Refusal of Communion to minister over abortion vote causes rift in Irish Church
A rift has emerged within the Irish Catholic Church after it emerged that a priest had refused Communion to an Irish politician because he had voted in favour of the liberalisation of abortion laws following the 2018 referendum that paved the way for abortion in Ireland.
Pondering the current state of the Catholic Faith in Ireland
(R.Cavanaught. The Catholic World Report).
Irish Catholics feel “hurt and abandoned,” says theologian David Deane. “Those whose faith or character is weak or afraid, those whose need to be liked and affirmed is too significant a part of their nature, are not simply leaving the faith but joining mobs against it.”
Priest refuses to give communion to politician who voted in favor of abortion
(Eoin Shortiss. Corkbeo).
A Cork TD was refused communion at a fellow party member’s funeral because of ‘his role in Irish abortion legislation’.
Fr. Gabriel Burke refused to give Fine Gael Minister Colm Burke the sacrament at a requiem mass at the St. Patrick’s Chuch in Whitechurch on Friday morning, July 12. The priest said he believed that any politician who voted for abortion in Dáil Éireann was “participating in evil” and should not be allowed to receive the rite.
(Crux. Charles Collins).
Ireland – north and south – is far from immune from human trafficking, according to the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference. Women account for 67 percent of people trafficked into Ireland, and trafficking for sexual exploitation is the most common form of this modern slavery, accounting for 55 percent of victims, followed by labor trafficking at 38 percent, according to a 2023 report by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.
(Infovaticana).
El proyecto de ley sobre discursos de odio en Irlanda ha generado controversia internacional por temor a que restrinja la libre expresión y el debate. La legislación, que afecta significativamente a las grandes tecnológicas, ha pasado por el Dáil (parlamento) y está detenida en el Seanad (Senado) debido a la oposición.
(Tim Kirk. Boston Irish).
Back in early 2020, we had tickets to see Christy Dignam, the legendary lead singer of the ‘80s and ‘90s band Aslan, play at the Olympia. Then the pandemic hit, and everything everywhere was canceled. We were still hoping to have the chance to see him after the shutdown but, sadly, Christy’s rare blood cancer that had been in remission came back with a vengeance. He canceled his comeback shows and entered palliative care before passing away on June 13, 2023, at 63, joining Shane McGowan and Sinead O’Connor on a grim honor roll of beloved Irish musicians lost during the year.
Christy’s relatives and friends organized a tribute concert for last month. The Vicar Street venue was already fairly packed when we arrived and as we entered, we were handed a small card with Christy’s face, the dates of his birth and death, and a short inscription on the reverse side.
(Catholic Herald. Katherine Bennett).
Myopia has plagued my family as far back as can be traced. The family vault holds images from the end of the 1800s of women in their forties all wearing glasses. My grandparents’ 10 children and 39 grandchildren all wear glasses. My own children wear glasses. My brother went out with a girl who dumped him once she found out he wore glasses: “I don’t like any weakness,” she declared, before finding herself a job with the Humanists.
It’s likely that the weak genes of my ancestors will be eliminated at some point in the future, and if not the genes, then the people, whose corrective lenses will cost more than an armful of barbiturates; perhaps also because even with myopia, you can still be capable of seeing what is really going on.
In a society which legitimises eugenics under cuddly names like planned parenthood and medical assistance in dying, what we really need is exorcists to wheedle out generational evil spirits.
As Bambie Thug, who is also known as the Goth, Gremlin, Goblin Witch, is given a platform to act out her adolescent rebellion for the Oh-so-daring Republic of Ireland on stage at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest tonight, some will be shocked, while others will see it as final confirmation of the existence of, not so much an intellectual dark web, rather a Dunces Dark Web.
(Catholic Herald).
Catholic education in Ireland risks falling off a demographic cliff with the numbers of teachers in Catholic schools professing adherence to the faith projected to decline rapidly, according to an in-depth survey of Catholic education in Ireland that was recently released.
Conducted by Global Researchers Advancing Catholic Education (GRACE), an international research-based partnership between academics in universities and Catholic education bodies in Ireland, Australia, the US and the UK, the six-part report – titled “Identity and Ethos in Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in Ireland, Exploring the Attitudes and Behaviours of Stakeholders” – raises very practical questions and suggests practical solutions to strengthen Catholic education.
(Chai Brady. The Irish Catholic).
Irish bishops have delayed deciding on the future of artwork in Rome’s Pontifical Irish College by a controversial priest accused of abusing several adult women.
Slovenian artist and priest Fr Marko Rupnik has faced a myriad of accusations of serious sexual and spiritual abuse of at least 20 women since 2018. He was expelled from the Jesuits last year for “disobedience”.
The chapel at the Irish College re-opened in 2010 after extensive remodelling and mosaic work carried out by Fr Rupnik. There is still an image of the controversial priest in the process of his work on the Pontifical Irish College’s website in a section on the college chapel.
(The Pillar – Luke Coppen).
The Vatican announced an episcopal move in Ireland Wednesday that seemed puzzling at first sight.
Pope Francis named Bishop Paul Dempsey, a 52-year-old who has led the Diocese of Achonry since January 2020, as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Dublin.
(Ruadhán Jones. The Irish Catholic).-
As four dioceses in the West merge, the Papal Nuncio to Ireland said the seismic changes were needed to meet “new challenges” facing the Church, “pooling resources” to increase vitality.
“A gradual process of reorganisation” will “give added impetus and vitality to the communities concerned”, Archbishop Luis Mariano Montemayor said in a statement today.
His comments come as Pope Francis announced changes that leave the six western dioceses with just three bishops. Archbishop of Tuam Francis Duffy takes over Killala diocese, as Bishop John Fleming (76) retires, while Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran has been appointed Apostolic Administrator to Achonry, with Bishop Paul Dempsey moving to Dublin as an auxiliary.