It isn’t very often that the frenetic chatter of the Irish Examiner’s newsroom dies to a whisper.

The country’s broadcasting watchdog has rejected seven complaints from viewers about a “light-hearted” segment on The Late Late Show that referred to cyclists.

Each new revelation in the succession of scandals to envelope the Catholic Church cast the transgressions of Bishop Casey in an ever more benighn light, writes Michael Clifford

THE death, yesterday at the age of 89, of Bishop Eamonn Casey, Bishop Emeritus of Galway and Kilmacduagh after a long illness suffered in a Co Clare nursing home, could be an occasion to rehearse all of the hurt and outrage provoked by his deceit, hypocrisy and betrayal.

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America is a country (and not alone) that solves many of its ‘problems’ with death. It executes people who have transgressed society’s laws. It sweeps the problem of unwanted children under the carpet of abortion.

Pope Francis is sending the next World Meeting of Families to Dublin in 2018. It is the largest Catholic gathering of families globally and, it meets every three years. The Pope may come too. It will be a great coming-together of Catholic families and potentially a culture clash., writes Gerard Howlin. 

AT FIRST glance, Paul O’Reilly’s debut collection of short stories seems issue-driven. 

A priest blessed with a talent for communicating with the masses has seized on the 50 Shades of Grey fever sweeping the nation to spread the faith.

Nearly every culture clings to the idea of redemption, because without that prospect, whether it is real or not, it would almost be too hard to be human.

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”.

The liquidator to building firm Tom Hayes Ltd said yesterday that it is “a little bit unlikely” that unsecured creditors owed over €2.7m will see any of their monies.

Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict XVI were incompetent theologians even though they had doctoral degrees in theology.

The Communist secret police knew when the late Pope John Paul II liked to shave, how many suitcases he owned, and what card games he played and with whom, decades before he was appointed pontiff.

A bomb has exploded inside the cathedral of the Spanish city of Zaragoza while worshippers were inside but no one was hurt.

Pope Francis’s historic trip to his home continent ended yesterday after a marathon week-long visit to Brazil that drew millions of people on to the sands of Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Copacabana beach and appeared to reinvigorate the clergy and faithful alike in the world’s largest Catholic country.

FOLLOWING the pope’s stunning announcement, the time for the Catholic Church to elect its first non-European leader is approaching — and it could be a Latin American.

An Irish bishop has said the relationship between the Vatican and the Government has been strained and that may have contributed to Pope Benedict XVI’s decision not to attend the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin this June.

MR EAMON GILMORE’S justification for closing our embassy to the Vatican — i.e. that it yields no economic return — reminds me of Stalin’s famous rhetorical question at the Yalta Conference: “How many divisions has the Pope?”

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has arrived in Rome, sidestepping a European Union travel ban because he is attending Pope John Paul II’s beatification, being held in Vatican City tomorrow.

POPE John Paul’s coffin has been exhumed ahead of his beatification as tens of thousands of people began arriving in Rome for one of the biggest events since his funeral in 2005.

TRAVELLING on a fleet of planes, trains and cars, more than 50,000 Poles are expected to flock to the Vatican for the beatification of “their” saint-to-be, Polish-born Pope John Paul II.

THE body of a 17th century pope who helped fund Protestant William of Orange’s invasion of Britain and Ireland is to be removed from the Vatican to make way for the remains of Pope John Paul II.

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.

The Pope has approved a miracle attributed to the late Pope John Paul II and set May 1 as the date for him to be beatified.

BELLAHOUSTON PARK in Glasgow was awash with colour yesterday as thousands of flag-waving pilgrims welcomed Pope Benedict XVI for an open-air Mass.

THE Falklands war was in full swing and John Paul II was in London as the first pope ever to set foot on English soil.

THE Vatican next week will revise Church law on sexual abuse of children by priests, doubling its own statute of limitations and introducing penalties for child pornography, Catholic Church sources said yesterday.

Spanish media are quoting a retired Vatican cardinal as saying the late Pope John Paul backed his letter congratulating a French bishop for risking jail by shielding a priest convicted of paedophilia.

Some 100,000 Poles filled Warsaw’s biggest public square today, joining together for a memorial and funeral Mass for the 96 people killed in a plane crash a week ago.

THE late Primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Cahal Daly, will be laid to rest at noon tomorrow after his remains were yesterday received at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh.

SO how was it for you? Good, bad or indifferent? It can’t have been that bad, I guess: you’re reading this so that means you got through to the end. What am I banging on about? The first decade of the 21st century, of course. It’s hard to believe it’s in its dying days: I can still remember the hangover from what we learned to call “millennium night”. But time speeds up as we get older, I’m finding.

POPE Benedict XVI decried the worsening plight of the world’s one billion hungry yesterday as a United Nations food summit rallied around a strategy of more help to farmers in poor nations but rebuffed a UN appeal to commit billions to the plan.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen presented a collection of Jack Lynch memorabilia to the people of Cork yesterday.

THE death has taken place of one of the towering figures of the Irish public relations industry over the past 40 years.

THE Bishop of Cork and Ross has condemned euthanasia ahead of a controversial lecture at Cork University Hospital today where a professor will claim it should be legalised.

THE Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, has said the current concern over unacceptable behaviour in the financial world is an example of how individual behaviour can lead to a seriously destructive effect on the fabric of society.