Just hours after landing in Ireland for the World Meeting of Families, the “pope of the poor” will pay a visit to Dublin’s neediest population where he’ll be welcomed into a very special family, one that holds special weight in his vision of the Church’s role in the world.
The referendum result was a wound to the soul, perhaps the darkest day in Ireland’s history. An unspeakable cruelty will now be inflicted on the most innocent of all our people, on our preborn children. Worst of all, two thirds of the Irish people are now complicit in this cruelty. It bears their stamp: every abortion is one they voted for, even though many of those votes were won by a relentless campaign of misinformation and deceit.
I WASN’T SURPRISED by the result of Ireland’s May 25 referendum, which opened a path to legal abortion in the Emerald Isle by striking down a pro-life amendment to the Irish Constitution.
An Irish bishop said he hopes Pope Francis’ August visit can help bring healing after a divisive referendum that will pave the way for abortion on demand up to 12 weeks’ gestation.
The Republic of Ireland will hold a referendum May 25 seeking a change to the Eighth Amendment to its Constitution. This referendum is important, to say the least. It will affect the future of Ireland.
One of Ireland’s top bishops says that while the upcoming World Meeting of Families this August must offer a “clear and positive vision for family,” rooted in the traditional understanding of marriage, the Church also must not be marred by homophobia.
While Irish pubs will be allowed to open and serve alcohol on Good Friday, March 30, for the first time in 91 years, some pub owners have vowed to remain closed for the day and observe the tradition.
In two months time, voters in Ireland will head to the polls to decide whether to liberalize the eighth amendment – the Republic of Ireland’s constitutional provision that grants an equal right to life to unborn children and pregnant women, which was established in 1983 and effectively banned abortion within Ireland.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – After meeting Pope Francis at the Vatican, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said the pope confirmed he will visit Ireland in 2018 and that trip organizers would look at the possibility of a stop in Northern Ireland.
Given Irish history and the people’s struggles with the great famine, British absentee landlord oppression, and the 19th-century migrations to North America, there is virtual storehouse of material for historical fiction, especially for a writer with an Irish-Catholic sensibility like Mary Pat Kelly.
