MLAs' legislation move could scupper Belfast abortion clinic

A private clinic located in Belfast city centre that carries out abortions may be forced to axe the controversial service within months, it has emerged. 

The SDLP and DUP have combined forces to propose the introduction of legislation which would make it illegal for a termination to be carried out in any building other than a health service facility. 

It would also be illegal to receive payment for abortions, meaning that Marie Stopes would no longer be able to offer terminations to women at its facility on Great Victoria Street. 

The Assembly is due to consider the proposal, jointly tabled by the SDLP's Alban Maginness and the DUP's Paul Givan, next Tuesday. 

The two parties have 52 out of the 108 seats at the Assembly, meaning they only need to pick up a further three votes next week to get the majority required for the proposal to succeed. 

It would then have to pass a number of stages to be passed into law, but it is understood this could be in place within months. 

 The move has been criticised by women's groups and pro-choice organisations. 

A spokeswoman for the organisations, which includes Alliance for Choice and QUB FemSoc, said: "The extent of the politicians' inconsistent approach is further evidenced by the Assembly's general willingness to use the private sector for what many would see as too much of our healthcare provision."

There have been revelations this week that the Department of Health has spent £130m contracting services to private health firms in the last three years but now they are to make abortion the one procedure that cannot be carried out in the private sector. 

"Breathtaking is the only word to sum up the level of hypocrisy." 

A spokeswoman from Marie Stopes last night said it fully complies with the law in each of the 41 countries in which it operates.

Departing Pope to vacate his office

Pope Benedict XVI is stepping down after nearly eight years as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.

The pope is due to meet cardinals before being formally bid farewell later by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and other members of the Vatican's Secretariat of State in Rome. 

He is then due to fly by helicopter to Castel Gandolfo, the pope's summer retreat, with the empty office of pope, or the Sede Vacante, formally declared at 7pm British time. 

The 85-year-old pontiff, who was elected in 2005 following the death of John Paul II, shocked the world earlier this month by announcing he was to resign on grounds of age and increasing frailty. 

He is the first pope to resign in nearly 600 years. It was revealed that he is "grateful" for the prayers of British Catholics following the announcement that he is to step down. 

A message from the Vatican addressed to the Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, said the pope continued to give thanks for the "many graces" he received during his four-day visit to Scotland and England in September 2010. 

It added that Pope Benedict would pray for the UK faithful. 

"He recalls with gratitude the welcome extended to him on his historic visit to your country in September 2010, and he continues to give thanks to God for the many graces received during those four days," the letter said. "His Holiness promises to pray for all of you and for the people entrusted to your pastoral care, and he willingly imparts his apostolic blessing." 

The outgoing pope held his last general audience in St Peter's Square, Rome, on Wednesday in front of a huge crowd. He recalled moments of "joy and light" but also times of difficulty when "it seemed like the Lord was sleeping". 

Benedict XVI will be known as "Pontiff emeritus" or "Pope emeritus", after he has resigned and will keep the name of "His Holiness, Benedict XVI". 

He will dress in a white cassock without the mozzetta, or elbow-length cape, and will no longer wear the red papal shoes.

Nun, 76, set for giant leap of faith from the heavens

If you happen to look skywards and spy a nun speeding towards the ground, don’t be alarmed — it’s only Sister Patricia bringing manna from heaven.

The 76-year-old nun is already in training to be the first of her flock in Ireland to skydive from 10,000ft up.

Her leap of faith is all about raising money for the charity Aware, which assists those affected by depression. She also hopes to assist projects in south Tipperary where she lives.

Sr Patricia Wall entered the Presentation Order when she was 17, but began to develop severe depression in the late-1960s and, despite her vocation, was on the verge of taking her own life.

Despite all the advice at the time to ‘say a prayer and you will be fine’, she ended up taking a year-long break from her convent duties to recover.

Now she wants to help others in similar situations. Working in the rural parts of south Tipperary, Sr Patricia has seen first-hand the damage suicide can cause to families. 

She hopes to raise in the region of €150,000 to be divided between Aware and community groups involved in helping people cope with rural isolation as well as funding services like childcare and historical projects.

Sr Patricia says she was inspired to do a parachute jump after locals raised funds for a memorial garden in Ballynonty doing the same thing.

Nerves? Not a bit of it.

“They have only had seven broken bones in seven years at Sky Dive Ireland so I might just get away with it,” she says, although she won’t be making a ‘habit’ of it.

The feisty sister is going to walk out onto the pitch at Thurles on Mar 9 when Tipperary take on Kilkenny. She will address the crowd and ask them to donate if they want to see her leap from the skies.

“I am looking forward to the match and I am looking forward to the jump even more,” she says. “It should be a bit of a laugh. I think I am the first nun to ever do this and definitely the first at 76 years of age, but they had a woman in her 90s jump, so I suppose I am still young enough and, sure, they won’t get rid of me that easily.”

Sr Patricia, well-known for fundraising for local projects, is scheduled to take the jump on the first week in May from Sky Dive Ireland’s airfield in Birr, Co Offaly. She already has a clean bill of health to take her leap into the history books.

Orders ‘made lots of money’ from laundries

Orders of nuns involved in the operation of the Magdalene Laundries have been urged by TDs to make a contribution to a survivors’ compensation fund.

Labour TD, Eamonn Maloney, said he did not accept the finding in the report on the laundries by Martin McAleese that they did not make money from the free labour of women and girls who worked in them.

“They did make money, they made lots of money,” he said during Dáil statements on the report, adding that most commercial laundries in the 1940s and 1950s closed because of competition from the Magdalenes.

“Not only has the church as yet to apologise for their role in operating these prisons, they do also have a role — because they made money — in compensating people,” he said.

The Dublin South West TD added that politicians must not be afraid to “stand up and say this”.

The Government has so far refused to say what contribution, if any, it will seek from the orders.

Four religious orders involved in the running of the laundries are due to meet with Justice Minister Alan Shatter and junior minister Kathleen Lynch.

Last Friday, Ms Lynch said the question of what would be considered a fair contribution was “debatable” and she did not want to go into it at this early stage.

“The mistake that was made with the industrial schools was that the deal was done in advance of knowing what the final cost would be,” she said.

“That was a major flaw in that process. And we don’t intend to make those same mistakes again.”

Fine Gael TD Joe O’Reilly there was “no avoiding the fact that the religious orders will have to make a contribution to the final fund”.

During last night’s Dáil statements, he said that in many cases, the orders involved have to pay for nursing home fees and the expensive care of their elderly demographic, and that should be taken into account.

“But where there are assets and where there is a capacity to pay, it would be cathartic and it would be part of a recovery process for the religious orders — and a very practical identification with the survivors if they made a financial contribution,” said Mr O’Reilly.

The Cavan-Monaghan TD said it was “not sufficient that they make no input into it”.

The four congregations which were referred to in the McAleese report on the laundries are the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity; the Sisters of Charity, which had assets of €33m in 2009; the Sisters of Mercy, which has a portfolio of assets of €1.8bn; and the Good Shepherd Sisters which, in 2009, had €16.8m worth of financial assets.

St. Patrick’s legacy not good enough for Guinness

He’s one of the best-known patron saints in the world.

His legacy sees cultural icons lit up in green, and parades are held from Montserrat to Macroom. 

On his feast day, millions of people claim to have a drop of Irish blood in them — and millions more down a drop of Irish drink.

But apparently St Patrick isn’t iconic enough to be a world record-setter.

Mike Finn, who co-wrote the TV hit Killinaskully, aims to have at least 250 St Patricks in Limerick’s parade. 

But he said: “We contacted the Guinness Book of Records people and they informed us they could not recognise a record of people dressed as St Patrick because it was not iconic enough to be recognised by them. The Guinness Book of Records is a stamp of approval which we thought we would get, but it seems that St Patrick is not good enough for Guinness.”

Finn received an email from the ironically named Kimberly Patrick of Guinness World Records, saying: “We think you will appreciate that, with costume records, we must limit these categories to those which have a very specific, standard, iconic dress and this unfortunately is not the case with St Patrick.”

Keep Savita's name out of abortion row – husband

PRAVEEN Halappanavar was left "hurt" and "distressed" by the use of his wife Savita's image during an attack on a pro-life office.

Excrement was smeared on the door, locks and shutters of the Youth Defence office on Capel St in Dublin in an attack by abortion rights campaigners. 

Photos and news clippings about Mrs Halappanavar (31) were stuck to the building.

"Praveen was deeply distressed by the events. He doesn't want Savita's name or memory tarnished in this manner," said his solicitor Gerard O'Donnell. 

"He doesn't want to be embroiled in the dispute that is going on around this issue, he is simply looking for answers on his wife's death."

The Galway solicitor also said that Mr Halappanavar has still not been furnished with a copy of the report into the death of Savita more than two weeks after a draft report was leaked.

The report suggested Galway hospital staff underestimated her condition for too long and told she would miscarry.

She was diagnosed with sepsis days after her admission and this progressed to septic shock. 

She suffered a cardiac arrest and died as a result.

Transgender woman to sue over birth certificate delay

Dr Lydia Foy, the transgender woman who won a landmark High Court case for gender recognition in 2007, has issued new proceedings against the State as she remains unable to get a birth certificate indicating she is a woman.

Dr Foy, supported by the Free Legal Advice Centres, served the plenary summons against the Minister for Social Protection, Ireland and the Attorney General on the Chief State Solicitor on Monday

“I think it’s beyond belief that the State still hasn’t changed the law,” said Dr Foy at her home in Athy, Co Kildare, yesterday.

“You’d imagine they’d have dived in to fix this up. Not a huge number of people would be affected and it’s a matter of human rights.”

The High Court ruled in October 2007 that Irish law was in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights for refusing to recognise the acquired gender of transgender people. 

The State moved to appeal to the Supreme Court but withdrew this in June 2010.

Since then successive Governments have promised to introduce legislation to allow transgender people to get new birth certificates.

Gender identity 

Dr Foy was registered as Donal Mark Foy at birth. She married and had two daughters, but struggled with her gender, attempting suicide and spending time in psychiatric care.
She was diagnosed with gender identity disorder by doctors in Britain. 

She and her then wife separated in 1991 and she underwent gender realignment surgery in Britain in 1992. She was to lose her job as a dentist as well as access to her daughters following the surgery.

In March 1993 she applied for a new birth certificate reflecting her female identity, was refused and began legal proceedings in 1997.

Though the High Court initially ruled against her in 2002 it made its groundbreaking ruling in her favour five years later.

Ireland is now the only state in Europe still in breach of the Convention on Human Rights on the issue.

Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton, said on a number of occasions legislation was a “priority”. Last September she promised its publication “within weeks”.

A spokeswoman for the department said the “formal opinion of the Attorney General was received . . . in December 2012 and is currently under consideration”. 

The continued refusal by the State to recognise who she is is “very much a source of distress,” says Dr Foy. “It’s a constant insult. I’ve been very alone, very badly treated along the way.”

Recognition 

Winning the recognition that can only come with a birth certificate that accurately reflects who she is has only become more important. 

“Losing my family and my job seemed the worst, most important issues in the past. But I see everything flows from your identity. Being accepted for who I am is the most important thing. I would like to see this wrong put right as quickly and with as much dignity as possible.”

An African Pope Won't Change the Vatican's Views on Condoms and AIDS

Since Pope Benedict XVI did what had previously been unthinkable and almost unprecedented on February 11—submitting his resignation with what amounted to little more than a two-week notice—there has been speculation that the Catholic Church could see a non-European pope.

"It's highly possible," New York City's Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan told the New York Times last week. 

Much of the initial focus was on Latin America because the region "represents 42 percent of the world's 1.2 billion-strong Catholic population, the largest single block in the Church," as Reuters reported on the day of Benedict's announcement. "Two senior Vatican officials recently dropped surprisingly clear hints about possible successors. The upshot of their remarks is that the next pope could well be from Latin America."

But in the two weeks since then, much of the successor buzz—and the bookie's odds, if you place any value on handicapping the cardinals at the papal conclave—has focused on Africa. 

Two men in particular: Ghana's Cardinal Peter Turkson and Nigeria's Cardinal Francis Arinze. Turkson, who was appointed by Benedict in 2009 to lead the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, has reportedly emerged as one of the leading choices. 

The National Catholic Reporter does a fairly good job explaining the frenetic media narrative when it profiled Turkson last week: "Nothing's sexier from a media point of view than the idea of a 'black pope.' The notion of what's traditionally seen as the planet's ultimate First World institution being led by a black man from the southern hemisphere has an undeniable magic."

"If Africa could produce great Catholic saints, like St. Augustine and St. Monica," wrote one reader in The Observer, the Ugandan weekly. "Why can't we afford another pope in this modern era?"

Richard Dowden made the case in his column "Why an African Pope Could Save the Church" for The Times on February 18. 

"An African pope could bring a revitalising spiritual enthusiasm and passion," Dowden argued, claiming that African Catholic leaders are more "respected and trusted when they speak out on social and economic justice... than their Western counterparts."

Even if the next pontiff were chosen from Ghana or Nigeria it's extremely unlikely that he would be a progressive, of course. 

The arch-conservative German-born Benedict has appointed a majority of the cardinals who will elect his successor sometime in March at the papal conclave. It is also highly likely that even an African pope would continue Benedict XVI's and the Vatican City's refusal to encourage condom use in the fight against HIV/AIDS. 

This policy has had serious, long-lasting consequences across the global south—especially Africa. 

Earlier this month the New York Times reported on the Roman Catholic Church's "explosive growth" in Africa. 

The continent is home to the world's largest growth in Catholics.

With 16 percent of the world's Catholics now living in Africa, the church's future, many say, is here. The Catholic population in Africa grew nearly 21 percent between 2005 and 2010, far outstripping other parts of the world. While the number of priests in North America and Europe declined during the same period, in Africa they grew by 16 percent.

There were plenty of statistics in that report but the Times neglected to mention another data point: Sub-Saharan Africa is home to two-thirds of all people living with HIV/AIDS. 

That's about 24 million people, according to amfAR. Condoms are the most reliable method to prevent HIV infection—but official Catholic doctrine rejects condom use as sinful. The Church focuses on abstinence before marriage and fidelity within marriage. 

Pope Benedict XVI described the HIV/AIDS pandemic as primarily an "ethical problem" as he presented his vision for the Church's future in Africa during his second visit to the continent in November 2011. 

The comments were delivered in a 135-page pastoral document as His Holiness wrapped a three-day pastoral trip to the heavily Catholic West African nation of Benin. 

"The problem of AIDS in particular clearly calls for a medical and a pharmaceutical response," it says. "This is not enough however. The problem goes deeper. Above all, it is an ethical problem."

The solution is a "spiritual and human awakening", said the pontiff. That includes sexual abstinence.

Benedict's comments echoed statements he made during his first trip to Africa in 2009 after "he caused a global outcry when he said using condoms "increase" the problem of HIV/AIDS," reported Deutsche Press in the pontiff's native Germany. "You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms," the pope told reporters during his 2009 trip to Cameroon. 

Unsurprisingly, the pope's disavowal of condoms was very unpopular among secular aid workers. 

"The Pope's 2009 declaration created an uproar and confused believers," Eugide Bashombana, HIV Officer for aid group Oxfam, told Reuters in 2010. "We found a certain resistance to accept condoms—it was very difficult." 

An African pope is unlikely to have a different perspective on condom use. 

Turkson has co-signed the papal doctrine on abstinence, condoms, and HIV/AIDS. Condoms give Africans "a false sense of security," the Ghanaian cardinal claimed in 2009, maintaining they are often used improperly. "People think that using condoms will prevent the spreading of AIDS but it is actually helping the disease spread."

Turkson has added an extra dose of homophobia to his homilies. Turkson and other African clerics blasted United Nations Secretary General Ban ki-moon after his January 2012 address to the African Union. 

Ban claimed that some African nations have treated gays and lesbians like "second-class citizens or even criminals." 

Turkson claimed that was an "exaggeration," reported the National Catholic Register.

That's no "exaggeration." Same-sex acts are currently illegal in at least 38 of 54 African countries. Four nations—Mauritania, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan—boast the death penalty for gays or same-sex activity.

The papal conclave is scheduled to begin its deliberations in mid-March, if not sooner. 

A non-European pope would signal a dramatic new face for the Church—but window dressing, at best. 

The Catholic Church's policies on sexuality, condoms, and HIV/AIDS—especially in the developing world—will remain firmly in place.

Vatican conclave tainted by scandal before it even begins

Cardinal Dolan, the archbishop of New York, has become the latest cardinal to be questioned over his handling of sex abuse by priests and victims in Ireland, US and Belgium.

Of the 116 cardinals who will gather beneath Michelangelo’s frescoed ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, several are embroiled in controversies connected to the Church’s systemic failure to tackle sex abuse against children by paedophile priests.

The question marks over the cardinals’ management of sex abuse cases are an embarrassment for the Holy See, just as Benedict prepares to resign the papacy today.

Timothy Dolan, the charismatic archbishop of New York, who is considered to have a chance of being elected Benedict XVI’s successor, was formally questioned about abusive priests in his former archdiocese of Milwaukee, just days before his departure for Rome to take part in the conclave. 

Cardinal Dolan, the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, answered questions in New York about his decision to publicise the names of clergy who had been accused of molesting children.

The archdiocese of Milwaukee, which he led from 2002 until 2009, faces allegations from nearly 500 people. 

The 62-year-old cardinal was “eager to cooperate in whatever way he could”, said a spokesman.

Cardinal Dolan is the second American cardinal this week to be scrutinised over his role in the sex abuse scandals, which erupted in the United States in 2002.

Cardinal Roger Mahony, the retired archbishop of Los Angeles, is due to be questioned on Saturday in a lawsuit over a visiting Mexican priest who police believe molested 26 children in the 1980s.

Catholic groups in the US and Italy have called for Cardinal Mahony to be barred from the conclave, but he insists he will attend despite allegations that he shielded predatory priests.

"In the interests of the children who were raped in his diocese, he needs to keep out of the public eye,” Andrea León-Grossman, a member of Catholics United, said in a statement on the group's website.

“He has already been stripped of his ministry. If he's truly sorry for what has happened, he would show some humility and opt to stay home."

At least three other cardinals due to participate in the conclave, which is expected to start sometime in mid-March and could last for days, also have clouds over their reputations.

Cardinal Sean Brady of Ireland has resisted repeated demands that he resign for allegedly failing to stop a sexually abusive priest in the 1970s.

Godfried Danneels, a Belgian cardinal, had computer files seized at his home in 2010 over suspicions that he helped cover up hundreds of abuse cases.

Justin Rigali, another American cardinal, retired as archbishop of Philadelphia in disgrace after a grand jury accused him of failing to do enough to tackle abusive priests.

The sex abuse scandals that rocked the Catholic Church over the last decade were so extensive that it was not surprising so many cardinal electors were mired in controversy, said Robert Mickens, a veteran Vatican analyst for The Tablet, the British Catholic weekly.

“If they banned all the cardinals who have mismanaged sex abuse or have been involved in other unsavoury business, they’d end up holding the conclave in a broom cupboard,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

“But under Vatican laws, cardinals cannot be excluded from the conclave for any reason, even excommunication.” 

The airing of dirty laundry came as Vatican analysts said the cardinals would be desperate to elect as Pope a colleague who has been untouched by allegations of infighting, intrigue and dirty tricks campaigns between senior figures in the Holy See.

Evidence of poisonous feuding between rival power blocks was allegedly uncovered by three cardinals, including a senior member of Opus Dei, who were commissioned by Benedict to investigate the theft of confidential documents by the pope’s butler, amid suspicions that he did not act alone.

Their dossier, which was presented to the Pope in December, found evidence that there was a powerful gay lobby within the Holy See hierarchy, according to Ignazio Ingrao, a prominent Vatican analyst.

“The part of the report that shocked the Pope the most was that which brought to light the existence of a network of alliances and acts of blackmail of a homosexual nature in several areas of the Curia (the powerful Vatican bureaucracy),” he wrote on Thursday in Panorama, a respected news magazine. 

The cardinals’ secret dossier was based on dozens of interviews conducted over eight months with cardinals, archbishops, bishops and priests from many nationalities. 

Its findings will have a direct bearing on the conclave, argued Mr Ingrao. “The report will in effect be the 118th cardinal inside the conclave. It will be passed by Benedict to his successor and in all probability there will be a meeting between ‘the two Popes’ after the election (to discuss it).”

One of Italy’s biggest daily newspapers, La Repubblica, ran a strikingly similar front-page report alleging jockeying for power and blackmail against gay clerics. 

Allegations of widespread homosexuality among the clergy in Rome have been made by an Italian investigative journalist, Carmelo Abbate, in a book entitled “Sex and the Vatican”.

Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, refused to comment on the reports.

Church needs saving from its dysfunctional structure (Opinion)

The Catholic Church, aka the western church of the Latin rite, trades on tradition. 

That is what so fascinates many people: the lure of its continuity, the certainty, the serene provision of answers.

As anyone mildly acquainted with its history will know, this is a series of illusions. Christian history, like all history, is a delicious Smorgasbord of unintended consequences, paradoxes, misunderstandings, sudden veerings in new directions.

If you like to call that the work of the Holy Spirit, then fine, but do note that the Holy Spirit delights in confounding human expectations and going its own way.

The church of Rome, having been around from near the start of the story, illustrates this general truth particularly well. Its prestige derives from possessing the tomb of the Apostle Peter, who probably never visited the city.

This Palestinian fisherman, who would have spoken a version of Aramaic, plus enough street-Greek to make himself understood in the forum, may have been illiterate in either language, but he is represented among the books of the Bible by two elegantly-penned Greek letters written by two different authors – he himself was neither of them.

The current position of the Roman Catholic Church as the largest section of world Christianity depends on a variety of later accidents. One of these – the French Revolution of 1789 – produced the modern papacy. Until then, the pope was one Italian prince among several others.

Certainly he was equipped with a dozen centuries and more of ideological baggage, bulging with his aspirations to be something universal.

But he shared his power in the church inescapably with European Catholic monarchs, prince-bishops of the Holy Roman Empire and a host of other fiercely independent local jurisdictions in cathedrals and the like, all of which were themselves the products of the happenstance of history.

The revolution dealt them a devastating blow. As its consequences unfolded, it swept nearly all away, and the first World War delivered the coup de grace.

To begin with, it looked as if the revolutionaries would do for the pope as well. Poor Pius VI died in a revolutionary prison in France, his death in 1799 being recorded by the local mayor (with chilling Jacobin wit) as that of “Jean Ange Braschi, exercising the profession of pontiff”. But the papacy drew on its historical resources and on revulsion in much of Europe against revolutionary brutality and destructiveness.

It very successfully played the tradition card to create something brand new: a monarchy for the whole western church, which increasingly eliminated competition from rival jurisdictions. The 19th century revival of Catholicism laid the foundations of the rock-star papacy of John Paul II, kissing airport tarmac and thrilling crowds with the force of his exceptional personality.

While popular participation in secular politics has grown throughout Europe and America over two centuries, precisely the reverse has happened in the church of Rome: it has eliminated any wider participation, even that of kings.

The post-revolutionary Vatican remodelled the church across the world, to eliminate independence in church government, local initiative or scholarship.

In Ireland, the process took up the later 19th century, to produce the variety of Catholic Church still easily within the memories of many, embodied by such prelates as the late and widely unlamented John Charles McQuaid.

The reforming work of the second Vatican Council (1962-1965) looked for a moment as if it would roll back this 19th-century innovation, but the curia’s bureaucrats in the Vatican were left to implement council initiatives, and we all know the results of that in the two pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

Benedict, arch-traditionalist, expounding even this week a narrative of Vatican II in which nothing much happened at all to the church, has by his resignation set the church on yet another new path.

It is paradoxical but admirable that this sensitive and learned man has recognised the limits of his office. The all-powerful, all-providing papacy constructed after 1789 has simply been too much for any one man to embody, regardless of whether he is frail or old.

The cardinals whom John Paul and Benedict appointed to parrot the myth of enduring tradition will no doubt resist the implications, scrabbling around to find the most convincing representative of the post-French Revolution state of the hierarchy. But it is just possible that the Holy Spirit might seize them afresh.

Wouldn’t it be a wonderful surprise for the Christian world if they reached beyond the conclave and chose someone from beyond their ranks? That’s a big ask at the moment. 

But look back before the French Revolution, and we can find stories to help the church in framing a more workable version of its future than the present dysfunctional structure.

At the moment, the debate between Catholic “liberals” and “conservatives” is stuck around the second Vatican Council: what happened there? Not much? A lot? Even more than a lot, but frustrated by the Curia? Let’s recognise that the debate is much older than that.

A great many Catholics over the centuries have considered a monarchical papacy a very bad idea: particularly all those monarchs, prince-bishops, cathedral chapters. They constructed coherent theologies out of their convictions.

Historians use labels for these ways of thinking which have become merely pieces of historical jargon: Gallicanism; Cisalpinism; Conciliarism.

It’s a pity that these words now seem off-putting and archaic, because once they were living affirmations that the church’s future should be decided in broader arenas than a few chambers in the Vatican palace.

That future won’t resemble the past – it never does – so I’m not suggesting we restore the Holy Roman Empire, or the heirs of Louis XVI to the French throne. 

But history has rich resources to offer: showing how they did things in the past, so Catholics can find sensible solutions for what to do next.

In the middle of what any fool can see is a deep crisis in Catholic Church authority, let historians ride to the rescue.

* Diarmaid MacCulloch is fellow of St Cross College and professor of the history of the church, Oxford University. His book Silence: a Christian History (Penguin) will be published in April.

Retirement conspiracy theories flounder

Q: What are the real reasons for Pope Benedict's resignation?

It has become, as the newspaper advertisement goes, “the story of why”. Or, rather, “why?” has become the story.

As the shock wore off after Pope Benedict’s announcement on February 11th last that he was to resign, it was inevitable there would be dedicated souls who would seek out the true reasons for his extraordinary abdication.

It was far too simple to accept his own explanation that: “In order to govern the barque of St Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which, in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to me.”

To quote Shakespeare: “Old age? Pshaw.” 

You might as well believe Pope John Paul I died of natural causes when everyone knows he was poisoned as part of a Vatican power play.

Blood pressure 

It began gently. 

There was the story of Pope Benedict’s fall in Mexico during his visit there in March 2012. 

That emerged in the days immediately after the resignation announcement.

Rome paper Il Messaggero noted the pope had arthritis and high blood pressure. Financial journal Il Sole 24 Ore said he had a heart operation last autumn. Ho hum.

Even that story was ruined when Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said it was a routine heart operation during which the battery on Benedict’s pacemaker was changed. 

Time to dig deeper.

Enter Vatileaks, or “what the butler saw”. 

The so-called Vatileaks scandal culminated last year in the arrest and conviction of the pope’s butler Paolo Gabriele. He was found guilty of stealing confidential documents from the papal apartment and leaking them to a journalist. The resultant story suggested intrigue at the highest levels in the Vatican.

Ah, yes . . .

Which is where Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown came in. 

Could any story of high Vatican intrigue be complete without Dan Brown? 

Of all people it was Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, himself said to be at the centre of so much intrigue, who insisted the Vatileaks story was the result of journalists “pretending to be Dan Brown . . .”

As if . . . Or, the cardinal added, it was the work of the “devil”. Some in Rome would not be so nuanced. They see the work of that unholy trinity – journalists, Dan Brown and the devil – as of a kind.

Missing ingredient 

Still our dogged truth-seekers weren’t satisfied.

Then last Thursday delivered the missing ingredient, sex. It was the gays what dun it. Italian daily La Repubblica reported that the activities of a gay lobby in the Vatican partly prompted Benedict to go.

However, and despite the “liturgy and lace” character of this papacy, as so described by an eminent Irish Catholic, this gay lobby has been, to date, one of the most unsuccessful lobby groups ever.

Along with women, Protestants, Muslims, Jews, liberal Catholics and thinking priests, Benedict provided a particularly cold house for gays.

Maybe they got him in the end? 

But, from personal observation last week, this reporter can say with confidence the pope’s own explanation seems the true one.

Bethany Home survivors face battle for redress

TDs will shortly meet with survivors.

“Our minds are being played with,” says Bethany Home survivor Derek Leinster. 

They thought their battle for apology and redress was over for one whole day this week, but then their hopes were dashed.

Enda Kenny said in the Dáil last Wednesday that Justice Minister Alan Shatter, was “looking at the question of the Bethany Home”.

The flames of hope were fanned when Education Minister Ruairi Quinn, said the survivors should have the same treatment as Magdalene survivors.

But then last Thursday, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice denied the Magdalene redress scheme could be extended to Bethany survivors.

The Bethany Home in Rathgar, Dublin, was not a Magdalene laundry but it was a refuge/detention centre for Protestant women which society wanted out of the way.

It functioned as a mother and baby home, but had appalling health and safety standards, leading to the seemingly preventable deaths of many babies and children mostly during the 1930s.

In 2010, 219 unmarked graves of Bethany babies and children were discovered in Dublin’s Mount Jerome cemetery.

Bethany’s main similarity to the Magdalene homes is that the State used the same excuse not to give an apology or pay redress in both cases: That they were privately run.

This position has been rowed back on as regards the Magdalene homes, but not as regards Bethany.

The survivors say they should have been included in earlier redress schemes:

“I’ve been 11 years watching other people having their pain dealt with, but not us. That’s what I can’t take,” says Mr Leinster.

He and the other survivors believe that it is because they are Protestants, not Catholics, that they have been left out of redress.

It was confirmed that Sinn Féin TD Mary Lou McDonald has convened a meeting of TDs in Leinster House today (Thursday) so the survivors can tell their stories.

Mr Leinster and his wife Carol have cancelled their return to the UK to attend the meeting, although they have limited means and have never received any funding.

TDs and MLAs from every party on the island of Ireland have supported the survivors’ case for an apology and redress.

Mr Leinster says no issue has ever achieved that before.

“We’re creating something in Ireland that the Good Friday Agreement was set up to achieve,” he says.  “The graves have achieved that.”

No price given for orders’ contribution to Magdalene fund

The Government is refusing to say what contributions it will seek from religious orders for a fund being established for victims of the Magdalene laundries.

Four religious orders involved in the running of the laundries are due to meet with Justice Minister Alan Shatter and junior minister Kathleen Lynch, who said they would “discuss in greater detail how we can manage this between us”.

Ms Lynch said the question of what would be considered a fair contribution was “debatable” and she did not want to go into it at this early stage.

“The mistake that was made with the industrial schools was that the deal was done in advance of knowing what the final cost would be,” she told RTÉ radio. 

“That was a major flaw in that process. And we don’t intend to make those same mistakes again.”

The compensation costs for the industrial school redress scheme ran to over €1bn, but the Magdalene survivors have proposed a scheme amounting to about €100m.

The Government has asked Mr Justice John Quirke to establish “how best to support” the survivors of the laundries. He will set up a scheme that will take into account work undertaken in the laundries without pay, and advise on the nature and amount of payments to be made out of the fund.

The four congregations which were referred to in the Magdalene Report by Martin McAleese are the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity; the Sisters of Charity, which had assets of €33m in 2009; the Sisters of Mercy, which has a portfolio of assets of €1.8bn; and the Good Shepherd Sisters which, in 2009, had €16.8m worth of financial assets.

Ms Lynch said the congregations would be contacted this week.

Asked if a cost would be put to them, she said: “I’m sure at some stage we will come to that point.”

However, she said the priority was to ensure their co-operation in providing access to records to Judge Quirke “for verification and to ensure that people who have applied in relation to the new scheme get what they are entitled to”. 

“We are going to meet the four congregations first and talk about what has happened up to this point, then discuss in greater detail how we can manage this between us.”

Survivors find redemption in an unlikely alliance

On Tuesday night, a long line of Irish women in their 50s, 60s, and 70s stood side by side on the plinth outside the Dáil.

Each woman held on tightly to the hand of another before they all raised their linked hands, cheering and smiling broadly at the scrum of cameras and journalists standing below them.

The wait had been long, their suffering great; but finally their day had come. 

The Taoiseach, on behalf of the State and its people, had apologised for all they had endured in the Magdalene Laundries, the hellholes where, in the name of religious redemption, they had been locked up and forced to work for nothing while being constantly derided by nuns.

In the midst of that group stood a young man.

From Millstreet in Co Cork, Steven O’Riordan isn’t the son of a Magdalene survivor. He isn’t a human rights activist. He is a 29-year-old who watched Peter Mullan’s film The Magdalene Sisters in 2006, having just graduated from a film studies degree. 

He was stunned to learn that the last Magdalene Laundry had closed just 10 years previously and realised that tracking down these women would make a great documentary.

“I went on the internet that summer looking to see if I could track these women down,” said Steven.

“I trawled everywhere, pretending to be a survivor, to see if I could get anyone in any of the groups or forums to talk to me. It was there that I found Maureen O’Sullivan. I asked could I talk to her on the phone and after our first conversation — it lasted three hours — I was shocked as she jumped all over the place telling me how she had been put in a laundry as a child, how she’d been hidden in a tunnel by the nuns, how she’d never been an unmarried mother.

“To be honest, I started just to see could I track these women down, thinking it would be great to do it. Then suddenly I was thrown into something much, much bigger as I tried to verify Maureen’s story. More survivors started to come forward and then Maureen and the other women started asking me to help them write letters, to get information for them. I felt compelled to do it really. I didn’t think any other way as they hadn’t been given the opportunities that I had.

“There’s no doubt this attitude came from Joanne. I understood absolutely what they had to put up with.”

Steven’s younger sister is Joanne O’Riordan. The 17-year-old, who was born with no limbs, has become a national symbol for how a disability does not mean you must sit in a corner, grateful for any bit of help.

“We fought so hard to get the women’s records,” said Steven. “We did whatever we could. We agreed that I would pretend to be their sons, as it was the only way I could get at information from the nuns. I found myself looking up acts, legislation, something I had no interest in before. At one point, a religious order called the guards on me, as they said I was trespassing their grounds. When the guards arrived, I said that I to wanted to make a complaint about the 30,000 women that had been imprisoned in Magdalene Laundries by the nuns. The women began to trust me.”

At the same time as he was researching The Forgotten Maggies, Steven was living in London, getting the odd acting role. This meant that he was up at 4am editing, researching, and doing voiceovers for The Forgotten Maggies.

Eventually, in 2009, The Forgotten Maggies, which was co-produced with Gerard Boland, was shown at the Galway Film Fleadh.

The women involved in the documentary decided they wanted to form a representative group and so Magdalene Survivors Together was born.

“Talking to me for the documentary became a form of self-counselling for them, I think,” said Steven.

“They also met people with similar experiences. Many of them had never spoken to another survivor before, so it was huge for them. I empowered the women and they empowered one another.”

The 37 members of Magdalene Survivors Together have become the public face of the Magdalene laundries. Somehow, these unique women found the self-esteem, courage, and determination to do media interviews and be photographed. 

Despite the put-downs, bullying, and mental torment that they suffered in the laundries, and the stigma and disregard they experienced outside, they refused to give up. However, by stepping into the glare of the public eye, they are in a minority.

The lion’s share of Magdalene survivors are not aligned to any organisation, whether it is Magdalene Survivors Together, Sally Mulready’s Irish Women Survivors’ Network, or Justice for Magdalenes. 

 Their time in the Magdalenes is something that they do not want to revisit or make public, as Martin McAleese underlined in his report — fewer than 100 Magdalene survivors spoke to the McAleese committee, out of the estimated 800 he believes are still alive.

Justice for Magdalenes is the survivors’ advocacy group, and brought the issue of state involvement in the Magdalenes to the UN Commission for Torture, a move which forced the Government to establish the McAleese report. JFM’s work is research-driven, and the survivors attached to their group are the silent women, those who wanted to enter and exit via the back door of Government buildings on Tuesday for fear of recognition.

Nonetheless, the estimated 700 more who have hidden their Magdalene past and could not countenance attending the Dáil must have found new reserves of courage from Enda Kenny’s words and the sight of fellow survivors beaming on the Dáil plinth.

The events of that night must stirred something as, within 48 hours, 400 women had contacted the Department of Justice to register initial interest in the Magdalene redress scheme.

New chief executive for relief body

Concern Worldwide has appointed a new chief executive.

Dominic MacSorley, from Belfast, will succeed Tom Arnold at the start of next month, the Irish humanitarian relief agency said.

Mr MacSorley has worked with Concern since 1982, latterly as director of operations for the organisation's American arm, Concern Worldwide USA.

"Poverty is on the rise as the challenging economic, environment and political conditions affect the poorest most. More than 850 million people went to bed hungry last night," he said.

"This is why Concern exists: it is people reaching out to people. We value hugely the confidence our supporters show in Concern to work with those who need our help the most. Without this trust, our work would not be possible. I am delighted to accept this position."

Mr Arnold recently announced his decision to step down as chief executive after 11 years to chair the Constitutional Convention.

Mr MacSorley has also been part of Concern's rapid deployment unit, a team of experienced and specialist staff available at short notice to respond to emergency situations.

His record of service includes Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Rwanda, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Darfur, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Haiti.

He has also represented Concern and Interaction, the representative body for US non-governmental organisations (NGOs), at the United Nations.

www.concern.net

Government failing Traveller community - priest

The PP of the Parish of the Travelling People in Dublin has lent his voice to criticism of the Government’s “unacceptable performance" on issues affecting Traveller children.  

Referring to the effects of Budget cuts to educational resources which supported Traveller children, Fr Derek Farrell said that “the bottom line is taking precedence over the effects on the community”, which is “a short sighted approach”.

Speaking in reaction to a ‘report card’ issued by The Children’s Rights Alliance which awarded the Government an ‘E’ grade for its “unacceptable performance” on the issues affecting Traveller children, Fr Farrell said “the report card reinforces the view that the effects of cuts - the human and social costs - are very often not factored into policy.

“For example there had been progress made in regards to education in recent years and we feel that taking away visiting teachers is a regressive step."

The Children’s Rights Alliance’s Report Card notes that outcomes for Traveller children remain “almost universally worse” than their settled peers, particularly in the areas of health and education.

Reacting to the report Martin Collins of Pavee Point said: “It is truly shocking that in this day and age Traveller children continue to face these levels of inequality. The disproportionate cuts to Traveller education will only serve to reinforce and condemn another generation of young Travellers to exclusion and marginalisation. We are calling on the Government to urgently outline what steps it will take to support and protect the rights of Traveller children rather than furthering inequalities. The Government must ensure that every child can enjoy all their rights equally.”
 
The Department of Social Protection is at the bottom of the Report Card, receiving an F grade, or fail, for child poverty. 

The report says harsh measures in Budget 2013 hit the poorest families hardest and this grade reflects its devastating impact on children.

Churchbells will ring for Benedict XVI

The "Pummerin" bell rings on rare events such as holidays, New Year’s Eve, the death and election of a pope, the archbishop of Vienna, the priest of St. Stephan’s Cathedral, the president of Austria or the mayor of Vienna.
The bell also rang at the requiem for Otto Habsburg, the son of the last emperor of Austria, who died in July 2011. 

When Pope Benedict XVI resigns today (28 February), the "Pummerin" will start ringing on 20.00 and finish after 15 minutes.
Nuncio Peter Stephan Zurbriggen will hold a mass for the pope at 19.00. The ringing of the bell will be followed by an evening of prayers "for a good new pope".
From the moment of the pope’s resignation from office until the election of a new one, the pope is not mentioned in the Eucharistic prayers any more.
There will be a concert in honour of the pope in Schottenkirche on 28 February at 20.30. 

Psalm 23 and compositions by Franz Liszt for soprano, piano and organ will be performed.
Pope Benedict XVI unexpectedly announced his resignation on 11 February. 

Speculations about his successor started immediately afterwards. 

Some assume that the next pope might come from Africa or Latin America.

Pope Benedict XVI's Resignation Linked To Probe Into ‘Vatican Gay Officials'

Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to resign was reportedly influenced by the discovery of a gay “network” in the Vatican that led to some clergymen being blackmailed by outsiders. 

The claims were made in Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper, which says the network was described in a 300 page report presented to the Pope by three cardinals assigned to investigate the “Vatileaks” scandal of 2012. 

The report allegedly describes divisions in the Roman Catholic Church, including a “cross-party network united by sexual orientation.”

“For the first time, the word homosexual was pronounced,” the newspaper claims, referring to a meeting where the cardinals presented their findings to the Pope. 

Quoting further words from the report, it talks of evidence of “external influence” on Vatican officials with whom they had links of a “worldly nature”.

La Repubblica added: “We would call it blackmail.”

It also claims the report alleges various lobbies within the Holy See consistently broke sixth and seventh commandments – namely “thou shalt not steal” and “thou shalt not commit adultery”.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi refused to confirm or deny the allegations.

"Neither the cardinals' commission nor I will make comments to confirm or deny the things that are said about this matter," he said, according to The Guardian.

"Let each one assume his or her own responsibilities. We shall not be following up on the observations that are made about this."

The Guardian also points out a further Italian newspaper – Corriere della Sera – which makes reference to a “disturbing” dossier published soon after the Pope’s resignation was announced.

The Pope shocked the world with his resignation announcement, which makes him the first to abdicate in 600 years. The 85-year-old said he was "no longer suited" to the the challenges his role demanded.

The Vatican later confirmed that pontiff has a pacemaker and had to have surgery to replace the batteries three months ago. However they said this was not a factor in his resignation.

Scandalous revelations involving the Vatican and gay sex have been published by La Repubblica before.

In 2010, the newspaper revealed wiretaps and police documents that showed a Vatican chorister and an elite papal usher had been involved with a gay prostitutes ring. 

Both men were dismissed from their duties.

Pope Benedict XVI Will Send Final Tweet From Vatican on Feb. 28

It wasn’t long ago that Benedict XVI became the very first pope to bless us all via Twitter. 

But as His Holiness is set to resign today, apparently his Twitter account will stop too.

His last tweet as pope from his @Pontifex account (English version) will be sent out today. 

As with Benedict’s previous tweets, his final message will be be sent out in 8 different languages via separate accounts.

Benedict, the first pope in six centuries to resign, will also be known as the first social media pope and possibly the most accepting of new technology to date. 

During his eight years of leadership, the Catholic Church has certainly increased its Internet presence and even sanctioned an iPhone app for confession (though they’d still like you to come to church on Sunday mornings).

Whether or not the next pope decides to follow Benedict in the new papal tradition of reaching out via tweet remains to be seen. 

Though the @Pontifex handle doesn’t include Benedict’s name, it is currently considered to be his account, ANSA reports. 

If his successor decides to be active on Twitter, the Vatican may choose to create a new account or continue to use Benedict’s.

When they gather next month in Rome to choose the new pope, those cardinals who use social media will also silence their accounts until the selection process is over. 

It has been customary for the papal conclave to remain silent, sequestered from the public until a new pope is announced.

Pope considering last-minute changes to conclave rules, Vatican says

Pope Benedict XVI is considering making some changes to the conclave rules and rituals before he leaves office Feb. 28, the Vatican spokesman confirmed.

Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, the spokesman, told reporters Wednesday that any papal document is more likely to deal with possible discrepancies between the apostolic constitution governing the election of popes and the ritual handbook for carrying out the election than with questions over when the conclave can begin.

The pope is considering issuing a document "in the next few days, obviously before the 'sede vacante' begins, to clarify some particular points that have arisen in the last few years about the apostolic constitution on the conclave," Lombardi said.

"I do not know if he will find it necessary or opportune to make a clarification about the timing of the beginning of the conclave," he said.

"We'll have to see if and when this document will be published," he added.

Under the rules established in the apostolic constitution "Universi Dominici Gregis" on the vacancy of the papacy and the election of a pope, cardinals in Rome "must wait 15 full days for those who are absent" before they can enter into a conclave and begin the process of electing a new pope.

The question has arisen, including among leaders of the College of Cardinals, whether the 15-day rule applies if all the cardinals are in Rome before that.

Lombardi told reporters earlier that some experts have argued that members of the college could decide whether or not they had to wait, giving another section of "Universi Dominici Gregis," which says, "Should doubts arise concerning the prescriptions contained in this constitution, or concerning the manner of putting them into effect, I decree that all power of issuing a judgment in this regard belongs to the College of Cardinals, to which I grant the faculty of interpreting doubtful or controverted points."

Ambrogio Piazzoni, vice prefect of the Vatican Library and author of the book "History of Papal Elections," told reporters his interpretation of the document is that the 15 days is tied exclusively to the arrival of the cardinals, who could begin the conclave earlier if they were all assembled.

Piazzoni told reporters the 15-day rule was established by Pope Benedict XV in 1914. He was elected at a conclave that began 10 days after the death of Pope Pius X; the cardinals from Boston, Baltimore and Quebec were among those unable to get to Rome in time to participate.