of wanting to give voice to the laity was “empty and meaningless talk”.

SOME things never change, at least in the institution of the Catholic Church.