Catholic Church

The moment of quickening

Andrew Gallagher on November 20, 2012, 9:00 pm

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Patsy McGarry has an interesting article in the Irish Times today on the surprisingly fluid nature of the Catholic Church’s stance on abortion: … some of the church’s greatest teachers and saints believed no homicide was involved if abortion took place before the foetus was infused with a soul, known as “ensoulment”. This was believed to occur at “quickening”, when the mother detected the child move for the first time in her womb. In 1591, Pope Gregory XIV determined it …

Catholic Post-Primary Education Reform: “I am anxious to try to build consensus on the way forward”

Pete Baker on May 31, 2012, 4:42 pm

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Following on from the Northern Ireland Commission for Catholic Education (NICCE) belated publication of its Post-Primary Review Strategic Regional Report, individual dioceses are bringing forward their suggestions. The first one out of the blocks appears to concern Catholic maintained schools in Londonderry. The Derry Diocese Administrator, Monsignor Eamon Martin, has published “Together Towards Tomorrow – a discussion paper re Post-Primary Education in the Derry City Area”. [Direct link to 9mb pdf file here]. This Discussion Paper explains the opportunities offered in a ‘partnership’ …

Why did the Vatican think a mere “study document” was sufficient response?

Mick Fealty on September 5, 2011, 1:50 pm

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The Vatican’s response to Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s power Dail speech has finally dropped on the mat. It’s quite a lengthy and detailed response (full text for those with the time). Unsurprisingly it rejects Kenny’s assertion that the Vatican was at fault. As Siobhan Brett notes in the Sunday Business Post: The Vatican response takes particular exception to the Taoiseach’s accusation that the Holy See ‘‘attempted to frustrate an inquiry as little as three years ago, not three decades ago’’, saying …

Clerical abuse also relied upon the scarcity of “righteous gentiles”

Mick Fealty on August 29, 2011, 8:49 am

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Dermot Keogh examines the diplomatic ramifications of the taoiseach’s speech, not least the wider consequences for both the Vatican and Ireland. But he leaves his sharpest question until the end: In reviewing the history of the past 90 years on this island, why – confronted by such widespread child sexual abuse – were there so few “righteous gentiles” in church, State or society ready to stand up and speak out in the face of such an unspeakable, pervasive evil? Quite …

Financial crisis hits the Catholic Church…

Mick Fealty on August 18, 2011, 11:57 am

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It’s not often I get to Mass in my home parish of Holywood, but I was there last Sunday. A number of things struck me. One is that attenders are mostly of the older demographic, with, by and large, my own 70s generation taking up the rear. And two, that the collections are proportionally not pulling in anything like they were thirty years ago. Whilst I don’t imagine exactly same rules apply to Holywood as might say in inner city …

Taoiseach’s speech: An end to ‘Never explain, never apologise’?

Mick Fealty on July 21, 2011, 11:42 am

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The papers are full of the taoiseach’s speech to the Dail yesterday. Rightly so. It was an audacious speech, and one made in stark contrast to the parliamentary mumbling and stumbling of the two previous taoisigh. And, importantly, it was a defence of thousands upon thousands of ordinary Catholics, ‘who have been shocked and dismayed by the repeated failings of church authorities to face up to what is required’. Somewhere in the Irish media in the last few days, someone …

Taoiseach’s speech: This is not Rome… this is a republic of laws

Patrick Corrigan on July 21, 2011, 1:55 am

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A sea-change in Irish government-Catholic Church relations took place yesterday. In the government’s official response to the Cloyne Report, Taoiseach Enda Kenny gave an unprecedented speech to the Dáil, excoriating the Vatican for its efforts to block co-operation with the investigation by civil authorities of clerical child abuse: … for the first time in Ireland, a report into child sexual-abuse exposes an attempt by the Holy See, to frustrate an Inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic, as little as three …

The abuse crisis is no excuse for anti-Catholic bigotry

Brian Walker on August 29, 2010, 1:24 pm

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The Scottish composer James MacMillan has composed a congregational Mass for the Blessed John Henry Newman which is to be featured at the venues of the Pope’s forthcoming visit to Great Britain. No surprise there. But what’s novel I think, is that MacMillan, unusually for a composer, is a bold controversialist and an unorthodox defender of British Catholicism who has started his own blog to comment on his own press interviews. MacMillan first slammed sectarianism as “Scotland’s Shame” 11 years …

“The Cardinal said that he knew that the priest was a very bad man…”

Pete Baker on August 24, 2010, 12:23 pm

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The Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman, Al Hutchison, has published the findings of his “investigation into how the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) dealt with their suspicions that a Catholic priest was allegedly involved in the bombing of Claudy in County Londonderry on 31 July 1972, in which nine people were killed and more than 30 others were injured.” The full report is available here [pdf file]. BBC report here. From the Police Ombudsman’s statement The Police Ombudsman’s Office has confirmed that …

Call for Catholic Church to release Claudy information

Turgon on August 2, 2010, 11:43 pm

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Gregory Campbell has called on the Catholic Church to release any files it may have on the Claudy bombing. Campbell has pointed to the recent fact that Bishop Noel Treanor has called for an enquiry into the events of 1972 in Ballymurphy and has released the Church’s documents pertaining to that episode. The Claudy bombing in 1972 resulted in 9 deaths including that of Kathyrn Eakin aged 9. The IRA has been widely blamed for the atrocity but has never …

Catholic Church: the lobby and its fear of the public square

Mick Fealty on June 24, 2010, 1:26 pm

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It has to be the strangest pairing in the Blogosphere, but my old Telegraph colleague, Damian “the blood-crazed ferret” Thompson has taken rather a shine to old Splintered lately… mostly for his acute observation of the politics of the high end of the English Catholic Church… Almost at random here’s a particularly interesting snippet on their modus operandi as seen by Splintered: Lobbying ministers is fine, but lobbying ministers at the expense of any other methods, like, oh, making a public …

McGuinness: Archbishop Martin is providing a way forward..

Eamonn Mallie on May 21, 2010, 9:12 am

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Deputy First Minister Martin Mc Guinness looks to Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin to lead the catholic church out of the grip of child abuse scandals. Mr Mc Guinness has spoken for the first time since Cardinal Sean Brady said he is not quitting. Northern Ireland’s deputy First Minister has thrown his weight behind the Archbishop of Dublin as the row over child abuse by some priests rages on. When the story broke in March that Cardinal Sean Brady committed two …

Cardinal Brady calls for an independent statutory body in the south

Mick Fealty on May 18, 2010, 9:00 am

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Will Crawley has the full statement from Cardinal Brady outlining why he is staying on in his post and what he proposes to do about child sex abuse within the church. In effect, in Northern Ireland, he is accepting that the state will have the final say: I have asked the Child Safeguarding staff in the Diocese of Armagh to make all necessary preparations for our full participation as a Diocese in the work of the new Independent Safeguarding Authority, …