According to Joe Leogue (Irish Examiner, October 20), the reaction of Dr John Fleming, the bishop of Killala, to the court case involving a long-serving gay priest who has a 17-year record of impeccable commitment and dedicated service in his diocese, was self-serving and weak. It also demonstrated an unwillingness on the bishop’s part to communicate.

A Mayo priest, who was involved in a court dispute over the ownership of a house he shared with a former Franciscan friar, has announced he plans to leave his parish while he considers his commitments.

The town of Ballina has been rocked by the sudden death of a local priest in what is believed to be the first case in recent years of a Catholic cleric in Ireland taking his own life.