A special mass is taking place at the Pro Cathedral in Dublin to mark Pope Benedict's resignation today.

In his first address to his diocese, the new Bishop of Cloyne threw down the gauntlet to the banks, warning they need to “do more of the heavy lifting” as the financial crisis is crushing ordinary people.

Pope Benedict’s official representative in Ireland has described 2013 as “an incredibly important” year “for the sanctity of human life” and urged people of conscience from all religions and none “to work vigorously and courageously to protect human life from conception to natural death”.

The country’s newest priest plans to reach out to the Facebook generation and encourage them back to the Church.

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

A survivor of institutional abuse has criticised the Pope's envoy for meeting victims in secret during a pilgrimage.

More than 200 Catholics staged a silent vigil outside the Papal Nunciature in Dublin in protest at the Vatican’s silencing of several Irish priests.

The Vatican was accused today of not accepting responsibility for its role in the cover-up of the sex abuse of children in Ireland.

THE Catholic primate, Cardinal Sean Brady, is confident the new papal nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown, will forge “strong and fruitful” links between Ireland and the Holy See.