Friday, January 31, 2025

Clonskeagh Mosque cleared of disability discrimination claim over Eid parking row

The father of a disabled boy who claimed he was humiliated by being ejected from the grounds of Ireland’s biggest mosque by a garda during a row over parking during a religious festival has failed in a discrimination claim.

Khayyaam Noordally had accused the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland of breaching the Equal Status Act 2000 by preventing him from taking his disabled son into the mosque’s grounds by car on the Muslim holy day of Eid-al-Fitr earlier in 2023.

The Workplace Relations Commission rejected his claim in a decision published today, following a virtual hearing in October 2023.

Authorities at the Clonskeagh Mosque told the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) that its car park was simply full up on the day, with double the number of attendees than usual there to mark the end of Ramadan.

They maintained Mr Noordally tried to force his way and then blocked the gate when he didn’t get his way.

Mr Noordally said that he arrived with his son by car to the mosque on Roebuck Road in Dublin 14 to find the main entrance gate half-closed so that only people on foot could enter.

“I asked them what about my son who is a wheelchair user,” Mr Noordally said.

He said he could see a space near the entrance where he could park safely but that a security worker posted at the gate “refused” access stating: “The car park is full and there’s no other car can get access.”

“I am here for my son, he is disabled. It is not the problem of my son he was born like that. He was born without a leg, he’s not able to walk,” he said.

Mr Noordally said that he was able to enter the site on foot later to find that the two of the disabled parking bays on the grounds were occupied by cars not displaying a blue badge, while a third was free – taking photos of what he found.

After he took the pictures, he said he was “pulled” off the grounds of the mosque by a garda.

“A garda was called to remove you from the premises, is that correct?” WRC adjudication officer Conor Stokes asked him.

“Yes,” Mr Noordally said.

Mosque administrator Ahmed Hassain gave evidence that between 2,000 and 2,500 people normally came to Clonskeagh to mark the end of Ramadan – but that 2023 was “exceptionally large”, quoting an estimate of 5,000 which he said had been made by an RTÉ News team present on the day.

He said parking was on a “first come, first served” basis and that by the time Mr Noordally arrived the gate was partially closed over because the car park was full – with some 80%-90% of attendees’ cars parked elsewhere, Mr Hassain said.

“He was not refused. He wanted to force his car to come in. He did not ask for wheelchair access,” Mr Hassain said. “The crowd was so big we knew he will cause hazards,” he added.

He said the security team would have stopped someone parking in a disabled bay if they saw it happen before their eyes, but otherwise it was “impossible to find the perpetrator” and have them move the vehicle.

Mr Stokes said photos submitted in evidence showed “a number of empty spaces” in the car park on the day.

Mr Hassain said some spaces in the car park had freed up after the end of the religious service, and questioned when the photos were taken.

“People do co-operate. Out of 5,000 people, arguably over 500 or 600 vehicles, maybe 100 cars came in – the rest had to go find other places to park,” Mr Hassain said.

Mr Noordally “drove into the gate, forcefully, even before he could go in and check”, Mr Hassain said.

He said security staff had not called gardaí on Mr Noordally but that they had already been there to assist with traffic management – and only “interfered” in the situation when they saw Mr Noordally’s car blocking the entrance.

“They said: ‘Park somewhere else and then finish your argument,’” Mr Hassain added.

“Imagine if an emergency happened, someone needs to go to hospital, or an ambulance need to get in. The guards interfered on that basis, begging him to move. Nobody was rude to him. This man pushed, he was rude to everyone and rude to the guards, they said,” Mr Hassain continued.

Mr Stokes said that without a garda present, that amounted to hearsay.

“I really sympathise with him having a disabled child, but it is not my problem all the time. You can’t ask for the impossible. This is not a fair argument, you’re not dealing with reality, Noordally,” Mr Hassain added.

In his decision, Mr Stokes wrote: “It is clear that the complainant was refused entry to the car park because it was already closed.” He concluded the decision to refuse access was not linked to disability.

“The complainant as a regular attendee would have been well aware of the necessity for arriving early during the festival celebrations,” he added. He dismissed the claim.

Former US President Joe Biden risks excommunication by joining Freemasons

Former US President Joe Biden has joined the Freemasons even though the Catholic Church can punish membership of the secret society with excommunication.

Mr Biden, a Catholic, was admitted to the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of South Carolina on January 19, the day before he handed over the US presidency to Donald Trump.

His membership was announced at a ceremony in which Victor C. Major, the Most Worshipful Grand Master of the South Carolina lodge, said: “I…on behalf of the members of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of South Carolina, hereby confer membership upon President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. in recognition of his outstanding service to the United States of America.”

By joining the Masons, Mr Biden, 82, puts himself starkly at odds with the teachings of the Catholic Church.

In its 1983 Declaration on Masonic Associations, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) stated that membership was not permitted in any circumstances.

It said: “The Church’s negative judgement in regard to Masonic association remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and therefore membership remains forbidden.

“The faithful who enrol in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.”

Just two years ago, the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) upheld the 1983 decree, saying that “active membership in Freemasonry by a member of the faithful is forbidden because of the irreconcilability between Catholic doctrine and Freemasonry”.

Mr Biden has been frequently criticised by fellow Catholics for taking an à la carte approach to Catholic teaching, especially on the subject of abortion.

His membership of the Masons nevertheless presents American Catholic leaders with a new challenge when he presents himself for Holy Communion, since Pope Francis and his closest aides are opposed to Masonry.

The DDF had upheld the ruling against Freemasonry in response to a question posed by Bishop Julito Cortes of Dumaguete in the Philippines amid “the continuous rise in the number of the faithful enrolled in Freemasonry” among Filipino Catholics.

Bishop Cortes asked Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the prefect of the DDF, for suggestions on how to engage the issue pastorally while also taking into account “the doctrinal implications related to this phenomenon”.

Cardinal Fernández said that those who are formally and knowingly enrolled in Masonic Lodges have embraced Masonic principles and therefore fall under the provisions in the 1983 declaration.

In part, Vatican objections to Masonry are theological, grounded in concerns that Masonic doctrines foster pantheism, rationalism and a naturalist view of the world.

The Vatican has also long objected to the practice of secrecy with Masonry, seeing it as a potential cover for subversive and anti-social activity, including attacks on traditional political and spiritual authority.

Not only are Catholics who join Masonic associations risking being excommunicated and banned from receiving communion and the other sacraments, but according to Church doctrine they are also prohibited from acting as sponsors for Baptism or Confirmation and they are not allowed to be admitted as a member of parish or diocesan structures.

In some countries Catholics who become Masons are denied funeral rights unless some signs of repentance before death have been shown.

In his 2024 book, The Exorcist Files, Fr Carlos Martins, a Canadian exorcist who broadcasts a popular podcast, explained the spiritual dangers of membership in the Freemasons, arguing that it is effectively a neo-pagan religion.

He said its membership rituals include blasphemies and oaths incompatible with Christianity and which are designed to forge a covenant relationship which leaves a member “vulnerable to demonic transference”.

Anglican sex scandals are made worse by power abuse and a lack of accountability (Opinion)

You might be tempted to think the scandal that has caused the resignation of the Anglican Bishop of Liverpool is about sex. But in fact, it’s about power.

The allegations against the Right Rev. Dr John Perumbalath are as yet, unproven. 

But that is not where the scandal lies. 

The offence to the Church of England, and to the victims lies in the abuse of process, through which those who made the allegations were unable to get justice, and to hear their claims of sexual predation, judged in the proper place.

The details may seem a bit tedious to the casual observer but they are the heart of the matter.

The bishop was charged under an aspect of Anglican canon law which dealt with conduct. Why is this significant? Because under conduct there is a statute of limitations, which times out any complaint after 12 months. 

Anyone who has dealt with canon lawyers of any hue will know that 12 months is a remarkably short time to get anything done. 

Indeed, one of the women who complained against the Bishop of Liverpool lamented in a report in the Church Times that she only just started to give consideration to the formal advice she had received from the canon lawyers before they told her that the 12 months from the point at which she initiated her inquiries was up. 

The matter was timed out.

There was another route to complain about the bishop, and this would have been under safeguarding.

There is no statute of limitations on the safeguarding. But for whatever reason provided to her, that was not the route she was directed to take.

Anglicans have a piece of legislation called the clergy disciplinary measure, or CDM. It is almost impossible to make a complaint brought under that rule against a bishop.

I was personally very much involved in trying to hold a diocesan bishop to account for a variety of misdemeanors 10 years ago. He was finally cornered and trapped by the evidence, but it took 12 years to emerge sufficiently. 

In the meantime every effort to hold him accountable under the proper processes that the CDM provided were frustrated; firstly by the canon lawyers; secondly, by the PR company the diocesan finance officer had hired to defend him and thirdly by Lambeth Palace. 

The Archbishop of Canterbury himself defended the bishop in question, claiming he had complete confidence in him. The wagons had formed a circle. 

But having backed his rogue colleague personally, to help him repudiate the charges under the CDM, the Archbishop of Canterbury found to his profound embarrassment that he subsequently had to make a public apology for his mistake in judgement when once the evidence of the bishop’s misdemeanours was finally exposed and his resignation was forced on him.

What application does this have here?

The Archbishop of York has come under serious criticism for covering up for the Bishop of Liverpool. In particular for allowing his consecration to continue despite the fact that he knew that more than one allegation of sexual misconduct had been made against him.

Once again, it has the unfortunate appearance of the little people being held in contempt by an ecclesial management culture that refuses to offer proper accountability.

In fact the momentum of criticism has turned once again towards this archbishop, the Most Rev. Stephen Cottrell.

Is it just a coincidence that for the second time in only a matter of weeks, Cottrell has been accused of turning a blind eye to colleagues who had a history of sexual misdemeanours, or alleged misdemeanours? 

In his former diocese he promoted an accused paedophile twice while claiming that canon law tied his hands at a disciplinary level. And effectively a similar complaint is being made about him overseeing the consecration of a bishop he knew to be under a cloud of unresolved suspicion.

There is a particular sensitivity to his appearing to cover up for an episcopal colleague.

There is an understandable degree of sensitivity to what is seen as an abuse of power produces a frustration felt in particular among diocesan clergy in the Church of England.  

During the fiasco that has followed the publication of the difficulties, faced by the Bishop of Liverpool, clergy across the country have raised voices in protest, complaining that if they had been subject to those kind of accusations, they would’ve received very different treatment from their bishops. 

Another example of “one rule for us and another rule for them”.

The perception of a two-tiered safeguarding approach practised in the C of E where any bishop is untouchable but clergy are treated differently and held to a very different standard is fuelling the sense of resentment among both laity and clergy towards their bishops.

Stephen Cottrell seems once again oblivious to the criticisms made of him, as happened in the wake of Justin Welby’s resignation, and his refusal to consider his position is being seen as a scandal in its own right.

Perhaps there is a fear in senior church circles, to follow the well-worn aphorism of Oscar Wilde, that while losing one archbishop may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose both looks like carelessness. 

Or perhaps in these days of heightened concern over cover ups for sexual offenders, more crisis than mere carelessness.

But it’s a crisis that casting an ever darker shadow over the episcopal management of a battered and weary C of E. 

Anxious voices in social media as asking “where or when will it stop”?

Visionary Laywoman Who Was Friend of Padre Pio Declared Venerable

The Vatican has issued a decree recognizing the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Luigina Sinapi, declaring her “venerable.” 

The Italian woman was a lay mystic who had a vision of Jesus and the Virgin Mary and maintained a friendship with St. Pio of Pietrelcina, Italy, better known as Padre Pio.

Driven by her deep love for Jesus from an early age and claiming to have had visions of Mary, Jesus, and angels, her mother took her, in the mid-1920s, to San Giovanni Rotondo to meet Padre Pio, the saint recognized for bearing the stigmata on his hands, feet, and side. 

From that time, she maintained a close relationship with him, receiving his guidance and spiritual support throughout her life.

Sinapi was born Sept. 8, 1916, in Itri, Italy, and was baptized eight days later. 

According to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, at age 15 she felt the call to religious life and entered the Institute of the Pious Society of the Daughters of St. Paul in Rome. However, she had to leave the institute due to serious health problems.

The dicastery states that in November 1931, after the death of her parents, she was taken in by an aunt in Rome. To cover the costs of her stay, she began working as a domestic servant and later found employment at a post office and then at the Central Statistical Office.

Years later, Sinapi fell ill with cancer and was on the verge of death. However, on Aug. 15, 1935, the solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, she received the anointing of the sick and had a vision of Jesus and Mary, who miraculously healed her. From then on, she decided to live offering her sufferings for the evils of the world and for the salvation of priests and all souls.

During the Second World War she took refuge in her hometown and, upon returning to Rome, she lived in precarious conditions due to the hardships of the postwar period. From 1956 to 1970 she worked at the National Institute of Geophysics as secretary to the Venerable Servant of God Enrico Medi.

“She combined her work with an intense life of prayer, animated by a profound interior spirituality and characterized by various sufferings, accompanied by numerous mystical gifts,” the website of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints states.

By then, Sinapi was a Third Order Franciscan and, in 1954, she obtained dispensation to also enter the Third Order of the Children of Mary, to which her spiritual director belonged.

The Vatican website explains that at that time, Sinapi maintained a deep spiritual bond with St. Pio of Pietrelcina and enjoyed the trust of Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII. In 1937, after a revelation from the Virgin at Tre Fontane in Rome, she predicted his election to the pontificate.

“She spent the last period of her life at home offering hospitality, listening, offering advice and spiritual consolation to all who came to her. She died of gastric cancer on April 17, 1978, with a well-attested reputation for holiness and [supernatural] signs,” the publication adds.

Supernatural gifts and acts of charity

The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints explains that Sinapi’s existential journey “was accompanied by numerous supernatural gifts such as precognition of events and situations, bilocation, discernment of spirits and, above all, mystical union with the Lord Jesus, lived in an atmosphere of modesty, humility, and service.”

In this context, many people, including priests, bishops, politicians, and parishioners, approached her seeking spiritual consolation. She helped many priests not only with prayer but also with material aid.

In addition to these supernatural manifestations, “she knew how to carry with extreme naturalness this burden of involuntary exceptionality, of love for God and for others, demonstrating, in the practice of virtues and in the capacity for sacrifice, total obedience to the Church and its representatives,” the Vatican website notes.

Devotions and spirituality

She had a deep devotion to saints such as St. Francis of Assisi, St. Gemma Galgani, and St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus. 

Her spirituality, centered on the Eucharist and Mary, led her to help those in need, even in the midst of her own poverty.

At Vatican marriage tribunal, Pope Francis extols ‘gift of indissolubility’ of marriage

Pope Francis on Friday extolled the “gift of indissolubility” of marriage, which he said is not a limitation on freedom but something married couples live with God’s grace.

The pontiff addressed the topic of marriage’s indissolubility, or permanence, in a meeting with members of the Roman Rota, one of three courts of the Holy See, on Jan. 31. 

The audience in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall took place for the opening of the tribunal’s 95th judicial year.

The Roman Rota, the Church’s highest appellate court, handles marriage nullity cases. A declaration of nullity — often referred to as an “annulment” — is a ruling by a tribunal that a marriage did not meet the conditions required to make it valid according to Church law.

“Spouses united in marriage,” Francis said, “have received the gift of indissolubility, which is not a goal to be achieved by their own effort, nor even a limitation on their freedom, but a promise from God, whose fidelity makes that of human beings possible.”

Your work of discernment at the Roman Rota “as to whether or not a valid marriage exists,” he continued, “is a service to ‘salus animarum’ [the salvation of souls] in that it enables the faithful to know and accept the truth of their personal reality.”

The reform, which simplified and shortened the process, was aimed at making the undertaking more pastoral, with “the concern for the salvation of souls” the primary guide, the pope said.

The pontiff explained that the diocesan bishop is an important part of the reformed process, and the bishop must guarantee that the priests and laypeople in the diocesan tribunal are well-trained, suitable, and carry out their work with justice and diligence.

He said “the rules establishing the procedures must guarantee certain fundamental rights and principles, primarily the right of defense and the presumption of validity of the marriage.”

Pope Francis also encouraged anyone involved in annulment cases to approach “the marital and family reality with reverence, because the family is a living reflection of the communion of love that is God the Trinity.”

In his greeting at the audience, dean of the Roman Rota Archbishop Alejandro Arellano Cedillo said the tribunal was encouraged by the pope’s words during the opening of the Holy Door and the start of the Jubilee of Hope on Dec. 24, 2024, to “set out ‘without delay’ so as to ‘rediscover lost hope, renew it within us, sow it in the desolations of our time and our world.’”

“Holy Father, we feel directly challenged by the challenges of the present and the future, aware that the Rota Romana, as the tribunal of the Christian family, is only a ‘hem of the cloak’ of the Church,” Arellano said. 

“Nevertheless, it seems to us that it is not foreign to our hope that, from the touch of that cloak, through the administration of justice, wounded people may find peace so as to foster ‘tranquillitas ordinis’ [tranquility of order] in the Church,” he added.

Editor of Pope Francis’ Autobiography: "He gave absolute freedom, without red lines"

“Hope is the mainstay that undergirds Pope Francis’ entire life and is the thread that holds together this long narrative, even in the pages in which he recounts true horrors,” commented Carlo Musso, the Italian editor of Pope Francis’ autobiographical work “Hope,” getting right to the point regarding the theological virtue so fundamental to the life of the pontiff.

The volume was to be published after the Holy Father’s death, but at the last moment he changed his mind, Musso told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, in an interview: “His idea was to publish a posthumous book, but then the 2025 Jubilee of Hope came along and became a propitious occasion to bring it to light, he explained.

In the volume, which was released Jan. 14, the Holy Father makes clear the great difference between optimism — something more fleeting, which may be here today and gone tomorrow — and hope, which he understands as an active force.

The book is the fruit of a six-year process — until very recently secret — to put the Holy Father’s memoirs into writing. “In the autobiography, the reader will obviously be able to get a look into his personal life, his priestly life, and the entire pontificate. But it’s clear that hope has been the glue that holds them together, because even in difficulties, in tragedy, Pope Francis always sends a concrete and invincible message of hope,” the editor said.

“Hope” compiles conversations, messages, and texts that the Holy Father provided him. “I then wrote a first draft and then we went over it together for accuracy,” Musso related, making it clear that the pope didn’t steer clear of any topic: “He gave absolute freedom, without red lines.”

“This journey began in 2019 and comes to an end at the beginning of December 2024, when the pope created 21 new cardinals who once again demonstrated his vision of a universal Church,” he explained.

The Italian editor — who has come to know Pope Francis in all his human dimension — pointed out that he is “a man born in 1936 who only looks back in order to project his gaze even farther ahead.”

Over the course of 400 pages, the pontiff narrates in first person the twists and turns of his life that have marked his 88 years, from his childhood in Argentina in the midst of a family of Italian immigrants to becoming the successor of St. Peter.

It all begins with a terrifying episode: the sinking of the transatlantic ship Principessa Mafalda, known as the “Italian Titanic.” His grandparents, along with his father, Mario, had bought tickets to travel on the ship that set sail from Genoa on Oct. 11, 1927, bound for Buenos Aires.

However, they ultimately didn’t board the vessel because they were unable to sell their belongings in time. “That’s why I am here now; you can’t imagine how many times I have thanked divine providence for it,” the pontiff recounts in the book.

For Musso, this episode influenced the pope’s “sensitivity” on this subject, as did many others that have marked his magisterium, such as the cruelty of war or his inclination to open up paths to interreligious dialogue. “His personal experience of fraternity is clearly evident when he says that it was common for him to interact with Muslims and Jews,” Musso noted.

In the last chapter, Pope Francis imagines the future of the Church, which “will continue forward, because I am but a step.”

“I dream of a papacy that is increasingly more service and communally oriented,” he wrote. 

The Holy Father predicts, among other things, that the Catholic Church “will become increasingly universal and its future, and strength will also come from Latin America, Asia, India, Africa, and this can already be seen in the wealth of vocations.”

He also proposes that the Church and Catholics grow “in creativity, in understanding the challenges of contemporary times, openness to dialogue, and not being closed off by fear.”

For all this, Musso assured that the memory of Pope Francis is, in reality, “an ongoing present moment, so it’s not just a narration of the past.”

“Hope is his legacy for humanity,” he said.

Vatican warns against blind trust in artificial intelligence

The Catholic Church has published guidelines for the ethical judgement and responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI). 

In a "note" published on Tuesday, the Vatican warns against handing over human responsibility to AI. 

In addition to great potential for human progress and prosperity, AI, like any tool devised by humans, also harbours considerable risks and opportunities for misuse. 

In war, for example, the decision to kill people must always lie with humans and not with machines.

The document entitled "Antiqua et nova" (Old and New) is the joint responsibility of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith under Cardinal Víctor Fernández and the Dicastery for Culture and Education under Cardinal José Tolentino Calaça de Mendonça.

In recent months, Pope Francis has spoken on several occasions about the opportunities and risks of AI. 

He called on legislators to take steps to ethically limit the new technological possibilities.

Court dispute in the Italian "bell war" : Priests must pay

Hardly any other country is as traditionally linked to the Catholic Church as Italy. 

Even though secularisation is progressing even in the Mediterranean nation, the vast majority of Italians are still committed to the Catholic Church. 

The fact that the church also dominates everyday life acoustically apparently went too far for some residents in the tranquil little town of San Dorligo della Valle near Trieste on the northern Adriatic. 

The dispute even culminated in the confiscation of the bells by the public prosecutor's office. 

But from the beginning.

The dispute began in 2022, when around 150 of the approximately 5,700 residents of San Dorligo complained about the ringing of St Ulrich's Church and signed a protest petition. 

They felt that the bells were ringing too loudly and too frequently. 

In fact, the two priests, Don Klemen Zalar and Don Roy Benas, had the bell tower programmed to chime every quarter of an hour between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. - with two strokes on the first quarter of an hour, two strokes on the half hour and six strokes on three quarters of an hour.

Bells have been ringing again since last April

The residents felt this was an unreasonable nuisance and called in the public prosecutor, who opened proceedings - and took action: in 2022, the bells were even confiscated because the authorities felt the disturbance was too great. 

The dispute continued - and eventually ended up in court. The regional newspaper"Il Piccolo" documented the bizarre case and even labelled it a "bell war".

One release and another confiscation later, the church bells have been ringing regularly again in the small Italian town since last April - albeit less frequently. 

The responsible diocese of Trieste issued a new decree for all parishes to calm the situation.

In some places, residents complain about church bells for certain reasons. katholisch.de explains when bells ring, how and how loudly - and why they are not allowed to ring even if the Pope dies.

The legal proceedings against the two priests continued. 

Last Friday, the legal dispute ended with a fine. The two priests - who now work in other parishes - were in the dock for disturbing the peace. With a payment of around 400 euros each, further criminal prosecution was dropped. 

The priests are not considered to have a criminal record. This ends a chapter that the priests' lawyer described as "painful", according to"Il Piccolo".

All's well that ends well?

"It is important that the bell tower, a point of reference for the entire town of San Dorligo, is put back into operation," said the lawyer. The other important aspect is that the proceedings end without criminal consequences for the clergy. The defence lawyer emphasised that there is now a much more relaxed atmosphere in the town than at the time of the legal dispute. So all's well that ends well?

Not quite. At the weekend, the accused priest Zalar confirmed to"Il Piccolo": "I am not guilty of what happened in connection with the bells of the parish church of Sant'Ulderico," said the 45-year-old. 

"So I will sue those who have accused me of a crime for defamation." He had only wanted to defend the Catholic Church - and apparently literally heard something ringing: "I even believe that I was involved in a situation of village rivalries and antipathies that went beyond the issue of bells." Sounds like the last bell in this story hasn't been rung yet.

Jesuit homeless activist slams continued Government housing failures

The last government’s failure to meet its housing targets, represented in a 6.7% decrease in housing delivery in 2024, is “a massive housing failure” according to a leading Jesuit homeless activist, who said that he has “no confidence” in the new Government because of its lack of “radical action” when it comes to tackling the issue.

Speaking in the aftermath of the latest Central Statistics Office figures on housing in 2024, which recorded 30,330 homes built in 2024, down from the initial target of around 40,000, Fr Peter McVerry SJ said that the figures represent an obvious failure on the part of the Government.

“It’s obviously a failure,” he said. “They didn’t even reach the target and the target was far too low anyway – all the experts are saying that we need 50,000 to meet the expanding population. So the targets are too low and they didn’t even meet the targets.

“This Government have been in office for 5 years. Fine Gael have been in Government for fourteen years. Fianna Fáil have been in government for much of that time as well. Here at the end of it we have record homelessness, record house prices, record rents, what else can you call it except a massive housing failure?”

Ideology-driven approaches to the housing crisis are the main cause of the State’s housing problems according to Fr McVerry, who said that Government should embrace the public sector when it comes to addressing the issue and not rely on the private sector like it’s currently doing.

“I think the responsibility for the problems lies with the ideological position of a conservative government relying on the private sector to provide housing,” he said. “We’ve got to go back to the public sector for building public housing … that’s the only way in which we’re going to address this problem.

“For the private rented sector we need to scrap the HAP scheme and return to RAS. In both of them the Government pays the rent to the landlord but in HAP the landlord takes on the responsibility of managing the tenants, whereas in RAS the local authority manages the tenants.

“This Government isn’t going to radically change its policies – we need a radical change of policy. This Government, like the last Government, is tweaking existing policy and it’s not working.

“We need far more radical action than this Government is capable of. So I have no confidence that this Government is going to address the homeless or the housing crisis.”

‘We’re killing the guys we have’, Fr Rolheiser

Fr Rolheiser, could you speak a little bit about the state of priesthood, the challenges for priests these days?

“Well, one of the big challenges is that there is just a flat-out shortage of priests, you know, like, okay, I’ll give you the Canadian and United States situation.  I’ll do  a priests’ retreat now and one third of the priests will be from other countries – one third.

I think up to now,  dioceses, certainly Canada, United States, they patch it by bringing in people from Africa, from Asia, and different places. Not that that’s a bad thing. Some international clergy is good, but it’s not a long-term solution.

That is not the solution for a local church. And so this is a big crisis. And I don’t think it’s fully recognised because, it’s steady as she goes, we’re still patching and so on. I don’t think we’re looking ahead far enough to see what’s that going to be like in 25 years.

I’m not sure what it’s like in Ireland, but in the United States, with religious vocations really, really down, diocesan vocations used to be good. But I’ll give you an example. I teach in a seminary in Texas. And when I got there in 2005, we had 100 diocesan seminarians there. Now we have 50. And the seminary down in Houston, about the same, so you’re getting half the guys you used to and of that half most of them are not native-born Americans.

It’s a big crisis. Some places like Canada are trying to do it by amalgamating parishes. So bigger, bigger mega parishes, that is also a patch job, how big can it get? It’s a temporary patch. But we just must add more clergy, pure and simple.

And not only that, but we are also killing the guys we have. I gave a priest retreat in Pittsburgh and at the end, the vicar came in and he says, ‘bad news for you guys, we’re just so short, there’s no more sabbaticals. You can do something short. Go for a week or whatever. But this idea of three months or a year, we just can’t do that right now. We just don’t have the people for it.’

What are the solutions?

Married clergy would be a solution. And the Church has to decide if they want to go in that direction. For now, you’re right, women priests is off the table for now. Remotely, there could be a question of women deacons or whatever. Regarding the laity. I’ll give you an example. In the 90s, I was provincial in western Canada, there was a shortage of priests and what some bishops were doing, pretty creatively, was putting a lay person in charge of a parish, and they would have a priest come in every two or three weeks, say Mass, consecrate hosts, etc.

And sometimes this was a nun, sometimes a lay person highly trained and they would do a very good job. The people would like it, a lot of times they’d say, we don’t need a priest, we need someone to come in and consecrate some hosts, but that’s not the solution either.

Again, those are creative patch jobs. It patches it for a while, but, really, I don’t know the answer. And then sometimes when you look at Church history, oftentimes you can’t pre-think an answer. Sometimes the answer comes along with somebody coming with an absolutely new vision.

I’ll give you  an example. The Church has been in this kind of situation before. And then Francis of Assisi comes along, takes off his clothes and walks naked and walks out of Assisi and we got 700 good years out of that. Sometimes it’s going to be some creative resurrection somewhere. With an answer. So see right now, as far as we can think, the only solution would be right now married clergy, because they’re not going to ordain women and vocations… And importing from Africa and Asia to a certain extent, that’s a good thing but it’s not the answer for our churches.”

How do priests look after themselves under all this pressure?

“Well, I think today when I speak to priests it’s to help them keep their morale going and to be happy creative priests you know, like, if I’m a priest and say every day I’m in a crisis, what’s going to happen? Working just out of crisis mode,  you know we trust God. And you do what you can.

There’s a great scene. If you’ve ever seen the movie Of Gods and Men, of these Trappists who were martyred in Algeria, and when al-Qaida came the first time, it threatened them. And then they had like nine months till they came again. The Abbot said, ‘we went back to our life’.

The bells, the garden to sit in, it’s what we have to do. It’s what they did. So be a happy priest. Do what you can. You don’t have to save the world. You just have to work in this parish. We can torture ourselves or on the other hand say, ‘What can I do healthily and what can’t I do’ and  just accept those limits.

They tell the story about Pope John XXIII, which I think is true. They say some nights he went to bed and said ‘Goodnight, it’s your Church’.  That’s all you can do, go to bed and say it’s God’s Church. There’s a danger of getting a saviour complex.”

Aren’t priests expected to be at everything, to do everything, to be a Jack-of-all-trades person?

“I try to talk with priests in spiritual direction or with seminarians, and that is in our lives,  the tension between laying yourself out for the gospel and taking care of yourself long range.

Somewhere in-between self-care and self-sacrifice. I always tell priests ‘you can burn out, or you can rust out, so try to find the in- between’.  See the danger in a priest’s life is there’s always something. It’s a funeral. It’s this or that, whatever, you want a day off but this woman is sick in the hospital, you go to see her.

And then if I take my day off, am I being selfish? But the issue is you’re running a marathon. You got to do this for 40 or 50 years. So in 40 or 50 years, you got to pace yourself. And yet, at the same time, you must be careful not to be self-indulgent. And how do you not respond to need, like, saying ‘I’m going on vacation’, but ‘Mrs Murphy’s dying. Can’t you stay for that?’

There’s always a Mrs Murphy who’s dying.  And so, it’s really a great tension in priests’ lives. How do you just respond? Jesus said, give yourself over. You die, you die, you know? And at the same time, you’re running a marathon for 50 or 60 years. How do you pace yourself? That’s the tension.

And probably priests could be helped by either a good spiritual director or even a good friend or mentor who will say you’re overdoing it or you’re under doing it. I know priests who are very much into self-care (laughs) more than into ministry. I know priests who are the opposite and are killing themselves.

That’s a great tension. And it’s something that I think priests need to talk about but also dioceses need to talk about, or they will say, we can’t even do sabbaticals anymore. Well, what are they saying, no more rest because we were in crisis? But the crisis is going to go on for the next 50 years.”

And it’s kind of management’s job to manage a crisis rather than piling it on the priests, right?

“Yes, and we were just talking to a priest earlier on how do you take a day off when there’s something happening? How do you take a day off when Mrs Murphy’s dying in the hospital, he gets a call from the family, what does he say, ‘I can’t come. It’s my day off? I’m watching football on television.’

And the priest says to himself ‘I can’t do this’. And it’s just crises all the time. Somebody always dies. Somebody needs you. How do you not respond but if you respond you’ll die.”

Cardinal asks queer Catholics for forgiveness

The Archbishop Emeritus of the US capital diocese of Washington, Wilton Gregory, has asked queer believers for forgiveness for the church's treatment of them. 

"The way we have treated our brothers and sisters from the LGBTIQ community has brought them to tears and disgraced too many of us," Gregory said in a speech, the text of which was published by the portal"Outreach" on Tuesday. 

The cardinal was speaking to members of the LGBTIQ community in a church in Washington.

"I apologise from the bottom of my heart for the pain that has led to the loss of so many of our family members who belong to God no less than I do," Gregory continued. 

He apologised not only for those "whose actions in the past have scandalised and wounded these men and women", but also for his own lack of courage to give hope to those affected.

Climate of division

In his remarks, the former Archbishop of Washington lamented an ideological divide in the Church. Catholics on both sides of the spectrum had "heaped vicious and cruel condemnations" on anyone who did not see the Church as they did. 

In such a climate, the work of evangelisation becomes "even more difficult and unpleasant".

According to Gregory, he is also concerned that more and more people are turning their backs on the church. 

In addition to scandals, the reasons for this include "insensitive pastoral encounters with clergy" and "a callous attention to the spiritual needs and aspirations of people based on their gender identity". 

For him, the question is how the Church and he himself could fail to "effectively witness to Christ so that my sisters and brothers are strengthened in their faith instead of abandoning it".

Cardinal Wilton Gregory (77) was Archbishop of Washington until the beginning of this year; on 6 January, Pope Francis accepted his age-related resignation. 

At the same time, the head of the Church appointed Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, previously Bishop of San Diego, as Wilton's successor.

Another auxiliary bishop leaves the diocese of Rome

The diocese of Rome cannot rest. 

This week, Pope Francis once again transferred one of the Roman auxiliary bishops to a post in the Italian province. 

As announced on Tuesday, he appointed Auxiliary Bishop Paolo Ricciardi, previously responsible for the east of the diocese, as the new bishop in the Adriatic city of Jesi. 

Previously, he was also responsible in Rome for the area of "Church reaching out to people" (chiesa in uscita). 

The Pope did not initially appoint a successor.

The Pope had previously transferred the Roman auxiliary bishop Riccardo Lamba to Udine in February 2024. 

This was followed on 6 April by a change at the top of the administration of the diocese of Rome: the Pope's Cardinal Vicar for Rome, Angelo De Donatis, was transferred to the Vatican to the politically insignificant post of "Grand Penitentiary".

Other auxiliary bishops were transferred

At the same time, the active Roman auxiliary bishop Daniele Libanori found himself in a newly created post with an unclear remit as "Assessor of the Holy Father for Consecrated Life". 

At the same time, the "Rome Centre Area", which Libanori had headed until then, was dissolved. 

This was followed in December by the transfer of Auxiliary Bishop Daniele Salera from Rome to Ivrea in Piedmont.

The strong men in the Pope's diocese are now the new Cardinal Vicar Baldassare Reina - also Archpriest of the Roman Episcopal Church in Lateran - and the so-called "Vicegerente" of the diocese, Renato Tarantelli Baccari. 

He was consecrated bishop in the presence of the Pope on 4 January. 

Following the new personnel appointments, further structural changes are also expected in the diocese in the near future.

Jesuit explains the parable of the Good Samaritan to US Vice President Vance

The understanding of Christian charity advocated by US Vice President J. D. Vance is meeting with resistance: Jesuit James Martin explained to the politician what Jesus means by it. 

Jesuit James Martin has contradicted the Vice President's assertion on "X"that Christians should only focus on the "rest of the world" as the very last thing they should do. "This misses the point of Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan," wrote Martin.

In an interview with "Fox News", Vance had said that it is a Christian view "to love your family first, then your neighbour, then your local community, then your fellow citizens, and only then to prioritise the rest of the world". 

Many on the left have "completely reversed this".

Helping those who are different or foreign

Martin pointed out that Jesus' parable was in response to a lawyer's question about who his neighbour was. 

"In response, Jesus tells the story of a Jewish man who has been beaten up by robbers and is lying on the side of the road. The man is not helped by those closest to him (a 'priest' and a 'Levite'), but by a Samaritan. At that time, Jews and Samaritans regarded each other as enemies," says Martin.

The fundamental message of Jesus is that every person is our neighbour and that it is not just about helping our own families or those who are close to us: "It is precisely about helping those who appear different, strange and other. They are all our 'neighbours'." 

What the parable is about can be understood particularly from the perspective of the man who is being helped: "Our salvation ultimately depends, as with this man, on those we often regard as 'strangers'."

J. D. Vance is the second Catholic US Vice President after Joe Biden. 

The politician, who grew up in an evangelical community, converted to the Catholic faith in 2019. 

In the government of US President Donald Trump, there are some conservative Catholics are represented. 

At the weekend, Vance sharply attacked the US bishops for their stance on migration.

Multimillionaire builds Europe's largest statue of the Virgin Mary

One of the richest Poles wants to erect a 55-metre-high statue of the Virgin Mary in his home town of Kikol, 170 kilometres north-west of Warsaw. 

According to its mayor Renata Golebiewska, the small town has already authorised the construction, as Polish media reported on Wednesday. 

The initiator and financial backers are multimillionaire Roman Karkosik (73) and his wife Grazyna.

The statue of the Virgin Mary is to be the largest in Europe, surpassing a sculpture of the Mother of God near the small town of Miribel in western France. 

The French statue was erected more than 80 years ago and is 35 metres high. 

The world's largest statue of the Virgin Mary has been enthroned in the Philippines for a few years now. It measures more than 90 metres.

Completion planned for 2026

The new Polish statue is due to be completed next year. 

The plan is for a 40 metre high sculpture on a 15 metre high pedestal in the shape of a crown. 

Buildings already standing on the site outside the small town will be demolished, it was reported. 

The site is close to the Marian shrine in the village of Konotopie.

The construction of a giant statue of Christ caused a stir in Poland 15 years ago. 

The statue in Swiebodzin in western Poland is 52 metres high with its base, making it smaller than the current construction project. 

The largest statue of Jesus in the world is a 61-metre-high structure in Indonesia, which was inaugurated in 2024.

Christmas Eve in Poland to be work-free in future

In future,24 December will be a public holiday in Poland. 

A law will come into force on 1 February, according to which Christmas Eve will be a public holiday, just like Christmas Day. 

In return, the number of Sundays open for business in December will be increased from two to three - to a total of eight per year.

The most controversial aspect of the parliamentary decision in Poland was whether shops should be allowed to open on three Sundays during Advent. 

After initial reservations, the conservative President Andrzej Duda finally signed the law. 

This makes Poland the fifth EU country, after the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Estonia, in which the 24th of December is work-free. 

There are now a total of 14 public holidays in Poland.

The last time the parliament in Warsaw declared Epiphany on 6 January a public holiday was in 2010. 

It has been work-free again since 2011, having been abolished in 1960. 

Since 2020, shops have no longer been allowed to open on Sundays - except for seven fixed Sundays per year. 

The new law allows shops to open on the second, third and fourth days of Advent in 2025. 

If the fourth Advent falls on Christmas Eve, the Sundays open for business will fall on the first, second and third Advent.

Replicas of the Shroud of Turin unveiled in Dublin

Recently, the parish of St Kevin and St Kilian in Kilnamanagh-Castleview, Dublin unveiled replicas of the Shroud of Turin during Masses at St Kilian’s Church, Kingswood and St Kevin’s Church, Kilnamanagh.

The replicas are now on permanent display to the public in both churches, offering sacred spaces for prayer and reflection. 

Visitors are welcomed during regular opening hours.

The age and origins of the Shroud of Turin are debated, but many believe it is the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. 

It bears the image of a crucified man and is a powerful symbol of Christ’s sacrificial love.

Fr Frank Drescher PP said the Shroud is a reminder of Christ’s love and hope of the Resurrection. 

“It’s not just a story of pain and suffering, it’s a story of deep, passionate love — love for each one of us,” he said. “The Shroud is like a message left behind, telling us: ‘I did this for you because I love you, and now I’m alive so that you can have life too.’”

Mayor of Clonmel still hoping for meeting with Franciscans

The recent unrest involving the future of the Franciscan Friary in Clonmel seems to have come to an end after an undertaking was given by the Abbey House of Prayer Group to end their sit-in last Thursday during High Court proceedings for trespass, but the Mayor of Clonmel is still hoping that mediation can be sought to ensure the friary remains open to the public.

Mayor of Clonmel Cllr Pat English of the Workers and Unemployed Action Group said he made the comments at one of the council’s monthly meetings and although the prayer group “knew they were in the wrong”, things might have been different if any sort of plan had been explained to the public.

“I just made a request to the Franciscan order that they come down and talk to the committee in the church,” he said. “We’re not being told what the plan is going forward by the Franciscan order and if that was explained maybe it wouldn’t have got the reaction it did.

“But there was no real warning so it came as a big shock. That’s probably what forced them into the occupation – they knew they were wrong and that the friars owned it.”

Although the sit-in has come to an end, Cllr English is still hopeful of some agreement between the Franciscans and locals.

“Going forward what needs to happen is that people sit around the table and see what the long-term plan for the church is going forward because there is a great connection between the people of Clonmel and the friary itself,” he said.

“Hopefully we can still get some sort of mediation where we can all sit around at the one  table and discuss what the Franciscan’s plans are for it and what we can do to help them maintain the presence of the church in Clonmel.”

Is the Vatican’s justice system dysfunctional by design? (Opinion)

Despite initially giving a different account, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne’s clarified this week that he did sign a written set of restrictions on his ministry over allegations of sexual abuse, after all.

While that concession is interesting, it doesn’t bring any real clarity to a complex case unfolding in the news this week, or explain why and how he continued in public ministry for years after his ministry was supposedly restricted.

And the cardinal’s admission to being handed a formal penal precept back in 2019 highlights again a pattern of sanctions being imposed on senior clerics without either resolving the cases against them, or effectively restricting their ministry.

A growing list of international scandals appears to highlight a continued climate of dysfunction and special treatment for senior churchmen while delivering little in the way of justice or resolution, either for the accused or for his alleged victims.

And, given the refusal of the Vatican to answer pressing and reasonable questions about how such cases have been dealt with, and why, many may now conclude that the dysfunction is intentional, despite Pope Francis’ legal reforms to the canonical process.

Cardinal Cipriani, the former Archbishop of Lima, publicly confirmed last week that he is accused of sexual abuse dating back to the early 1980s, while maintaining his absolute innocence.

In a series of statements, the cardinal has said he has not been given details about the accusations.

Cipriani first denied, then confirmed receiving written restrictions on his ministry from the Vatican in 2019, though he maintains these were lifted verbally by Pope Francis in 2020 — which the Vatican has denied, while saying that some case by case exceptions were made “to accommodate requests related to the cardinal’s age and family circumstances.”

Cipriani’s case has thrown up numerous and obvious contradictions, which neither the cardinal’s statements, nor the Vatican’s appear to address fully.

While he now concedes that he was handed a written precept restricting his ministry in 2019, the cardinal maintains Pope Francis privately and verbally lifted its restrictions a few months later — which would come as a surprise, given that the two have some history of disagreement in South America.

The Vatican has said that, “specific permissions” notwithstanding, the restrictions were never lifted and remain in force.

In either event, since his retirement the cardinal has maintained a very public ministerial schedule in Spain, where he has lived since leaving office in Lima in 2019, leading retreats, celebrating Mass in the cathedral in Madrid, and engaging in what he himself called “extensive pastoral activity.”

Absent official clarification, which is unlikely to be forthcoming from the pope, it is impossible to know to what, if any, extent Francis lifted the restrictions on Cipriani, formally or informally.

But without making any assessment of the allegations against Cardinal Cipriani — and according to him he has not been afforded any opportunity to defend himself or even read the accusations he faces — it can reasonably be asked what is the point of imposing restrictions on a cardinal, in secret, and then either immediately lifting them or allowing him to live in open disregard of them?

Such a situation does not, in any way, serve as a preventative measure — which is the supposed legal function of a canonical precept. Nor does it serve to validate the accuser, in as much as it serves no public or practical function or stem from any legal finding of guilt.

Similarly, it does not vindicate the accused since, as Cardinal Cipriani has found, the accusations and restrictions can still find their way into the public forum.

But perhaps the most concerning — even infuriating for many Catholics — aspect of Cipriani’s case is that it cannot credibly be defended as either unforeseen or an example of the Vatican attempting to “learn as it goes” in a complicated situation.

On the contrary, it is in many respects all too familiar. It is hard for many to ignore the parallels with the McCarrick scandal of 2018, during which it emerged that the former Washington archbishop had been subject to a similar, privately issued penal precept from the Vatican which, like Cipriani, he appeared either free to disregard or had privately and informally lifted by the pope.

In between those two instances, there is a long list of comparable attempts at informal, private, or partial justice being applied to senior churchmen accused of the most serious crimes.

Also in 2019, Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard retired as the Archbishop of Bordeaux, France only to admit in 2022 that he had sexually abused a 14-year-old girl 35 years earlier.

French prosecutors later closed a case against the cardinal due to the statute of limitations, but the Vatican took more than a year to open an investigation — even after the cardinal’s public admission — during which time he was reportedly barred from public ministry, though no formal declaration of this was ever made.

In the interim, he continued to serve as a member of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the curial department meant to be in charge of dealing with his admitted crime.

The cardinal finally resigned — he was not terminated — as a member of the DDF in 2023. Though he has since remained a cardinal legally in good standing and was eligible to vote in a conclave until he turned 80 in September last year.

Ricard’s public admission of guilt came shortly after it emerged that another of his French episcopal colleagues, Bishop Michel Santier, had resigned in 2021 following accusations of spiritual abuse, though he was allowed to publicly cite “health reasons” for stepping down.

And the news of Cardinal Cipriani’s case comes hot on the heels of the DDF prefect, Cardinal Fernandez, giving an update on the slow-rolling and probably most well known sexual abuse case of recent years, that of Fr. Marco Rupnik.

Rupnik is, of course, only currently facing a penal process at all because decades of allegations of the worst kind of blasphemous sexual abuse finally broke into the public domain, forcing Pope Francis to lift the statute of limitations in 2023.

But for many, the most galling aspect of Rupnik’s case isn’t the current slow progress, or even the public outcry which was needed to allow it to go forward. Rather it is the fact that he was actually tried for crimes of abuse by the DDF in 2019, in secret, and then excommunicated — equally secretly — while he was allowed to continue as a senior advisor to Vatican dicasteries and maintain a full, international slate of public events and appearances.

Many point back also to the case of Bishop Gustavo Oscar Zanchetta, who was accused of sexual abuse of seminarians and who was initially allowed to resign as Bishop of Oran for “health reasons” in 2017, with Pope Francis creating a special position for him in the Roman curia, naming him assessor at the Administration for the Patrimony of the Apostolic See and allowing him to live in the Domus Sanctae Marta, the Vatican hotel and retreat house where Pope Francis also lives.

Zanchetta, who was one of the first episcopal appointments made by the pope after his election in 2013, subsequently faced criminal charges in his native Argentina, returning to stand trial in 2022.

But despite measures taken by Pope Francis to declassify Church documents on cases of sexual abuse, including a 2020 Vatican policy requiring diocesan bishops to cooperate with judicial orders, the Vatican’s Zanchetta files were never released to the court and the judges elected to proceed with the trial without them.

After Zanchetta’s conviction, he was sentenced to four years in prison — but received no public sanction from the Church. Instead, Church authorities supported his release from prison on “medical grounds” and allowed him to live in a retired priests’ home.

Even more recently, the Vatican has refused to answer questions about why, and on whose authority, the pope’s chief of staff, Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, attempted last year to overturn a canonical process laicizing another Argentine cleric convicted and laicized for the sexual abuse of minors.

Since the breaking of the McCarrick scandal in 2018, Pope Francis has made a series of public statements and supposedly landmark canonical reforms aimed at strengthening the Church’s canonical mechanisms for dealing with abuse — including and especially accusations concerning senior clerics.

However, at the same time, the practical track record of major cases has suggested that a climate of selective and secret justice remains at the highest levels of the Church.

After more than six years, the conclusion many have reached is that the law — including due process for alleged victims and accused alike — is only for those without influence.

If that narrative isn’t challenged it could end up being the central legacy of a pontificate which has pitched itself as a time of real reform.