Enoch Burke seeks permission to bring late appeal against order banning him from school

Jailed schoolteacher Enoch Burke is seeking permission from the Court of Appeal to challenge a High Court judgment handed down almost three years ago banning him from Wilson’s Hospital School.

In May 2023, Justice Alexander Owens ruled that the Co Westmeath school had validly suspended Burke from his teaching position, and subsequently ordered that he be restrained from attending at the school premises.

The school suspended – and later dismissed – Burke over his conduct towards the then-principal Niamh McShane at a school religious event in June 2022.

The confrontation arose in circumstances where the principal had earlier requested teachers to address a student by a new name, and with the pronouns “they” and “them”. 

Mr Burke, an evangelical Christian, has maintained that this request went against his religious beliefs.

Burke has repeatedly breached the court order to stay away from the school and is currently incarcerated at Mountjoy Prison over this contempt of court. He has spent over 600 days in separate spells in jail.

He has repeatedly claimed he has been jailed over his religious beliefs and views on transgender issues, a claim rejected by several High Court judges.

On Friday, Mr Burke, appearing before Judge Niamh Hyland via video-link, asked for an expedited hearing date for his application for an extension of time to appeal Mr Justice Owen's judgment and related orders.

Litigants can appeal a High Court decision within 28 days of the order being “perfected”, or formalised. 

In certain circumstances, the Court of Appeal can grant permission to a litigant to appeal a decision outside that timeframe.

Mr Burke said his bid for an appeal arose in circumstances where the Department of Education, in a statement issued to The Irish Times in January, said there was “no legal obligation” on schools to use a pupil’s preferred name or pronouns.

He claimed this statement justified his position since the commencement of his dispute with Wilson’s Hospital School, and was of “fundamental importance” to the proceedings. 

He said he could not understand why he had to remain in prison in light of the statement.

He submitted that his imprisonment on foot of the court order should weigh heavily towards the granting of an expedited hearing, noting that a successful appeal would necessitate his immediate release.

Rosemary Mallon, barrister for Wilson’s Hospital School’s board of management, said her client was happy to defer to the court in relation to Mr Burke’s application for an expedited hearing.

Ms Justice Hyland said she would grant Enoch Burke an expedited hearing of his bid for an extension of time, setting a date in April.

She did this despite “reservations”, noting that he is in jail because of his failure to abide by a court order that was not appealed when it was made three years ago.

Burke also asked the judge for a “stay” on the school appointing a new disciplinary panel (Dap) to consider the appeal of his dismissal from his teaching job.

He submitted that if his appeal is successful, the court’s finding will be that the school’s disciplinary process was wrong from the beginning.

Enoch Burke has brought separate lawsuits against two previous panels convened to hear his appeal.

His most recent action was struck out last week, in circumstances where two panel members resigned following legal advice last month, and acceptance by the third member she could not be part of a reconvened panel.

Counsel for the school opposed this application, stating that Mr Burke was effectively seeking an injunction against the Dap process. 

She submitted that if he wanted to injunct the process, that was a matter for the High Court.

With Burke's appeal pending since January 2023, the parties are “in limbo”, Ms Mallon said, and submitted that it was appropriate and reasonable for the Dap process to proceed as soon as possible.

The judge rejected Burke’s “request” for a stay. She said that the Court of Appeal has no jurisdiction to make such an order, as his appeal will only formally be before the court if and until an extension of time to appeal is granted.

Burke said he was “astonished” at the court’s ruling.

Angels don’t indulge whims, Bishop Varden tells Vatican officials

Bishop Erik Varden continued leading the Vatican’s Lenten spiritual exercises on Feb. 26 with meditations on angels, trust in God, and St. Bernard of Clairvaux’s path from lofty ideals to what Varden described as a realism grounded in mercy.

In his eighth meditation of the retreat, Varden recalled Christ’s temptation in the desert, when the devil cited Psalm 90 while urging Jesus to throw himself from the Temple. 

“The devil,” Varden said, “took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the Temple,” challenging Christ to prove he is the Son of God by casting himself down, “for it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”

“God alone may invite us to jump from a pinnacle,” Varden said. “His call, however, will be, ‘Jump into my arms,’ not, ‘Throw yourself down.’”

Angels, he added, are not sent to indulge human whims. “Angelic interventions are not always reassuring,” he said. “The angels are not there to humor us in our caprices.”

Pointing to a traditional prayer to the guardian angel, Varden highlighted what he called “hefty verbs” describing the angel’s mission: to “enlighten, keep, govern, and guide.” He described an angel as a “guardian of holiness.”

Varden linked that angelic mission to monastic life, long understood as “angelic,” he said, because of its orientation toward praise and because the monk is called to be “aflame with God’s love” and to bring that love to others.

He also connected the angels to the Church’s liturgy, saying Christ’s “canticle of praise” resounds through “a pulsating chain of mediation” that rises from the earth to heaven, echoed in the prefaces of the Mass, where the Church joins the angels’ worship.

Citing St. Bernard, Varden emphasized angels as mediators of God’s providence — while noting that God can act directly but also “delights” in letting his creatures become “channels of grace” for one another.

He quoted Bernard’s counsel to imitate an angel’s movement between charity and contemplation: “Descend, and show mercy to your neighbor; next, in a second movement, letting the same angel elevate your desires, use all the cupiditas of your soul to rise towards the most high and eternal truth.” Varden said Bernard’s language suggests that human yearnings — including embodied desires — are drawn toward fulfillment in God and must be guided toward him.

Varden said the angels’ “last, most decisive act of charity” will come at the hour of death, when they will bear the faithful “through this world’s veil into eternity.” In that moment, he said, “all pretense will fall … Rhetoric will fail. Only truth will stand and sound, attuned to mercy.”

In his ninth meditation, Varden turned again to Bernard, describing how the Cistercian movement was forged between “the ideal and the concrete” and how Bernard’s early intransigence was “sweetened over time,” turning “the idealist into a realist.”

Quoting psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, Varden noted that “‘the real’ is what we butt against” but said Bernard’s realism was not simply acceptance of facts. “He learnt above all that the deepest reality of all human affairs is a cry for mercy,” Varden said.

He tied that realism to Bernard’s devotion to the holy name of Jesus, quoting Bernard’s words to his monks: “Every food of the mind … is dry if it is not dipped in that oil; it is tasteless if not seasoned by that salt. Write what you will, I shall not relish it unless it tells of Jesus. Talk or argue about what you will, I shall not relish it if you exclude the name of Jesus. Jesus to me is honey in the mouth, music in the ear, a song in the heart.”

Varden concluded by quoting Bernard’s early biography, the “Vita Prima”: “He was … at freedom with himself,” adding that a man or woman who is truly free is “glorious to behold.”

Bishop Varden tells Vatican retreat: Not every fall ends in joy

Falls can humble people when they are “puffed up,” showing God’s power to save, and can become “milestones on a personal journey of salvation, to be recalled gratefully,” Bishop Erik Varden said during this week’s Lenten retreat for Pope Leo XIV and the Roman Curia.

Yet, he warned, “we cannot afford to be gullible.”

“Not every fall ends in exhilaration,” Varden said in the sixth meditation of the retreat, delivered in the Pauline Chapel at the Vatican. “There are falls that reek hellishly, bringing destruction to the guilty and carrying ruin in their wake. That wake is often broad and long, pulling in many innocents.”

Varden pointed to the grave harm caused by wrongdoing within the Church itself.

“Nothing has done the Church more tragic harm, and compromised our witness more, than corruption arisen within our own house,” he said. “The worst crisis of the Church has been brought on, not by secular opposition, but by ecclesiastical corruption. The wounds inflicted will take time to heal. They call out for justice and for tears.”

Facing corruption — “especially when we confront abuse” — Varden said it can be tempting to search for a single “diseased root” and presume there were early warning signs that were ignored.

“Sometimes these trails exist and we are right to blame ourselves for not having spotted them in time,” he said. “We do not, however, find them always.”

At the same time, he noted that real good can often be recognized in the beginnings of communities later linked with scandal — meaning it is not always accurate to assume “structural hypocrisy from the start.”

“A secular mindset will simplify: When it meets calamity, it designates monsters and victims,” he said. “Happily the Church possesses, when she remembers to use them, more delicate and more effective tools.”

Citing St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Varden said that “where people pursue noble endeavors, enemy attacks will be fierce” and that casualties can be especially numerous where spiritual aspirations are strongest.

Progress in the spiritual life, he continued, “requires a configuring of our physical and affective self attuned to contemplative maturing, else there is danger that spiritual exposure will seek physical or affective release; and that such instances of release are rationalized as if they were, somehow, ‘spiritual’ themselves, more elevated than the misdemeanors of ordinary mortals.”

“The spiritual life is not adjunct to the remainder of existence,” Varden said. “It is its soul. We must beware of all dualism, always remembering that the Word became flesh so that our flesh might be imbued with Logos.”

‘Hidden glory’ even now

In the seventh meditation of the retreat, Varden turned to the theme of glory, reflecting on how many disciples “drew back and no longer went about with” Jesus when his teaching became demanding — including “discourses about sacramental realism, the indissolubility of marriage, the necessity of the cross.”

When Christ was crucified, Varden said, the group that had walked with him “was no more,” and only two followers remained at the foot of the cross: Mary and John. Yet, he added, John’s Gospel insists that “this scene of dereliction manifests Christ’s glory.”

Quoting St. Bernard, Varden said: “‘Glorification’ … ‘happens in the presence of God’s face’ when, our earthly voyage done, we shall at last behold what in this life we have firmly hoped for, putting our trust in Jesus’ name.”

“Our hope is in the name of the Lord; the reality hoped for will be revealed face to face,” he said.

Still, Varden emphasized, a “hidden glory” can be perceived even now. He recalled St. Augustine’s teaching that the image of glory is carried in an “obscure form” in this life, to be revealed “explicit and ‘luminous’” in the next — and that while the glory of that image can never be lost, it can be “buried under accumulating layers of darkness.”

“The Church reminds women and men of the glory secretly alive in them,” Varden said. “She shows us that present mediocrity and despair … need not be final; that God’s plan for us is infinitely lovely; and that God, through Christ’s mystical body, will give us grace and strength, if only we ask.”

He added that the Church manifests the radiance of “hidden glory” in the saints and channels it through the sacraments.

“Any Catholic knows what light can break forth in the confessional, in an anointing, at an ordination or a wedding,” Varden said. “Most splendid, and in some ways most veiled, is the glory of the holy Eucharist.”

EU won’t create new abortion fund but green-lights existing money for abortion access

The European Commission has rejected a proposal to create a new European Union-wide financing mechanism for abortion access but said existing EU funds may still be used by member states to support women traveling abroad for abortion services.

The decision, announced Feb. 26, comes in response to the European Citizens’ Initiative “My Voice, My Choice,” which gathered nearly 1.2 million verified signatures and called for an EU funding scheme to help women access abortion in countries where it is legal.

While declining to introduce a new legal instrument, the commission said member states could instead use the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), a 142.7-billion-euro program primarily intended to support employment and reduce poverty, to finance abortion-related travel and services if permitted under national law.

Legal and ethical concerns

Speaking to EWTN News, Vincenzo Bassi, president of the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe, reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s long-standing position that abortion cannot be recognized as a right and should not be permitted. He said the potential use of EU funds in this area runs “diametrically opposed to the spirit and objectives” of the 2014 European Citizens’ Initiative “One of Us,” which gathered 1.7 million signatures in support of stronger protections for unborn life.

Bassi added that “it is unacceptable that European taxpayers should be required to finance abortion practices, even in those member states where abortion is considered illegal,” explaining that directing EU funding toward abortion access would compel citizens to support practices they fundamentally oppose.

Grégor Puppinck, director general of the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), told EWTN News that the commission did not fully implement the demands of “My Voice, My Choice” because abortion policy lies outside EU competence and several member states opposed expanding Brussels’ authority. However, he said the commission effectively bypassed those limits by allowing member states to use the European Social Fund to support cross-border abortion access.

“This decision by the commission is a misuse of the Social Fund, which was never intended for this purpose,” Puppinck said. The ECLJ, he added, is preparing a legal analysis of the decision and intends to challenge it in court.

Antanas Urma, regional director of ProLife Europe for Poland and the Baltic States, said the commission’s position highlights deeper moral and political tensions within the European project. Urma additionally explained that Europe’s historical experience should reinforce a shared moral commitment to protect every human life, including the unborn.

Debate expected to continue

The commission’s decision means the EU will not create a centralized abortion funding program, but the possibility of using existing funds ensures the issue will remain a subject of political and ethical debate.

Because the European Social Fund Plus operates through national programs, individual member states will ultimately decide whether and how to allocate funding for abortion-related services, leaving the future implementation of the commission’s position uncertain.

The outcome reflects the European Union’s ongoing effort to balance institutional coordination with national sovereignty on deeply contested moral questions, particularly as abortion laws continue to vary widely across the bloc.

Federal lawsuit challenges Colorado ban on state funding for religious schools

A leading religious freedom law firm has filed a federal lawsuit challenging a Colorado state law that bans public funding for religious education.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of Education ReEnvisioned and Riverstone Academy, a Christian school, asks the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado to declare the statewide ban on funding for religious schools unconstitutional.

The suit comes after the Colorado Department of Education denied an attempt by ReEnvisioned to obtain funding for Riverstone.

“Colorado law requires the state to unconstitutionally discriminate on the basis of religion when awarding government contracts,” the complaint argues. “The state constitution and statutes prohibit school districts and BOCES [Board of Cooperative Educational Services] from contracting with religious schools to provide educational services, in violation of religious schools’ free exercise rights as well as the rights of the religious students and parents who would attend that school.”

First Liberty Institute announced the filing alongside law firms Miller Farmer Carlson, First & Fourteenth PLLC, and Dechert LLP.

“Parents have the constitutional right to seek out innovative government programs and be treated fairly when they do,” said First Liberty Institute Senior Counsel Jeremy Dys in a Feb. 16 press release.

Lourdes University in Ohio announces closure amid ‘mounting financial pressures’

Lourdes University in Ohio will shut down due to declining enrollment, rising costs, and an “unsustainable funding model,” the Sisters of St. Francis of Sylvania, Ohio, and the school’s board of trustees revealed this week.

The university will continue operations through the remainder of the 2025–2026 academic year, according to a message addressed to faculty and staff.

The sisters and board announced William Bisset would be stepping down as the university’s president and that the Sisters of St. Francis have appointed Sister Nancy Linenkugel, OSF, to serve in his place during the transition.

Bisset is the former vice president for enrollment management and student affairs at Marymount University.

“For decades, the Sisters of St. Francis of Sylvania have supported and sustained Lourdes University with extraordinary generosity, faith, and commitment,” the message said. “That support has been both steadfast and sacrificial. However, the sisters can no longer continue to subsidize the university at the level required to sustain its operations.”

The sisters and board said they plan to address how the decision will affect faculty, staff, and students “directly.”

Lourdes University was founded in 1958 as a sponsored ministry of the Sisters of St. Francis of Sylvania, Ohio, as “a liberal arts-based institution inspired by Catholic and Franciscan traditions,” its website states.

Priest who married a trans couple in Argentina leaves the province on the recommendation of his superiors

Friar Fernando Luis Gómez, the priest who officiated the religious marriage of an LGBT collective militant and her partner in the Nuestra Señora de Pompeya parish, in Corrientes, left the province on the recommendation of his superiors amid the controversy unleashed by that pastoral decision.

According to the Argentine newspaper Clarín, the religious —belonging to the Order of Friars Minor— left Corrientes after being at the center of a strong ecclesial and media debate, following formal complaints raised by some faithful to the Archdiocese regarding the wedding celebrated on January 28.

From the parish, they limited themselves to communicating that “Friar Fernando will be out of Corrientes until the end of the month”, without offering further details on his canonical situation or officially confirming the opening of a file.

In the center of the controversy

The case prompted the direct intervention of the Archbishop of Corrientes, Monsignor José Alfredo Larregain, who recalled in a statement that sacramental marriage requires essential conditions for its validity and lawfulness according to Canon Law and the tradition of the Church.

The Archdiocese attributed to the priest the responsibility for not having submitted the corresponding documentation for the marriage processing, and stated that it would act “ex officio” in accordance with canonical norms, initiating the nullity process.

In that context, Father Gómez’s temporary departure appears as a measure aimed at defusing the situation while the ecclesiastical authority evaluates the next steps.

Background and stance of the religious

The couple assured they had not received any official communication from either the parish or the Archdiocese regarding the nullity of the sacrament. 

In radio statements, Solange Ayala (the biological man) defended the celebration of the union and maintained that they acted “with transparency” from the first moment. 

According to her version, they exposed their situation to the priest and he even would have previously consulted the archbishop, who would not have raised initial objections. 

“We based ourselves on Canon Law, which speaks of the biology of woman and man”, she affirmed, insisting that they did not fail to tell the truth.

The young person also questioned the possibility of an annulment, pointing out that “if it were easy to annul a marriage, divorce should exist within the Church”, and recalled the evangelical expression that “what God has joined together, no human being must separate”. 

Additionally, she announced that together with her partner they are willing to dialogue with the archbishop and will seek to meet with Father Gómez to express their support

Pope Leo’s visit to Spain could spark a much-needed ‘spiritual revival’

With the Vatican confirming Pope Leo XIV’s trip to Spain in June, plans for the upcoming visit are full steam ahead, the organizer of the visit said.

Speaking to OSV News Feb. 25, Yago de La Cierva, who was appointed by the Spanish bishops’ conference as the general coordinator of the visit, said he is hopeful that, like past papal visits, Pope Leo will come with a powerful message that “will be a revival” for the people of Spain.

“I would say the real effects of any papal visit can be measured in a spiritual change, in a spiritual revival, in people, in individuals, in families, in communities, in cities,” he said. “This is our hope, and we are working hard so that this visit is not just superficial, but that it goes deep into the souls of many people.”

The pope’s visit, he added, would also serve as an “important push to recover our identity as a welcoming society that is (concerned) for the underprivileged and those who are vulnerable.”

Acknowledging that the country faces political, economic and social tensions, de La Cierva said many hope the pope will help heal divisions and encourage unity.

“We really, really hope that the pope can give us not only guidance and suggestions to improve the situation, but also to put like a balsamic oil on many wounds and will be able to tell all Spaniards, ‘Hey, you can do better. You can work together even if you don’t think in the same way.'”

In a statement published Feb. 25, the Vatican press office also confirmed several other papal visits, including Monaco, Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea.

Logistical Challenges

Although Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the program of the June 6-12 trip “will be announced in due course,” the destination cities — Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands — were first confirmed in January by Cardinal José Cobo of Madrid, who, along with a delegation of Spanish bishops, met with the Secretariat of State to discuss initial plans for the visit.

The last time a pope visited Spain was in 2011, when Pope Benedict XVI traveled to Madrid for World Youth Day, where he presided over the final Mass attended by over a million young people.

De La Cierva noted that the preparation period for Pope Leo’s visit is dramatically shorter, at just over three months.

“The main difficulty is that for World Youth Day, normally you have two years to prepare for the trip. And this time, we are 101 days ahead, which (means) that everything is much more complicated,” he said.

Despite the logistical hurdles, de La Cierva praised the cooperation from public officials.

“After contacting the local authorities, the mayor … of the Madrid community, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it has been a full collaboration,” he told OSV News, expressing hope that the visit “will also be a manifestation of teamwork.”

Madrid, he said, is expected to draw Catholics from across Spain because of its accessibility and central location.

“We told every diocese in the country that they are welcome to come,” de La Cierva said. While travel to the Canary Islands or Barcelona may prove more difficult, “I think Madrid will be a place in which many people from around the country will come and will attend the events.”

“It would be a really, really joyful gathering,” he added.

Initially the iconic Bernabeu soccer stadium was supposed to be a venue for youth vigil, but organizers say its 85,000 capacity is too small for the estimated 300,000 young people expected as they’re working with local authorities to find a bigger space. 

Bernabeu may be used for another papal event however, OSV News was told.

De La Cierva confirmed to OSV News that a Vatican delegation will arrive in Madrid March 2 and visit “places in which the local bishops have asked the pope to meet people.”

The delegation will then head to Las Palmas and Tenerife on the Canary Islands, before finally visiting Barcelona. 

The pope is expected to mark the June 10 centenary of the death of Antoni Gaudí — the legendary architect of one of the world’s most iconic churches, the Basilica of the Holy Family in Barcelona, known in Spanish as Sagrada Familia.

A historic moment

The upper arm of the cross atop the tower of Jesus Christ was installed Feb. 20. 

At over 564 feet in height, the tower makes the basilica the tallest Catholic church in the world, surpassing the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast, which stands at 518 feet.

It also surpasses the Ulmer Münster Lutheran Church in Germany, which stands at 530 feet, making it the tallest church of any denomination in the world.

Construction of the basilica began in 1882, and it is considered a masterpiece of Gaudí, a Catholic whose cause for sainthood is underway.

A UNESCO World Heritage site, the basilica faced numerous delays and challenges in its over 140-year construction, including the Spanish Civil War and the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the main building is expected to be completed in 2026, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of Gaudi’s death, work on statues and other areas of the basilica is expected to continue until 2034.

De La Cierva told OSV News Pope Leo’s presence would be a key event that represents a full-circle moment.

“I think that would be one of the main events of the trip to Spain because the altar was blessed by Pope Benedict XIV in 2010. And this is like the close of the circle with this magnificent basilica,” he said.

In Pope Francis’ footsteps

Another full-circle moment, according to de La Cierva, would be Pope Leo’s visit to the Canary Islands, a trip his predecessor, Pope Francis, had wanted to make.

The archipelago, which is geographically in Africa, is the destination each year for thousands of sub-Saharan migrants seeking a better future. They arrive in poor and fragile boats called “callucos,” and many die in transit.

Pope Leo, he said, is continuing “the legacy of Pope Francis,” who he said had “expressed his wish to go there because it has been the center of an important element in immigration.”

“I think Pope Leo is trying to continue the path of Pope Francis when he made his historical trip to Lampedusa,” de La Cierva said.

“And this is probably his intention of putting in front of Europe the need to be a welcoming society and accepting people as human beings and not as a threat. That we have to deal with each one of them as a person, not as a menace,” he said.

“I think this is why the pope is visiting the Canary Islands for the first time in history,” he said, adding “everybody” in Spain is “so happy” with the trip.

“We were hoping for a papal visit for 15 years. And for a Catholic country it is a lot,” he said, emphasizing that many generous donors are willing to support the trip, fully financed by “the Church, faithful and people of goodwill.”

St. John Paul II visited Spain five times, including the iconic 1989 Santiago de Compostela World Youth Day, with Pope Benedict returning twice — in 2010, and 2011 — for World Youth Day in Madrid.

Notre Dame: Pro-abortion professor withdraws as institute director

An outspoken abortion advocate will not assume the directorship of an academic institute at the University of Notre Dame, following widespread condemnation of the appointment by students, university donors, and bishops.

Susan Ostermann, a researcher and professor at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, had been announced as the incoming director of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies within the Keough School, and was due to assume the role in July.

However, in an email to faculty Feb. 26, the dean of the Keough School informed said that Ostermann had “decided not to move forward as director” of the institute, following widespread criticism of her appointment.

Announcing her decision not to go forward in the role, Dean Mary Gallagher praised Ostermann as a “respected scholar of South Asian politics and regulatory governance whose research and teaching reflect the intellectual rigor and interdisciplinary excellence at the heart of both the Liu Institute and the Keough School of Global Affairs.”

“I am grateful for her willingness to serve and her thoughtfulness in approaching this decision,” Gallagher said.

Sources close to the university told The Pillar that public opposition to Ostermann’s promotion to lead the Liu Institute had come from students and faculty, as well as a number of bishops from around the country, led by local Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, but also privately from trustees and major benefactors of the university, including of the Liu Institute itself.

One senior member of the university community described donors as “livid” in response to Ostermann’s appointment as director, announced in January.

Multiple sources close to the university’s senior administration also told The Pillar that the appointment — and reaction to it — had caught Notre Dame president Fr. Robert Dowd “completely by surprise” and that he had not been aware of Ostermann’s promotion or its likely significance to the university community and public image.

Sources close to the president’s office told The Pillar that Dowd had been “blindsided” by the strength of opposition to Ostermann’s nomination and the number of serving bishops who had contacted his office to voice their concerns. “And it was many more [bishops] than made their names public,” said one university source. In addition to the bishops who spoke out publicly against the appointment, nearly a dozen others raised private objections to Dowd, sources said.

The same sources said that the appointment had been passed by the office of the university provost, John McGreevy, who did not raise concerns about Ostermann’s nomination.

Ostermann has worked as a professor at Notre Dame since 2017, her appointment to a position of leadership prompted widespread backlash, due to her extensive record of advocating vocally for legal abortion and her criticism of the pro-life movement.

Among the objections to Ostermann’s appointment, two professors affiliated with the Liu Institute resigned in protest, and the university’s Right to Life executive board called for the appointment to be rescinded.

Ostermann, a public advocate of legal abortion has written or co-written numerous op-eds on the subject in recent years, defending abortion as critical for the freedom and wellbeing of women, and criticizing pregnancy help centers as deceptive and pro-life laws as oppressive.

In one instance in 2022, the previous university president, Fr. John Jenkins CSC wrote an open letter to the Chicago Tribune disavowing Ostermann’s views and distancing the university from them, while also defending the principle of academic freedom.

Ostermann has said that abortion respects the dignity of women and that laws against abortion “have their roots in white supremacy and racism,” and has made the argument that abortion is consistent with “integral human development,” a Catholic social principle cited by Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs as foundational in its work.

Ostermann also serves as a consultant for the Population Council, an international group that advocates for abortion and contraception overseas.

In a statement earlier this month, South Bend Bishop Kevin Rhoades called Ostermann’s appointment to lead the Liu Institute a “scandal,” while voicing his “dismay” and “strong opposition” to it.

In addition to highlighting the concerns of students, faculty, and the wider American Catholic community, Rhoades also took issue with the argument that Ostermann’s appointment was justified by the principle of academic freedom, saying “academic freedom concerns the liberty of faculty to conduct research according to their own professional judgment and interests.”

“This appointment, by contrast, concerns the official administrative appointment to lead an academic unit. Such appointments have profound impact on the integrity of Notre Dame’s public witness as a Catholic university,” Rhoades said.

The bishop called on university leadership to “rectify this situation.” He also led a prayer vigil in the grotto at Notre Dame for the Catholic identity of the university.

Solicitor says each review into Derry priest Edward Gallagher’s case ‘seems to get longer and longer’

A solicitor for a former Inishowen Parish Priest facing sexual communication charges and indecent images of children has said that each review into the case “seems to get longer and longer.”

Fr Edward Gallagher (58), of Orchard Park, Lifford, had been charged with one count of attempted sexual communication with a child on dates between April 2 and April 17, 2025.

He was also charged with seven further offences, including inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and causing a child to watch sexual activity, as well as charges of possessing indecent images of children.

At the latest hearing at Derry Magistrate's Court on Thursday, February 26, a prosecutor said that a report on the categorisation of the images was still outstanding, and when that is received, the full file would be ready.

Defence solicitor Derwin Harvey said that when the case was last mentioned, they had been told the report would be ready in one week.

He said that he was 'trying to keep a short leash' on the case as the delay got longer with every appearance. 

Mr Harvey said his client had been in custody since last April.

The case was adjourned until March 26 and the accused remains in custody.

Fr Gallagher, who was parish priest in Moville from 2022 until 2024, remains suspended from ministry. Most recently, he served as a curate at the Clonleigh, Camus and Leckpatrick parishes.

Mother and baby home campaigners vow to challenge Bessborough planning decision in Cork

Mother and baby home campaigners have vowed to challenge a decision by Cork City Council to grant planning permission for 140 apartments on the site of one of Ireland's most notorious facilities.

Cork City Council has granted planning with strict conditions for 140 apartments on the site of the former Bessborough mother and baby home.

This was despite separate previous development applications for the site being rejected.

Estuary View Enterprises has now been given permission to develop 140 units built across three blocks and comprising a mix of one-and two-bedroom apartments as well as one three-bedroom unit.

However, planning was granted subject to 70 conditions.

Bessborough ranked as one of Ireland's largest mother and baby homes.

It operated from 1922 to 1998.

Over that time, over 9,700 women were admitted.

The Bessborough mother and baby home suffered not only from a frighteningly high infant mortality rate in the 1930s, 40s and 50s but was also the focus of controversial Irish vaccine trials and allegations of arranged adoptions to the US.

Pioneering research by historian Michael Dwyer revealed that 2,051 children drawn from the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary facilities at Bessborough and Sean Ross Abbey in Tipperary were part of secret vaccine trials almost 70 years ago.

Of the more than 900 babies who died at Bessborough or in Cork hospitals having been transferred from the mother and baby home over the course of seven decades, less than 70 have known burial sites.

Campaigners are convinced that the graves of babies remain undiscovered at the site.

They want the entire area preserved for a thorough examination for possible burials before it is considered for some type of special memorial garden and community resource.

Carmel Cantwell said there is widespread opposition to development at the site.

Her mother, Bridget, gave birth to a baby boy called William at Bessborough in 1960.

She was subsequently told by the nuns who ran Bessborough that the baby had died and was buried on the grounds.

"These grounds have never been fully examined," she said.

"Is it too much to ask that the 60 acres surrounding the Bessborough and farm buildings) be preserved as a park in memory of the 923 babies who died there," she said.

She said there are witnesses who recall burials in the area near the farm buildings which are the focus of the development proposal.

Councillor Peter Horgan, who has campaigned for the State to buy back the Bessborough lands, said he was "devastated" by the planning decision.

An appeal against the planning is already under consideration.

Part of the Bessborough site adjoins the Blackrock Greenway which was developed on the old Blackrock railway line.

Mother and baby home campaigners and their supporters have created a moving memorial to the children who died at Bessborough in the form of a collection of soft toys, photos and candles on a walkway near the former facility.

Special vigils are organised near the site to honour those who died and to highlight how mother and babies were treated.

Nobody cared, nobody listened, says mum of boy allegedly abused by priest

Allegations a priest sexually assaulted a 15-year-old boy were covered up by the Church in Wales over three decades allowing Anthony Pierce to rise through the ranks to become a bishop, a report has found.

Four Archbishops of Wales including Dr Rowan Williams were referred to in the report which lists a "catalogue of failures" by the Church.

The alleged victim has since died. His mother told BBC Wales "nobody cared, nobody was listening" and it was "too little too late for him".

Current Archbishop Cherry Vann said: "The review shows in painful detail the missed opportunities, the harmful assumptions and the inadequate processes which characterised the Church's response to these allegations."

Pierce, who had served as Bishop of Swansea and Brecon for nine years from 1999, was jailed last year for historical sexual abuse of a different boy.

Between 1986 and 2010, concerns over Pierce were raised on four occasions with some of the most senior members of the church, the report says.

But nothing was done in a "don't ask, don't tell" culture, with it being felt it was "safe to hush it up", the review led by barrister Gabrielle Higgins found.

Speaking out for the first time the alleged victim's mother Brenda, not her real name, told BBC Wales: "The only person who believed him was me... it was dismissed. He had no trust in the system.

"It was all brushed under the carpet. And the church as an institution, as a self-serving institution as far as I'm concerned, doesn't know what to do with something like this, or it would prefer to protect its own reputation."

The alarm was first raised over Pierce's behaviour by male students at Swansea University in 1986 where Pierce, now 85, was a chaplain.

This was uncovered by a BBC Wales investigation into historic abuse in the Church, which heard from victims and whistleblowers who said abuse was ignored.

The review said it was reported to the then Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, Benjamin Vaughan, but nothing was done.

In 1993, Brenda made an allegation of sexual assault by Pierce on the alleged victim and Pierce, in his late 40s at the time, "implicitly admitted that something inappropriate had happened with the boy".

The priest offered his resignation over the alleged assault which was said to have been in or around 1990, but it was refused and no action was taken.

The then Bishop Dewi Bridges knew police were already making "unrelated enquiries" about Pierce and "sexual abuse", according to the report.

The review took a year from when it was announced in February 2025, with the Church in Wales initially stating it should be concluded within three months, "if possible".

Findings included the alleged sexual assault of the 15-year-old altar server being seen as "not paedophilia" because it involved a boy, not a girl.

"This catalogue of failures can only be a source of shame for the Church," said Vann.

In 1999, Pierce was elected to become Bishop of Swansea and Brecon despite "rumours" about his conduct circulating among those who elected him including Williams, then Bishop of Monmouth, and Barry Morgan, then Bishop of Llandaff.

The then Archbishop of Wales, Alwyn Rice Jones, tried to put the concerns to rest saying he had spoken to Pierce and been reassured.

Before he was enthroned as Bishop, Brenda wrote to the Church reporting the abuse again.

A handwritten report about the allegation containing an admission of a criminal act was then prepared by a "friend" of Pierce's who hand-delivered it to Rice Jones.

This report, not included in the review but which BBC Wales has previously seen, said Pierce had been "naive" but "could not escape the reality that he was an adult" while the victim was a child.

"He was frightened of his own shame being made public, and of losing his ministry," it reads.

But Rice Jones was said to have seen the assault allegation, and Pierce's admission, as "a bit of a hiccup and as evidence of homosexuality not paedophilia and that this was a blip and it should just be put to one side".

'Chucked on the rubbish heap'

Brenda told BBC Wales the alleged victim was "an emotionally fragile boy" at the time.

She said: "If you are going to take anything like this forward - it's a delicate process from making an allegation through to seeing the process through.

"They need nurturing, they need looking after, they need being believing, they need to be wrapped up and cared for, not chucked on the rubbish heap as we felt that's what happened."

The review said: "It seems doubtful that allegations of sexual activity, with an admission of an improper incident, involving an allegedly 15-year-old girl would have been put to one side in the same way.

"The approach seems to have been driven more by a reluctance to inquire into homosexual orientation, blinding recognition of child sexual abuse."

The handwritten report was given to Williams by Rice Jones when he took over as Archbishop of Wales for "safekeeping" and "should any further questions arise" about Pierce, saying its contents might help.

Williams "merely glanced briefly at the contents" and assumed it provided information about the person who made the allegations. He said he didn't know the allegation involved a child.

He took it to Lambeth Palace with personal papers in 2002 when he became Archbishop of Canterbury, where it remained until it was tracked down in 2010 as part of the Historic Cases Review – carried out by the Church in Wales into its handling of safeguarding cases.

At this point Williams located the report and "stated his dismay" at the admission of guilt.

The alleged victim died in 2004.

"He was very troubled he couldn't find a way of being in the world, I think it haunted him," his mother said.

"The abuse always laid heavy on him."

Williams said he was aware of a certain amount of gossip about Pierce, but never criminal allegations, and told BBC Wales he accepted it was an error to take the report to Lambeth Palace.

He said: "I regret it very much if my delay in reading it further complicated the process of dealing with the criminal activity.

"I am very conscious that Pierce's victims and their families will feel that the processes of the Church did not adequately protect them at that time, and am very sorry indeed for any ways in which I contributed to this, however inadvertently."

Evidence about Pierce was brought together and the Church referred it to the police, although the review found not all information held was provided – including the 1999 handwritten report.

Morgan - Archbishop of Wales at the time - said he had assumed all the information the Church had at the time had been given to the police.

He added: "It was not until this review that I discovered that not all documents had been handed to those bodies and I was very shocked to learn that to be the case."

John Davies, then Bishop of Swansea and Brecon emailed Morgan, who was Archbishop of Wales at that time, and said he hoped Pierce would get a caution at worst or "nothing further done at best". Morgan didn't reply.

When challenged on this by the review Davies, who went to become Archbishop of Wales, said the prospect Pierce might have committed other offences involving other victims "did not occur to him".

Davies later reinstated Pierce's permission to officiate; the report says he did not think he "asked or informed anyone", including child protection officers, before doing this.

Davies told BBC Wales whilst he accepted "errors of judgement" and expressed his "utter abhorrence of what Pierce did", he understood the allegation to be an "isolated incident" for which "no prosecution had been pursued or envisaged".

"Given his admission, I believed Pierce might properly be spoken to and cautioned by police," he said.

Pierce was suspended again in 2016 when the 1999 letter was discovered.

In 2023 another man who was abused by Pierce as a boy told the Church in Wales.

Pierce remains in jail after last year admitting sexually assaulting the then 15-year-old five times between 1985 and 1990.

South Wales Police confirmed the investigation into Pierce is still active.

The independent review said since the 1990s a "number of changes" had been made with the introduction of safeguarding officers to the Church, development of policies, and increased scrutiny and safeguarding checks in bishops' appointments.

However, some "continuing weaknesses" were identified in the appointments process for bishops.

The reviewer made recommendations to improve this but, she said, these would have been "highly unlikely" to change the outcome in Pierce's case.

In the last year Pierce has been deposed from holy orders and he is no longer a priest.

The review did not include an assessment of the Church in Wales' current systems and processes except in the appointment of bishops and archdeacons.

Brenda said: "People knew. Throughout this time. And yet nobody was joining up those dots.

"I don't want the Church to say 'we will learn from this'. They've already said that 40 years ago, 30 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago and they're saying it again now. I would need to see something that would persuades me that, yes, that's OK now, that will be OK. And at this point I don't see that.

"But I do have image of him smiling, saying thanks mum, for taking it forward. Thanks for not letting it go. Thanks for still believing in me."

The Church in Wales was formed in 1920 following disestablishment from the Church of England, but it is a member of the Anglican communion.

Survivors devastated by council's permission for 140 units at Bessborough

The decision by Cork City Council to grant planning for 140 apartments on the site of the former Bessborough mother and baby institution has been slammed by survivors, who say they are “devastated” at the news.

The council’s planning department granted permission to Estuary View Enterprises 2020 despite several previous planning refusals and concerns that the site may contain the unmarked graves of hundreds of children.

Between 1922 and 1998, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary ran Bessborough as a mother and baby institution, during which time 9,768 mothers and 8,938 babies were admitted.

According to the Mother and Baby Homes Commission, 923 children died at Bessborough, or after being transferred from there. Burial records exist for only 64 of those children.

In previous rulings on two applications relating to one area near the Bessborough folly, beside the nuns’ graveyard, the then An Bord Pleanála said the potential existed for the presence of human remains and/or burials at those proposed development sites.

Reacting to the council decision to grant planning permission, Carmel Cantwell of the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home Support Group said survivors were “deeply saddened” at the thought of development on a site of “profound national significance”.

“We objected to this planning application because we believe that this site is one containing a landscape of trauma, loss and unmarked burials,” Ms Cantwell said.

Ms Cantwell’s brother William was born in Bessborough in 1960 and was buried in the old Famine graveyard in Carr’s Hill, but this information was kept from his mother for fully 59 years.

“There is so much unfinished business at Bessborough, and the grounds were not exhaustively investigated to find the burial places of the missing children,” Ms Cantwell said.

“In all 859 children are unaccounted for. For this reason, no one should ever touch what remains of Bessborough.” Ms Cantwell said the group was calling for a full forensic investigation of the former Bessborough site.

Last July, An Coimisiún Pleanála refused plans previously submitted by Estuary View because of its unit mix, and did not adopt a recommendation by its own planning inspector that the application should also be refused due to concerns around possible burials.

In its new application, the developer said it had previously consulted with the Cork Survivors & Supporters Alliance (CSSA), saying: "We understand that the CSSA had no objection to the principle of the proposed development."

Despite objections, Cork City Council approved the plans, saying the plans would not seriously injure the area’s residential or visual amenities, and were in accordance with the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.

The approved plans will see 140 units built across three blocks, comprising a mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments, one three-bedroom unit.

Local Fianna Fáil city councillor and former lord mayor Terry Shannon, whose late wife Ursula was a prominent adoption rights advocate, said it was “a bad decision and shows just how out of touch our planners are with members of council and the local community”. 

“It is an area that needs proper commemoration, but it’s also an area that should be kept as a regional park for the general population of that side of the city, where there is a dearth of green areas,” Mr Shannon said.

“The area is a bottleneck already, so the concern I would have is that in giving permission for 140 units in there, it’s giving precedent for more.

There are 70 conditions attached to the council’s decision to grant planning permission, ranging from archaeological to ecological to public health.

Labour Party city councillor Peter Horgan noted that five of the 70 conditions referred to the potential for discovery of human remains during construction on the site.

“This in itself outlines that this is not an ordinary site,” he said.

My godly son should not be in jail, Enoch’s mother tells judge

A High Court judge told Enoch Burke’s mother her son could be released from prison today, while she and her daughter face jail for contempt of court.

Judge Brian Cregan questioned why Martina Burke does not use her influence to help Enoch walk free from jail. Yesterday, Mrs Burke accused the court of being an ‘abomination’ and ‘a blot on the administration of justice’.

She and her daughter, Ammi, face being sent to prison for contempt, following what the judge described as their ‘shouting and roaring’ in the court last week.

Mrs Burke yesterday defended her ‘duty to speak the truth’. She said her son was ‘languishing in Mountjoy’, describing him as ‘upright, genuine, sincere, righteous, godly, an excellent teacher, a young man’.

She accused the courts of not standing up for Mr Burke’s constitutional right to practise his religion as a teacher at Wilson’s Hospital School.

‘He’s still behind bars,’ she shouted. ‘That’s the blood that is dripping from the hands of the judiciary. And the citizens of this country know [Enoch] should not be in prison.’

The judge said to her: ‘Even allowing for the fact you are incensed your son has been imprisoned, and you say he has been imprisoned because of his religious beliefs, you have read all of the judgments of the High Court that say (a) he is entitled to his religious belief, but (b) there is a court order that he should not trespass on the school.

‘You know perfectly well he is not imprisoned because of his religious beliefs, he is imprisoned because of his trespass on the school… I would have thought you would have supported him in his stand against transgender ideology, but have accepted… he should not trespass.’

Mrs Burke said Wilson’s Hospital had no right to ‘command’ him to use the ‘they’ pronoun when referring to a transitioning child.

Judge Cregan said he had been dismissed for gross misconduct due to not only his refusal to accept the direction, but also his conduct in relation to the refusal.

Mrs Burke called this a ‘concocted lie… because you don’t want to deal with the transgender issue… and every Christian will stand for the truth’.

Judge Cregan said he decided to invoke criminal contempt proceedings in relation to Martina and Ammi’s conduct last week, during a hearing relating to Enoch’s appeal.

Addressing Ammi Burke, he said: ‘You are a solicitor and an officer of the court, so you know perfectly well it is completely unacceptable to interrupt a court hearing, and to interfere with the administration of justice, and yet you did so.’

Ammi Burke replied: ‘I won’t sit by while constitutional rights are being denied, or lies are being told in court.’

Judge Cregan said he would reserve his judgment on the contempt issue and deliver it next Wednesday.

He also said he would reserve judgment on a request from Enoch to refer an affidavit by former Disciplinary Appeals Panel chairman Seán Ó Longáin to the DPP for alleged perjury, which is denied by Mr Ó Longáin.

Finally, the judge said an element of costs claimed by Wilson’s Hospital School will be referred to a legal adjudicator.

Trump’s border Czar says Pope 'oughta fix the Church' before commenting on US immigration policy

DONALD TRUMP’S BORDER Czar has hit out at comments from Pope Leo XIV about US immigration policy.

Tom Homan, who is a practicing Catholic, said the religion supports law enforcement, and the Pope “should too”.

Since he was elected last May, the Chicago-born pontiff has taken a clear stand against some decisions by US President Donald Trump’s administration.

Pope Leo has denounced the “inhuman” treatment of migrants in the US, urged dialogue in Venezuela and lamented a “diplomacy of force”.

He recently declined an invitation to join Trump’s “Board of Peace”, which the president says aims to resolve international conflicts. Trump has been handpicking world leaders to sit on the board, and chose himself to chair.

Asked to respond to the Pope’s comments on US policy, border Czar Homan said he “oughta be fixing the Catholic Church, because they got their own issues”.

Tom Homan speaks as President Donald Trump listens at an event last year Alamy

“Bottom line is, if we jump the wall of the Vatican, the penalties for doing that are much harder than ones here in United States,” he said.

Homan said thousands of migrants, who he called “aliens”, die trying to enter the United States illegally.

“When you’re overwhelmed at border patrol, all the bad things happen. Sex trafficking increases. Fentanyl increases,” he said.

“Securing the border saves lives.”

Homan claimed Trump is “saving thousands of lives” through his extreme policies.

Homan is an ally of Trump’s and has decades of experience in immigration policy across both Republican and Democratic administrations.

Cautiously opposed

“Leo is very cautious. He knows his voice is universal. As an American, he is somewhat the natural opponent of Trumpism,” a Vatican source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“On the United States, he’s walking on eggshells.

“He understands that the American Church is also targeted by ICE, people are afraid,” the source said, referring to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency currently in the spotlight for its immigration crackdown.”

The pope is operating in a context that is “hyper-polarised, where the Church is also targeted through the populations it helps, like migrants or the Hispanic community”, the source added.

Vatican spiritual exercises: Christian freedom and the splendor of truth

In a world where “the notion of ‘freedom’ has become contentious in public discourse,” Christians must be clear about what freedom means in the light of faith, Bishop Erik Varden told Pope Leo XIV and members of the Roman Curia during the Lenten retreat.

“Freedom is a good to which we all aspire; we rise up against anything which threatens to curtail or confine our freedom. As a result, the vocabulary of freedom is an effective rhetorical tool,” Varden said in the fourth meditation of the retreat, delivered on Feb. 24.

“Suggestions that the freedom of a particular group is at risk will call forth instant responses of outrage on the internet,” he continued, noting that “a variety of political causes in Europe now harness the jargon of freedom. Tensions result. What one segment of society perceives as ‘liberating’ is found oppressive by others.”

“Opposing fronts are raised, with the banner of ‘freedom’ held high on all sides,” Varden said. “Bitter conflicts arise from incompatible agendas of purported liberation. This state of affairs poses a challenge for Christians.”

Varden, a Norwegian Cistercian and bishop-prelate of Trondheim, grounded his reflection in St. Bernard of Clairvaux’s teaching on freedom, insisting that for Christians, true freedom is inseparable from the Son’s loving obedience to the Father.

“Rooting his understanding of freedom in the Son’s ‘Yes!’ to the Father’s will, Bernard works a revolution in our grasp of what it means to be free,” he said. “Christian freedom is not about seizing the world with force; it is about loving the world with a crucified love magnanimous enough to make us freely wish, one with Christ, to give our lives for it, that it may be set free.”

Varden also warned against the way “freedom,” when detached from the person and from truth, can be exploited to justify oppression.

“Caution is called for when freedom, held hostage by force, is manipulated as a means to legitimate the doings of impersonal subjects like ‘the Party,’ ‘the Economy,’ or even ‘History,’” he said. “In a Christian way of thinking, no oppressive policy can be redeemed by invocations of ideological ‘freedom.’ The only meaningful freedom is personal; and one person’s freedom cannot cancel another’s.”

“To subscribe to a Christian idea of freedom is to consent to pain,” Varden added. When Christ says, “Resist not evil,” he explained, “he does not ask us to countenance injustice. He lets us see that justice’s cause is sometimes best served by suffering for it, refusing to meet force with force.”

“Our emblem of freedom remains the Son of God who ‘emptied himself,’” he concluded.

In the fifth meditation, delivered later that day in the Pauline Chapel, Varden turned again to St. Bernard, focusing on ambition as a distortion of the soul’s relationship to truth.

“Ambition represents a particular form of capitulation to untruth,” he said. “Ambition is a not very subtly sublimated form of cupidity.” Citing Bernard, he described ambition as “a subtle ill, a secret virus, an occult pest, an artisan of deceit,” adding that it “springs from an ‘alienation of the mind’.”

“It is a madness that comes about when truth is forgotten,” Varden said. “The fact that ambition is a form of insanity makes it ridiculous in any instantiation, but especially so when it occurs in persons given to a state of selfless service.”

Varden then took up Pilate’s question — “What is truth?” — saying it must not be left unanswered amid today’s confusion and fear.

“People of our time ask this question earnestly, often with remarkable goodwill, notwithstanding their confusion, fear, and the rush they are always in. We cannot let it go unanswered,” he said. “We need our best resources to uphold substantial, essential, freeing truth against more or less plausibly shining, more or less fiendish substitutes.”

“In our predicament, rich in opportunity, it is imperative to see and articulate the world in Christ’s light,” Varden continued. “Christ, who is truth, not only shields us; he renews us, impatient to reveal himself through us to a creation increasingly aware of being subject to futility.”

Pointing to the Second Vatican Council’s emphasis on sanctity, Varden said the Church’s claim to truth convinces most when it is embodied personally.

“Was not the universal call to holiness, the call, that is, to embody truth, the strongest note struck by the Second Vatican Council?” he asked. “It resounded splendidly like a gong throughout its deliberations. The Christian claim to truth becomes compelling when its splendor is made personally evident with sacrificial love in sanctity, cleansed of temptations to temporize.”

Victims of serial abuser face ‘further harm’ following fresh delays over settlement payments, says solicitor

Further delays in paying settlements to people abused by Malachy Finegan and others will further harm victims, according to a solicitor for many of those who have taken High Court action against a Catholic diocese.

Dromore Diocese failed to meet a deadline to pay an agreed total settlement of just over £1m to victims of Finegan, the former principal of St Colman’s College in Newry and a prolific abuser of boys.

On Monday, the High Court suspended payment of compensation and any further pending cases after an application by the trustee of the diocese arguing clarification was needed over whether parish assets can be sold to cover the liabilities.

Finegan, who died in 2002, groomed and sexually abused boys while he taught and worked at St Colman’s College in Newry, Co Down and later when moved to parishes in the diocese.

Millions of pounds in damages have already been paid out in lawsuits mounted over failures to prevent him from targeting pupils.

In 2021 church authorities set up a redress scheme for survivors of sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy within the Diocese, with payments capped at £80,000.

Other steps have also been taken to liquidate or realise assets to help compensate claimants. Last year the sale of the Bishop’s House in Newry was completed, while the sale of associated land remains pending.

Claire McKeegan, solicitor for the five men awarded damages in September last year, said it is “deeply regrettable that further delay is being inflicted on these clients”.

“Cases will now take longer still to get to trial and ultimately for them to obtain justice for the abuse and torment that was perpetrated on them,” said Ms McKeegan of Phoenix Law.

“It is a matter of deep concern that they are being further harmed by the diocese now in its refusal to pay the claimants the compensation that they committed to pay in September 2025.”

In total, at the end of 2024 the Dromore Diocesan Trust had total assets, cash and investments of approximately £37.5m, the Irish News previously reported. 

However, most of the assets are under parish control, the diocese argues.

According to the diocese’s accounts, £2.4m was paid out in compensation and legal fees in 2024 and the ‘unrestricted’ central office, or curia, funds ended the year £4.9m in the red.

This and other debts led the diocese to report total funds, including assets, of just over £26m.

Overall, diocese within the north had total assets, investments and cash of approximately £400m, according to their latest accounts.

In his ruling, Mr Justice David Scoffield granted the request for a moratorium on a number of existing claims for damages already before the court.

“The costs are potentially depleting the assets available to meet the previous and existing forecast claims,” the judge said, adding the order covering existing King’s Bench claims and bids to enforce damages will be reviewed in four weeks time.

Shock after Bessborough planning permission granted

A woman whose infant brother died in the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork has expressed shock at a decision by the city council to grant planning permission for apartments on the site.

Developer Estuary View Enterprises has been granted permission for the large-scale residential development at Bessborough in Ballinure, Blackrock in Cork.

The development will involve the demolition of ten existing agricultural buildings and log cabin structures and the construction of 140 residential apartments across three blocks.

Two existing farmyard buildings are set to be redeveloped as amenities for residents.

This will include a library, a lounge, a workspace and a function space.

The proposal also involves a new pedestrian and cycle bridge, upgrades to an existing pedestrian crossing, and the creation of outdoor amenity areas.

The planning has been granted by Cork City Council, subject to 70 conditions.

The developer has to retain the services of a suitably qualified archaeologist to monitor all of the site works prior to development.

The excavation has to be monitored by a forensic archaeologist and an osteoarchaeologist/forensic anthropologist with expertise in skeletal juvenile remains.

The location of items of evidential value indicative of potential burials, such as coffin timber and nails, has to be noted and a record completed in compliance with forensic archaeological standards.

In the event of human remains being located during the course of this excavation, all work "shall cease at all parts of the proposed development site and all relevant authorities, including the City Coroner and An Garda Síochana, will be informed of the location of unidentified and previously unrecorded modern human remains".

Meanwhile, Carmel Cantwell, whose mother Bridget gave birth to a son William at Bessbourgh in December 1960, is among those who are opposed to any development at the site.

Her mother was told by nuns over two decades ago that William was buried on the grounds of the home.

She subsequently found out that he was buried in a "pauper's grave" in Carr’s Hill cemetery in the city.

Ms Cantwell said that Bessborough is a place that holds "so much trauma".

"The original site (of Bessborough) was 210 acres, 150 has already been built on providing housing, a hospital, offices and a retail park.

"Was it too much to ask that the last 60 acres surrounding the buildings be preserved as a park of remembrance for the 923 babies that died, the 31 women and the nearly 19,000 women and children that went through Bessboro, the majority separated through forced adoption?

"The grounds have never been fully examined. There are witnesses to say they saw burials in the area just outside the farmyard and against the farmyard wall," she said.

Polish bishop faces up to three years in prison for alleged cover-up in two cases of abuse

On February 18, the first criminal trial began in Poland against a bishop accused of delaying communication to civil authorities about cases of abuse committed by priests in his diocese, an unprecedented process that tests the boundaries between canon law and state legislation.

According to Aciprensa, Mons. Andrzej Jeż, bishop of Tarnów since 2012, faces a possible prison sentence of up to three years for not having notified the prosecutor’s office «immediately» of the crimes attributed to two priests under his jurisdiction.

The accusation: delayed communication to the prosecutor’s office

The Prosecutor’s Office maintains that the prelate delayed the civil report of the abuses attributed to Fr. Stanisław P. - accused of assaulting at least 95 minors between 1987 and 2018 - and to priest Tomasz K., investigated for events that occurred between 2008 and 2010.

Article 240 of the Polish Penal Code, in force since 2017, requires reporting certain crimes without delay, including sexual abuse against minors. 

The central issue of the trial is not whether the facts were reported - they were - but whether that communication occurred within the timeframe that the law considers immediate.

In the case of Fr. Stanisław P., the criminal proceedings were archived due to prescription, although he was previously expelled from the clerical state after the canonical process. 

As for Tomasz K., the prosecutor’s office prepared charges, but they were not formalized due to the priest’s delicate state of health.

The defense: «an unprecedented process» and a «scapegoat»

According to the Polish Catholic agency Katolicka Agencja Informacyjna, the first hearing before the District Court of Tarnów lasted approximately one hour. Mons. Jeż did not plead guilty.

His lawyer, Zbigniew Ćwiąkalski - former Minister of Justice - described the process as «unprecedented» in Poland and argued that the bishop has been turned into a «scapegoat.» 

He emphasized that he is not accused of concealing crimes, but of reporting too late.

The defense argues that the bishop, in addition to being subject to civil law, is bound by canon law, which requires referring the case to the Holy See and obtaining certain authorizations before initiating an ecclesiastical penal-administrative procedure. 

According to this thesis, the «immediacy» required by criminal law requires prior reliable knowledge of the facts, knowledge that - according to the defense - is obtained after the preliminary canonical process.

At the beginning of his statement, the bishop strongly condemned sexual crimes, especially when they occur in the ecclesiastical sphere. 

He also recalled that in 2015 he appointed a diocesan delegate with autonomy to receive and investigate abuse complaints.

The bishop himself stated before the court that he initially did not know about the cases and that, once he became aware, he referred them to Rome and subsequently informed the civil authorities in August 2020. 

In addition, he stated that, paradoxically, the fact of having reported led to the judicial process against him: «If we had not made those notifications, this process would not exist,» he pointed out.

Access to files and chronology of events

During his appearance, Mons. Jeż explained issues related to access to the personal files of the priests, the delegation of powers to diocesan officials, and the chronology of events in the management of the cases.

The defense also pointed out that, in many cases, the bishop is not the first to know the facts, as they can initially be concealed by third parties, and that there is no accusation of any attempt to cover up or destroy evidence.

The next hearing, in which witnesses will be heard, has been scheduled for March 2, and the last session is planned for April 15.

Clear condemnation of abuses and national context

The trial takes place in a context of growing public sensitivity in Poland. 

According to the report published in 2019 by the Polish Episcopal Conference, between 1990 and 2018, 382 complaints of abuse against minors in the ecclesiastical sphere were recorded, of which 198 affected minors under 15 years old.

It is important to emphasize that the process against Mons. Jeż, at this moment, is not judging the crimes committed by the priests - some already prescribed - but the eventual criminal responsibility of the diocesan ordinary for the management of information and the communication times to the prosecutor’s office.