News from Ireland - news from around the 32 counties

An Ennis priest has strongly defended the seal of the confessional, describing it as “sacrosanct” and that any question of breaking it would be “abhorrent” and “a serious attack, not only on the Church but on the very teachings of Christ Himself”.


Earlier this summer, the Government announced plans to introduce legislation making it mandatory for priests to reveal details of child abuse, even if they become known in confession, or face jail.


Speaking at mass in St Joseph’s Church last Sunday, Fr Michael O’Loughlin, said, “The idea that exposure of a penitent’s faults could be exposed to a public audience is abhorrent”, adding that the priest representing God in the confessional is “bound by conscience to protect the confidentiality of what was shared”.


He stated there has been a recent “unprecedented attack on the Vatican” because of its handling of claims of abuse by members of the clergy. 


Fr O’Loughlin went on to criticize recent statements by Government members saying, “Statements by the Minister for Education recommending the abolition of religious education in the curriculum and also from the previous Minister for the Environment that ‘I thought that the Church’s interference in the political affairs of the country was gone’; in some respects, these are tantamount to totalitarianism”.
(Source: The Clare Champion)

Cork

Crime rates in Cork city have dropped this year due to the fall-off in income since the boom years, according to Chief Superintendent Mick Finn.

Public order offences dropped from 751 to 570 in the space of one year, and Chief Supt Finn attributed this to the recession.

“The city centre is not as dangerous now as it was during the Celtic Tiger. People do not have as much money and are not getting as intoxicated or as often.” Offences relating to sale and supply of drugs were down by five per cent, he said, with middle-income users no longer able to afford 'recreational' narcotics.

Chief Supt Finn was speaking at the Cork City Council Joint Policing Committee meeting last Monday, when he revealed that drugs and weapon offences in the city are down eight per cent, with criminal damage down nine per cent.

His report, which tracked the 2011 second quarter figures and compared them the same period in 2010, from June to August, also outlined that crimes against the person were down five per cent. Property crimes had fallen by five per cent over the period.
Source: (Cork Independent)

Derry

Two Londonderry men have been charged with threatening and abusing an airline crew on a flight to Derry City Airport.

John Patrick Johnston, 32, from Carnhill, and Paul Daniel McIntyre, 31, from Ederowen Park, faced three charges at Londonderry Magistrates' Court last Wednesday.

They are alleged to have been drunk and abused cabin crew on a Ryanair flight from Stansted to Derry on 16 August.

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Nster.com