“Taoiseach Enda Kenny last night reassured Fine Gael backbenchers that the decision to close down Ireland’s Vatican embassy would be reviewed.

It is a sign that the Government is preparing to row back on the controversial decision, which has ensured that the State has no embassy to the Vatican for the first time since 1929.

At a lengthy Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting last night, Mr Kenny spoke of his personal good relations with the Catholic Church.

He backed up the comments by Junior Minister for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton, who said that the closure of the embassy would be reviewed.

But this may raise tensions in the Coalition, given that Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore has so far insisted the decision stands.

Mr Kenny was praised by several backbenchers for his stinging criticism of the Vatican last year for failing to co-operate with state investigations into clerical sexual abuse.

He told the meeting he had spoken to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and Cardinal Sean Brady to make it clear that Pope Benedict was welcome to visit here for the Eucharistic Congress in June.”

By Michael Brennan and Fionnan Sheahan

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“Small schools across the country under threat of teacher cuts have geared up their protest campaign this week as leading educationalists say children’s futures are being sacrificed for the austerity budget.

Staffing requirements, based on enrolment figures in primary schools introduced in the last budget, will lead to increased class sizes, loss of teachers from next September and could force amalgamations or even the closures of small schools.

Eileen Flynn, general secretary of the Catholic Primary School Management Association (CPSMA) said the level of upset across the country is understandable. ”It has caused a level of anxiety for people in smaller schools who see themselves as a mainstay of rural Ireland.

”One thing that cannot happen children in disadvantaged areas or on the margins or even the mainstream, is that they are sacrificed because of mistakes made by others.

”If they are to be the leaders of the future, they deserve the best start now.

”A blanket pupil teacher ratio policy that removes context or circumstance does not make sense, and we may be regret it down the line.”

Fr Michael Drumm, executive chairperson of Catholic Schools Partnership (CSP), said the Government should be considering a strategic plan that would include the school community.

”Nothing is more important than schools. Pupil teacher ratio is choking small schools slowly and surely.”

By Mags Gargan

To read more visit Irish Catholic

“Legislation currently before the Oireachtas poses a serious threat to the right of faith schools to protect their ethos if passed without amendment.

According to a report in this week’s Irish Catholic, the Education (Amendment) Bill 2012, introduced in the Seanad earlier this month, removes the right for school patrons to agree before a teacher is redeployed from another school.  This would mean that denominational schools would not be able to block the appointment of a teacher who is deemed hostile towards the ethos of the school.

Currently, other legislation protects the right of denominational institutions, including schools, to ensure that employees and perspective employees do nothing that would undermine their religious ethos.
However, the new legislation, proposed by Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn removes the need for schools to agree to any teacher.

According to the explanatory note provided by the Department of Education, it will consult with a given school on any potential transfer, but the agreement of the patron of the school will no longer be required. The legislation has clear implication for Catholic schools, but schools run by the minority Protestant, Jewish and Muslim communities are likely to be affected to an even greater extent.”

By the Iona Institute

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“On January 25, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a non-binding resolution stating: “Euthanasia, in the sense of the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit, must always be prohibited.”

The purpose of the resolution, entitled “Protecting human rights and dignity by taking into account previously expressed wishes of patients”, defines the principles that should govern the practice of “living wills” or “advance directives” in the 47 States of the Council of Europe.

The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) welcomed the adoption of the PACE resolution. “This Resolution is a major victory for the protection of life and dignity,” said ECLJ Director Grégor Puppinck.

Puppinck noted that because “living wills” or “advance directives” are open to abuses, and are a “backdoor” for introducing euthanasia or assisted suicide into legislation, PACE’s resolution was necessary.

The resolution is comprised of a list of principles already elaborated in three documents previously adopted in the Council of Europe, including the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (Oviedo Convention), which legally binds the majority of member States.”

From CNI

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“A married woman and politician, who founded a Catholic religious congregation is being beatified in Austria today (Sunday 29^th Jan).

The extraordinary woman, who began life as a Jew, converted to Catholicism, had a family, a political career and founded a congregation of nuns, is held up as a model for evangelisation by the leader of the Catholic Church in Austria, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn.

Hildegard Burjan was born in 1883 into a liberal Jewish family in Germany.  She studied literature, philosophy and sociology in Switzerland and Berlin and obtained a Ph.D. in 1908.  The year before, 1907, she married the Hungarian entrepreneur Alexander Burjan.  In 1909 she was surprisingly healed from a grave sickness, which brought about her conversion to Catholicism.

She moved with her husband to Vienna, where she had her only daughter Lisa.  It was a difficult pregnancy, which threatened her life a number of times.  Her doctors advised her to abort the baby, but she categorically refused.

In Vienna, she got to know a group of Catholics who wanted to put Pope Leo XIII’s social encyclical Rerum Novarum into practise.  Hildegard started to interest herself in the social issues of the day, in particular the working conditions and spiritual welfare of poor women and children.

In 1912, she founded the Society of Christian Women Working at Home and in 1918 the Society for Social Help.

A year later, on October 4, 1919, she founded the congregation of sisters named Caritas Socialis.

The order cares especially for women and children in difficult conditions and for elderly and terminally ill people.  It plays a major role in the hospice movement in Austria.”

By Susan Gately

To read more visit CiNews

Saint Patrick’s Cathedral will make its Sunday services available through live-streaming from 29^th January at Evensong, and every Sunday thereafter at 11.15am and 3.15pm. Those who are unable to attend services at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in person will be able to view Sunday services on-line. These services may be accessed via the Cathedral website: www.stpatrickscathedral.ie or via the Church Services TV website: www.churchservices.tv/stpatrickscathedral

We look forward to welcoming you to our service

“Parishes of all denominations in the Mullingar area united as one Christian community last weekend in order to face the challenge of how Christians can offer practical support to those struggling to cope in the current financial climate.

Christian Voices Together, an initiative launched in Christian Unity Week last year by local Christian churches, hosted a conference attended by 120 people from all denominations who wanted to work together to help their community through financial austerity.

”The conference is a significant beacon of hope for our community,” said Rev. Alastair Graham, chairperson of the group.

”Christianity in practice makes a difference to peoples’ lives. We hope to clearly identify what needs to be done in the Mullingar area.”

”We need confidence in ourselves and confidence in the Good News,” said Fr John Nally of Ballynacargy parish.

”If one Church was doing it, people would say fair enough, but when all Christian communities come together, society says that’s different, that’s something we need. It’s a powerful sign that something new is there.”

When asked if this initiative could become a national Christian movement, Fr Nally said it was a very locally based project, ”but there is no reason why people can’t do the same thing in their own area, if they have the heart for it and are prepared to work together”.

By Mags Gargan

To read more visit Irish Catholic

“Amid the deluge of information and nonstop chatter in today’s media, the church needs to help people find safe havens of silence, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Far from being the enemy of calm and quiet, social media and the Internet can lead people to virtual sanctuaries that offer silent reflection, thoughtful dialogue and true meaning in life, he said.

“Attention should be paid to the various types of websites, applications and social networks which can help people today to find time for reflection and authentic questioning, as well as making space for silence and occasions for prayer, meditation or sharing of the word of God,” he said in his message for the 2012 celebration of World Communications Day.

Even brief posts and viral tweets can carry potent messages when people use those tools — not for spamming or for scanning the latest gossip — but for sharing a real part of themselves, he said.

“In concise phrases, often no longer than a verse from the Bible, profound thoughts can be communicated, as long as those taking part in the conversation do not neglect to cultivate their own inner lives,” he said.”

By Carol Glatz

To read more visit CNS

“A visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Lebanon later this year is “very possible,” according to the Vatican’s official spokesman.

The Pope would use the visit to deliver a document – known as an apostolic exhortation – that is the fruit of the discussions that took place at last October’s Synod for the Middle East.

“In the context of the publication of a synod document, it is very possible and reasonable for the Pope to go to Lebanon and deliver this message,” Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., told CNA on Jan. 23.

“Lebanon is certainly a country that desires the Pope’s presence. Given that the Pope has already been to the Holy Land, Lebanon is a place that would be an option to host the Pope for this purpose,” Fr. Lombardi said.

The Italian media is already speculating that the Pope will travel to the country in mid-September. Possible dates include Sept. 13, the Feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross, and the following weekend, Sept. 22-23.

Pope Benedict could make stops in Lebanon’s capital city of Beirut and the seat of the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate, Bkerké, as part of his trip.”

By David Kerr

To read more visit Catholic News Agency

“Seven men from the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin were received as candidates for the Permanent Diaconate in Carlow Cathedral.

Fr Ruairi O’Domhnaill who gave the homily on the occasion recalled Cardinal O’Fiach’s reference to the Irish laity as the great sleeping giant.  “Sometimes I think that we, as ordained men, carried our boyhood fear of sleeping giants into our adult lives in the Church, and have been afraid to awaken the giant for fear he will run amok in the Church and we will lose control of what he may do.

“When Paul VI established the norms for permanent deacons in the Church, he specifically set among them the task of promoting and sustaining the activity of the laity.  In other words a specific task of permanent deacons is to awaken the sleeping giant of the laity,” said Fr O’Domhnaill.

He urged the deacons to measure their success, not in the amount of time they spent working, but to the extent to which they encourage, empower and facilitate others to take their place within the Church’s mission.  Fr O’Domhnaill said it was historic to accept seven men formally as candidates for the permanent diaconate, as never before in the long story of Carlow Cathedral had such an event occurred.

In the diocese, it is over one thousand years since such an event occurred. “

By Ann Marie Foley

To read more visit CiNews