The Vatican has recognised the “moral courage” of an Irish priest who helped save thousands of Jewish people and Allied PoWs from the Nazis during the Second World War in occupied Rome.

The recipient of the 2014 Hugh O’Flaherty International Humanitarian award is to be the surgeon, Dr John Beavis, the founder of an organisation dedicated to the relief of suffering and poverty in conflict zones.

With more than 150,000 pilgrims expected to attend the Knock Novena, Micheal Kelly reflects on the enduring draw of the Mayo shrine.

The Vatican came under blistering criticism from a UN committee for its handling of the global priest sex abuse scandal, facing its most intense public grilling to date over allegations it protected paedophile priests at the expense of victims.

The Vatican has come under blistering criticism from a UN committee for its handling of the global priest sex abuse scandal, facing its most intense public grilling ever over allegations that it protected paedophile priests at the expense of victims.

The last single woman on Coney Island off Sligo married yesterday.

Twenty men have begun studying for the Catholic priesthood with a variety of qualifications already behind them.

Pope Francis has named a commission of inquiry to look into the activities of the troubled Vatican bank, amid a new money-laundering probe and continued questions about the secretive institution.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has dismissed claims from a senior Vatican official that politicians should resign rather than support Ireland’s abortion laws.

The heartbroken parents of the boy who died after being swept away in a flooded river have been told the fragrance of his short life will last forever.

Pope Francis put his humility on display during his first day as pontiff today, stopping by his hotel to pick up his luggage and pay the bill himself.

The new Bishop of Cloyne has spoken of his apprehension at accepting the appointment in light of the troubled history of the diocese where his predecessor failed to protect children from clerical sex abuse.

The late Con Houlihan had “an extraordinary pride of place”.

A total of 18 allegations of sexual abuse were made against 10 priests in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin over the past 37 years.

Six bouquets of flowers marked the freshly dug grave of Margaret McGuire, lying finally beside her husband Thomas.

VATICAN chiefs have ordered trainee priests at Ireland’s national seminary at Maynooth to be physically separated from the university’s 8,000 lay students.

THE former bishop of Derry, Seamus Hegarty, has apologised for historical poor practice over clerical sex abuse.

The former Bishop of the Cloyne diocese, who was criticised in last month's report into the mis-handling of abuse cases last month, has returned to Ireland.

A NEW allegation of abuse in the diocese of Cloyne has been made since the report into past abuses and cover ups was published this week.

THE Government is on collision course with the Vatican after Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore demanded an explanation from Rome regarding what he called the “in appropriate intervention in the laws of our country”.

A BOARDING school pupil said he was told to “keep his mouth shut” by an alleged abuser who was ordered to step down after regularly drinking with pupils late at night in his room.

A PARISH priest admitted abusing three children for a number of years and when he was younger, he said fondled up to six girls.

THE commission found there was no concern shown for the protection of children in the case of a priest who received an 18-month suspended sentence after pleading guilty to one of three counts of gross indecency last year.

A YOUNG man took his own life and his sister had to have psychiatric treatment when they were both abused by a priest who died in the early 1990s.

MONSIGNOR Denis O’Callaghan is also severely criticised in his handling of one of the two complaints made against Fr Tarin.

A PRIEST was allowed have music lessons taught at his house more than seven years after he was removed from his ministry due to an allegation of child sex abuse.

THE dissident republican group the Real IRA has threatened to kill more police officers and declared its opposition to the Queen of England’s first visit to this country next month.

IRISH people have been urged to honour the memory of the Easter Rising patriots by rejecting terrorism and welcoming Queen Elizabeth to the country.

THOUSANDS of Catholics could be driven away from attending Mass on a regular basis if Irish bishops press ahead with the introduction of a new English translation of the liturgy, priests have warned.

The Pope is refusing to comment publicly on individual sex abuse cases rocking the Catholic church because they were not his responsibility, his private secretary said today.

IT SEEMS from the letters of Eamon Reilly and Brendan Cafferty (March 19) there’s a new policy that “if you can’t stop the message getting out, try to undermine it by attacking the messenger”.

GERARD O’Regan (March 15) seems satisfied with Dan Buckley’s article (February 27) in praise of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty – the Vatican Pimpernel – in wartime Rome.

WHY would the future Cardinal Seán Brady ask an eight-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy to swear on oath that they would not divulge that Fr Brendan Smyth had sexually abused them? The main aim was certainly not to protect other boys from that predator. Fr Brady was apparently more interested in protecting the Catholic Church as an institution from criticism.

NO sane and rational person could listen to Msgr Maurice Dooley justify what Cardinal Brady did without being agog (RTÉ, March 15).

I listened, open-mouthed, to the defence of Cardinal Brady’s position by Msgr Maurice Dooley (RTÉ, March 15).

I WISH to compliment Dan Buckley for his excellent article on Msgr Hugh O’Flaherty (‘The Vatican’s Elusive Pimpernel,” February 27).

Hundreds gathered for the funeral of the archbishop of Haiti’s earthquake-stricken capital, in a rare formal ceremony that captured the collective mourning of a shattered nation where mass graves hold many of the dead.

THE visit of Pope John Paul II was undoubtedly the most popular event that ever took place in this country. It was witnessed in person by more people than the visit of President John F Kennedy in 1963 or President Bill Clinton in 1995. Yet strangely, the Vatican and the Catholic hierarchy treated Taoiseach Jack Lynch and his government with a degree of disdain.

I HAD hoped the meeting of Cardinal Seán Brady and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin with the Pope in Rome last Saturday would have been marked by dialogue rather than a series of one-sided recriminations. From initial reports it, seems to be more of the latter. A lot will depend on the forthcoming pastoral letter from the Pope.

THE late writer, Hugh Leonard, received the traditional applause of the theatre world at his funeral mass in Dalkey yesterday at what mourners were told was his “final curtain call”.

A LARGELY forgotten hero who helped save upwards of 6,500 lives in Italy during World War II was honoured in Killarney at the weekend.

REGARDING your report headlined ‘Pope orders disciplinary measures on priest over sex scandal’ (September 9), I would like to make a number of points.

THE church official spearheading the cause to make the last pope a saint has finished a 2,000-page report to support the process.

The church official spearheading the cause to make the last pope a saint has finished a 2,000-page report to support the process.