THE diocese of Cloyne has said it has “no plans” to use church basket collections to pay damages to victims of clerical sex abuse in civil cases.

THE ASSOCIATION of Catholic Priests (ACP) has said the Vatican “won’t take too kindly” to calls from the former Bishop of Derry to end clerical celibacy.

IT WAS after 10pm on April 11, 1951 when Taoiseach John A Costello made the shock announcement that Health Minister Noel Browne had resigned and President Seán T O’Kelly had accepted the resignation on the recommendation of the Taoiseach.

PRIESTS in the diocese of Ferns are being asked to hand over €1,000 each towards the payment of compensation bills to clerical abuse victims.

A convicted paedophile priest named in the Ferns report has died.

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.

IN his letter (March 20), Jason FitzHarris seems to conflate what the Catholic Church “thinks” with what particular members of the clergy or hierarchy think or do.

IN reply to James McGrath (Letters, March 15), if the Catholic Church doesn’t think worshippers are to blame for priests raping children, why did the Bishop of Ferns ask worshippers to pay a “rape tax”?

SINGER Sinead O’Connor took to the airwaves yesterday to voice her disgust at Bishop of Ferns Denis Brennan’s suggestion that parishioners could contribute towards abuse settlements and legal fees.

THE Diocese of Killaloe has not ruled out the possibility of its parishioners being asked for financial contributions towards clerical abuse compensation payouts, as is happening in Ferns.

CLERICAL abuse victims pointed the Bishop of Ferns, Denis Brennan, towards the Vatican when they heard about his appeal to parishioners to fund outstanding diocesan compensation and legal fees.

Bishop of Ferns Dr Denis Brennan has invited the people of the diocese to help raise money for compensation payments to survivors of paedophile child abuse in the diocese stretching back to the 1940s.

The Bishop of Ferns is turning to the parishes in his diocese to help meet the cost of clerical abuse claims.

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin tonight rejected claims a Vatican summit to discuss clerical abuse scandals in Ireland was a wasted opportunity.

IT was not good enough for Archbishop Diarmuid Martin to ask bishops implicated in the horrific report into child sex abuse to examine their conscience, founder of One in Four Colm O’Gorman said yesterday.

EVEN as their most senior leaders urged a fresh look at the child abuse indemnity deal which let religious congregations off lightly in terms of financial recompense, diocesan bishops displayed a marked reluctance to get involved in the controversy.

ALL clergy working with children should volunteer for Garda vetting in the wake of the clerical sex abuse scandal in Cloyne, Minister for Children Barry Andrews has said.

THE parish priest of Cloughbawn yesterday said people were left lost, helpless and frightened by last weekend’s murder-suicide of a young local family.

IN A Wexford village silenced by the death of a family, it was the innocent classmates of murdered Mark and Julie Flood who tried to articulate the enormity of emotions involved.

There are calls for an audit to be published on the way in which each diocese in the country handles allegations of child abuse.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern has welcomed Pope Benedict’s comments on child sex abuse by priests in the Diocese of Ferns despite the reservations of child protection campaigners about the timing and content of the Vatican’s response.

Pope Benedict XVI today revealed his horror at the behaviour of more than 20 priests who sexually abused children in the Diocese of Ferns.

A DIOCESE that was at the centre of a clerical child sex abuse scandal was yesterday celebrating the appointment of its new bishop.

POPE Benedict XVI has appointed Fr Denis Brennan as the new Bishop of Ferns, a diocese which has been rocked by sex scandals.

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Dr Denis Brennan as the new Bishop of Ferns.

RISKING a scandal in the parish, a priest took a teenage girl into his presbytery.

The Bishop of Ferns has issued an unreserved apology to the victims of clerical sex abuse in the diocese.

SPECULATION about the content of the imminent report into clerical sexual abuse in Wexford is not just inaccurate, it is also unhelpful, according to one of the support groups for victims involved in the probe.

THE Irish Conference of Priests has welcomed the dismissal by the Pope of two members of the clergy convicted of sexual abuse.

KEY witnesses in an inquiry into clerical sexual abuse in Wexford says the bishop who managed the diocese at the time should not be made a scapegoat in the ongoing State probe.

FORMER Bishop of Ferns, Dr Brendan Comiskey, who resigned over his handling of sex abuse allegations against the late Fr Sean Fortune, is expected to give evidence to the inquiry into sex abuse in the diocese later this month.

A DIOCESE which is the focus of a State inquiry into clerical sexual abuse has refused to say if a priest cleared by a garda and diocesan investigation will be reinstated.

DOZENS of victims of sexual abuse by clerics in a Wexford diocese are to give details of their ordeal to a state investigation within weeks.

Priests and church volunteers in the Diocese of Ferns are being told to avoid contact with children while not in public view.

Television documentaries exposing sexual abuse by clergy led to a high number of victims coming forward to report rape in Ireland, figures showed today.

As the long-awaited inquiry into sexual abuse

HEALTH Minister Micheál Martin will have the power to compel witnesses to give sworn testimony at an inquiry into clerical sexual abuse in the Diocese of Ferns.

TWO bishops have been accused of obstruction in a case of alleged sexual assault by a deceased priest in their diocese.

BISHOP Brendan Comiskey’s replacement stood by him yesterday, insisting the former Bishop of Ferns was not forced to resign.

AN IRISH solicitor has hand-delivered a letter to the Papal Villa, urging the Pope to open up all files on clerical sexual abuse, particularly those in his home diocese of Ferns.

Cardinal Desmond Connell was jeered at Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral last night as he repeated an earlier apology over his “failure to deal effectively” with priests who abused children.

There were tonight growing demands for a Garda inquiry into allegations of child sex abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese.

VICTIMS of child abuse here have flooded a British-based helpline to such an extent that the founder is now going to set up an office in Dublin.