According to the archdiocese around 500,000 people are expected for the closing Mass which will be celebrated by Pope Francis on 26 August. Read more

The University of Notre Dame from the US will oversee the initiative at University Church, Dublin.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin announced the establishment of the "Notre-Dame Newman Centre for Faith and Reason".

Earlier this month, Archbishop Martin lamented the dearth of Catholic intellectuals able to engage with public issues in Ireland.

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The city centre will be closed to all vehicles from 6am on Easter Sunday until 8pm that night, as events take place to commemorate the 1916 Easter rising.

A spokeswoman for the archdiocese said Mass will definitely be celebrated at the pro-cathedral on Easter Sunday.

But police have asked that the doors of the Church of Ireland's Christ Church Cathedral be closed on that day.

Easter parade organisers have been criticised for a lack of consultation with churches.

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The site was put up for sale last year with a NZS23 million price tag.

In May 2014, the board of trustees of All Hallows College started a wind-down of the college's academic operations.

The last group of postgraduate students will graduate in December, while the campus itself will close next northern summer.

Under the new ownership, the site will be known as "The DCU All Hallows campus".

It will provide the university with additional space and facilities to allow DCU to respond to demand for its programmes.

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Bishop Éamonn Walsh said this would make sense from both health and economic perspectives and would give "the body a rest".

The bishop suggested money saved might be donated to institutions which help people with addiction.

It would be a good idea for those who give up alcohol for Lent or reduce intake to do so with a friend, he said, for support, "like going for a run".

The Irish Times reported Bishop Walsh expressing concern at attitudes to drink generally.

Rather than merely social drinking, nowadays people were just "getting out of it", he said.

He also addressed the issue of below-cost selling.

He recognised that not all who wanted a minimum price for alcohol did so for the same motives.

But he recalled the story of a man who told him he couldn't afford heroin one day, so he bought three bottles of vodka instead.

The bishop noted how, when the price of whiskey was increased in the 1990s, its consumption went down.

Where sponsorship by drink companies of sporting events was concerned, his primary concern was with the influence on young people.

"They associate it with their heroes . . . it influences their behaviour."

Bishop Walsh said he wants to see the link between sport and alcohol cut.

He said he noticed drink ads in the Aviva Stadium during a recent Ireland-France rugby game.

According to the Irish Alcohol Action charity, one in four deaths of men aged 15-39 in Ireland is due to alcohol.

The charity also cited a study which found 80 per cent of pregnant women surveyed in Cork drank alcohol at some point in their pregnancy.

The study, published in 2013 by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, found the Irish percentage for abstinence from alcohol during pregnancy significantly lower than that in centres in Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia.

Sources

• Irish Times
• Alcohol Action Ireland
• Image: Slate.com

The Irish Times reported an invitation by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin to priests and parishioners to hold meetings on the subject.

In a letter to priests and parishes, Archbishop Martin stated that Pope Francis wants Catholics around the world to have an opportunity to make their contribution to the process.

He said: "Worldwide, there is a great appreciation of the fact that Pope Francis wanted to hear the sentiments of [Catholics] on the theme of the synod.

"I believe we owe it to Pope Francis to use this opportunity for reflection - and indeed a new model of church practice - which he offers."

Each parish is to determine itself how that discussion should take place in February and March.

Responses from the discussions are expected to be presented at the Dublin archdiocese's office of evangelisation and ecumenism before the end of March.

This will allow for a consolidated report from the Irish church to be ready in time for the preparation of the formal working document at the synod.

Archbishop Martin said there was an important distinction between the purposes of the synods which took place last October and that planned for next October.

This should be reflected in the discussion process, he said.

He explained that the aim of the extraordinary synod last year was to gather factual information about the situation of marriage and the family in our time.

The aim of the ordinary synod in October is to take up the conclusions of last years' synod and begin the reflection on how church pastoral services for marriage and family life should be strengthened and renewed.

Discussion and reflection involving priests and lay people have also been initiated in Australia and England and Wales, ahead of the synod.

The theme for October's synod is "The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and Contemporary World".

Sources

• Irish Times
• Catholic Herald
• Catholic Weekly
• Image: Irish Times

Fr Damian McNiece is the first Catholic priest to hold the position in the 50 year history of the DCC.

The Catholic Church only became a full member of the council six years ago, when it was invited to be such during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

Before that, Protestant churches had objected.

The DCC encourages co-operation between Christian traditions in the city.

Members include patrons and representatives from the Church of Ireland, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches, the Religious Society of Friends , the Greek, Romanian, Antiochene and Indian Orthodox Churches, as well as the Salvation Army and Christian Aid.

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The former United States first lady's letters were written to Vincentian Fr Joseph Leonard, who died in 1964.

The proposed sale was stopped after the intervention of the Kennedy family.

On May 23, All Hallows College announced its intention to close, "with huge regret and deep sadness".

The college, which has 450 current students, had run an increasing deficit for many years.

The Irish Department of Education said All Hallows undergraduate numbers had not reached a cap for student fee funding for the last five years.

The college gets a grant in lieu of tuition fee funding from the department.

"The wind down of the college will begin immediately," a college spokeswoman said.

All Hallows will try to help current students complete their courses, and there will be consultation with more than 70 staff members.

Thousands of priests who followed the Irish diaspora around the world did their seminary training at All Hallows, which was founded in 1842.

But in the 1980s, as seminarian numbers dropped, the college opened its doors to lay people and courses evolved in areas like social justice and church and culture.

In 2008, All Hallows, with two other institutes, became a college of Dublin City University.

It appears the sale of the Kennedy letters was a last ditch attempt to keep All Hallows financially afloat.

After "a stringent programme of sustainability" did not turn finances around, the college did an inventory of its valuable books, paintings and other items, with a view to sale.

It was in this context that staff decided to sell the Kennedy letters, which had been held at the college since 1964.

The letters were expected to fetch NZ$2million at auction in June.

Excerpts were published in media ahead of the proposed sale.

This prompted criticism that such correspondence on personal, spiritual matters involving a priest should be kept confidential.

Sources

• All Hallows statement
• The Tablet
• The Irish Times
• National Catholic Reporter
• The Journal
• Image: All Hallows

The report also found there was "shocking" police connivance with Church authorities in failing to investigate complaints.

"The priest was looked after, people were kept quiet, and many of those children weren't even spoken to," said Archbishop Martin. "There is no way in which the Church of Jesus Christ should have treated children in that way."

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Bands from Britain, the United States and Russia joined thousands of Irish volunteers on Saturday's two-hour procession down Dublin's major boulevard, O'Connell Street, across the River Liffey, past Trinity College and concluding outside St. Patrick's Cathedral.

In his St. Patrick's Day message, Catholic Cardinal Sean Brady offered prayers to the estimated 50,000 citizens who have emigrated in the past year to escape Ireland's weak economy.

The heart of St. Laurence O'Toole was stolen from Christ Church Cathedral on Saturday, reports the Catholic News Agency. The news site quotes the Rev. Dermot Dunne as saying locals are grieving theloss of the relic. "It's valueless" to others, Dunne told CNA, but means a great deal to the cathedral and the community.

According to several news sites, the heart was kept inside a wooden heart-shaped box inside an iron cage bolted to a wall. The cage had been pried open. Q13 Fox News, citing Irish media, noted that other valuable items inside the church were left in place.

The 9% cut is due to falling returns from church collections which provide for the salaries of priests in the area.

The basic income for a priest in the diocese is now €24,079 per year, plus up to €2,820 for years of service, for a maximum of €26,899. The basic figure has dropped by more than €4,000 in the past two years.

Priests' salaries are provided for by the first collection at Sunday masses and are often also provided with accommodation adjoining their place of work.

"When people give more to this fund priests get more; when it goes down they get less", said a spokesperson for the Dublin diocese.

The recession and the myriad child sex abuse scandals in the church have led to a sharp decrease in the amount collected, with the diocese estimating that donations have fallen by 16 per cent in the past three years.

Diarmuid Martin, the Archbishop of Dublin, is meeting with representatives from parishes throughout the diocese this week, according to the spokesperson.

"The Archdiocese, like many other organisations in these difficult times, is conducting a wide ranging review of all its finances in an attempt to determine what services and projects it is in a position to fund and plan for into the future, and all expenditure and income is being examined thoroughly," said the spokesperson.

Sources

• The Journal
• Image: The Telegraph

Declining numbers of Catholics attending Mass and fewer donations are also significant contributing factors.

The Irish Catholic reports that reserves built up by the diocese have been spent.

A senior administrator for the archdiocese said to make no changes would have serious financial consequences.

Some of the suggested measures include:

• pay cuts for diocesan agencies and parish worker
• reassessment of all central administration positions
• parish-based levies on Catholic families

"Many of the parishes see no possibility in the immediate future of overcoming the debt, so it is certainly no exaggeration to imagine that the diocese might go bankrupt," Deputy Editor of the Irish Catholic, Michael Kelly told UTV.

Payouts over child abuse compensation cases have totalled NZ$23m.

Financial disaster looms Kelly said, 55 cases are still pending and 55 people who allege abuse against Dublin priests still waiting for payouts.

"Well the child abuse payouts have eaten up any reserves that the diocese had or built up over the 20th century.

"One would have to imagine that there must be at least another NZ$10m or NZ$12m on that is going to have to be paid out on that at a time when funds are dwindling."

"A lot of parishioners are very reluctant," said Mr Kelly, "if they feel that their money is going to pay the crimes of others."

Sources

• UTC
• BBC
• Irish Catholic
• Image: YLE Uutiset News

The Phoenix's page three article implied that Martin might have influenced Kenny's recent attack on the Vatican.

In a statement, the Archbishop denied the implications, saying the article had several serious errors of fact that could not go unchecked.

Accusing the magazine of "unsubstantiated conjectures" Archbishop Martin's statement clarifies the following:

• he denies having recent private meetings with Kenny
• states he had only one meeting with Kenny, 7 years ago, shortly after his appointment as Archbishop of Dublin
• has never requested a meeting with Kenny either as Prime Minister or in Opposition

Sources

• The Irish Catholic
• The Dublin Archdiocese
• CathNews NZ Pacific
• Image: Phoenix Magazine

Leanza, recently summoned back to the Vatican for 'consultations' resulting from the "Cloyne Report", is at the centre of the fallout between the Catholic Church and the Irish Prime Minister.

Appointed to Dublin in February 2008, Lenza was due to finish is post in Ireland this summer.

Ireland's "The Journal" reports that a spokesperson for the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not confirm when the Holy See had applied for diplomatic credentials, but that the application would be likely to have been in June.

The Apostolic Nunciature of the Czech Republic has been vacant since the end of May, when the incumbent Nuncio was transferred to the nunciature of Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

It had not yet been confirmed when Archbishop Leanza will more to Prague, but it is expected that Leanza will return to Dublin to personally present the Vatican's response to the Cloyne Report.

Sources

• The Journal
• BBC
• The Telegraph
• RTE News Ireland
• Image: NY Daily News

Martin was commenting on the time it was going to take to release the findings of the Visitation of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

"I can say that I am impatient to learn about the path that the Apostolic Visitation will set out for renewal for the Irish Church so that our renewal will move forward decisively," Martin said.

"This is not a criticism of the Holy Father. It is an appeal to his collaborators."

"The pace of the change in Irish religious culture is such that the longer the delay in advancing the fruits of the Apostolic Visitation, the greater the danger of false expectations and the greater the encouragement to those who prefer immobilism to reform, and the greater the threat to the effectiveness of this immense gift of the Holy Father to the Irish Church."

"Many outside of Ireland still believe that Ireland is a bastion of traditional Catholicism," he told delegates involved in preparations for the 2012 International Eucharistic Congress to be held in Dublin.

According to Martin the Catholic Church is a shadow of its former self

• some Dublin parishes have only 5% of Catholics coming to Mass
• on any particular Sunday about 18% of the Catholic population in the Archdiocese of Dublin attends Mass
• for the second time since he became Archbishop of Dublin there will be no ordination to the priesthood in the Archdiocese of Dublin
• the coming years indicate only a tiny trickle of new vocations

Martin's major concern is the growing rift between the Church and young people.

"We have bright, intelligent, generous and idealistic young people. Most will have been educated for most of their time in school in Catholic schools. However from a relatively early age they drift away from any regular contact with the Church and especially from Sunday Mass.

He admitted that Sunday Mass attendance is not the only statistic which indicates an affiliation with the Church and with the mission of Jesus Christ. But observed it is hardly possible to remain truly a Christian if one has no contact over years with the Eucharist.

Martin said, "Too often the renewal agenda of Irish Catholics is driven by an inward-looking agenda of reform of Church structures. Such an agenda will have very little appeal to those who have really lost contact with the Church and regard such reform as interesting but of little relevance to their lives, indeed it might lead them only to further alienation."

"For me the great difficulty is that the Church in Ireland too often is trying to address the challenges of today with the pastoral structures which served well yesterday. Many of our pastoral structures and strategies are no longer fit-for-purpose. They presume that the country is driven by a culture of mass-Catholicism while this can no longer be presumed."

"What has happened and is happening in Ireland is painful. I am not just talking about the horrors of abuse. I am talking about our failure in passing on the faith to the coming generation. Part of that failure is a failure of believers to witness their faith in coherent forms of service relevant to the current cultural situation."

"The Holy Father initiated a process of support for the Irish Church which is set out in his Letter to the Catholics of Ireland. His commitment to the Irish Church is remarkable. I have experienced only support from him in my mission through his teaching and his personal support ... I think that you can see from my reflection just how much I look forward to the Eucharistic Congress as a vital element in the reform agenda of the Irish Church."

Source

• Address to Eucharistic Congress