Sarah Mac Donald

Ireland made history July 12 when it became the first country in the world to pass a bill committing the country to the divestment of all of its holdings in fossil fuel companies.

Ireland's Mary McAleese describes Francis as "a disappointment in relation to women," while Voices of Faith puts forth proposals to reform the Curia's hiring practices.

An Irish group campaigning for reform in the Catholic Church has launched a petition ahead of Pope Francis' papal visit in August to Ireland calling on the Vatican to change its "theological language that is gravely insulting to LGBTQI people."

Dublin - "We are living in a new time and a changed culture," said one archbishop, as the level of support for repeal, which exceeded expectations, began to sink in.

As the 20th anniversary of the historic Good Friday Agreement approaches, at least one Irish bishop worries that the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union could complicate life for Ireland.

DignityUSA responded to the World Meeting of Families office's reissue of the "Amoris" resource booklet without an image of a same-sex couple which was reproduced in the first edition on page 24. 

Dublin: Chantal Götz, managing director of Voices of Faith, said that Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, had objected to three speakers, including former Irish President Mary McAleese.

At the annual general meeting of the Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland, a new card outlining priests' rights was unveiled by the association's leadership, aimed primarily for abuse allegations.

Eminent Jesuit theologian Fr. Gerald O'Collins has appealed to every English-speaking episcopal conference in the church to seize the moment, dust off the 1998 English translation of the Roman Missal and substitute it for the contentious and clunky 2010 translation.

Marriage ministry needs to be done by married couples because priests have "no credibility in this area," Cardinal Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, told a church gathering.

The priests believe that introducing male deacons at this time would add "another male clerical layer to ministry" which was "insensitive, disrespectful of women and counter-productive at this present critical time."

The president of the 2018 World Meeting of Families stressed that the church is seeking to promote the ideal of the family through the international gathering of families in Ireland.