Over 50 years ago, a cardinal asked the Vatican Council: ‘Where’s the other half of humanity?’ In her own inimitable way, Mary McAleese last week posed the same question, writes TP O’ Mahony.

The Archbishop of Dublin has described the newly canonised popes John XXIII and John Paul II as men “who in their day to day ordinary lives try heroically to live the Christian life”.

For the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, next Tuesday will long be remembered as the landmark beginning of the conclave in Rome to elect a new pontiff following Pope Benedict’s sudden resignation.

Pope Benedict’s message to the International Eucharistic Congress:

Ireland’s first married deacons were ordained last night by the Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.

The pope began his eighth year today after spending the waning days of his seventh driving home his view of the Catholic Church, with a divisive crackdown on dissenters and an equally divisive opening to a fringe group of traditionalists.

Catholic priests have expressed serious concern about the visitation team’s proposal that seminarians in Maynooth should spend more time separated from other students if they are to achieve “a well-founded, priestly identity”.

The record speed of Pope John Paul II’s beatification has raised questions, even from some supporters, about whether the Vatican should first answer lingering concerns about the flaws of his papacy.

A NEW organisation to represent ordinary priests claims it will speak out without fear on a range of issues affecting the Catholic Church in Ireland and wider Irish society.

Pope Benedict is issuing a document today that will sanction the celebration of the Tridentine mass by members of the clergy.

A Vatican official has confirmed that Pope Benedict XVI plans to loosen restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass, reviving a rite that was essentially swept away by the revolutionary reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

In a concession to ultraconservatives, Pope Benedict XVI plans to loosen restrictions on the old Latin Mass, used by the Roman Catholic Church for centuries until the modernising reforms of the 1960s, a Vatican official said.

Pope Benedict XVI was leading a solemn ceremony today in St Peter’s Basilica marking the 40th anniversary of the end of Vatican Council II.

Pope Benedict XVI today marked the 40th anniversary of a landmark Vatican document on relations with Jews, calling for a renewed commitment for Catholics and Jews to deepen their bonds and work for the good of all humanity.

The bishop of Breda, in The Netherlands has called for term limits of 10 to 15 years on popes.

WHEN Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was made Pope, the Catholic world collectively gasped in astonishment.

Those in the running to succeed Pope John Paul II are known as the “papabili” – those worthy of becoming Pontiff. Prominent among them are: