Boston College: Enda Kenny, Ireland’s Taoiseach (Prime Minister), will give the Commencement Address to Boston College’s 4,400 graduates at Alumni Stadium this morning.
 
In the three years since coming to power, Kenny has looked to build a “Republic of laws,” a Republic that many Irish expatriates in the US—myself included—identify with because it closely mirrors the society in which we now live, a society where the letter of the law rather than the unspoken assumption of a doctrinaire moral code determines social policy.
 
Savita Halappanavar is a victim of that moral code and social policy. Mrs. Halappanavar died of sepsis, an infection brought on by the miscarriage of her seventeen-week pregnancy, in a Galway hospital on 28th October 2012. Her grieving husband described the medical treatment meted out to his wife as “horrendous, barbaric and inhumane.” To read the “Timeline” of his wife’s eight-day ordeal, based on evidence presented at the week-long official inquest, induces shame and anger. A young healthy woman fell victim to a lack of political will.
 
Enda Kenny outlined his vision for a very different Ireland during a Dáil Éireann speech in July 2011 when responding to the publication of the Cloyne Report. Like earlier reports—Murphy, Ryan, and Ferns—Cloyne echoed the well established narrative of clerical child sex abuse and confirmed the Catholic hierarchy’s failure to report such abuse to the civic authorities. The Bishop in question observed the dictates of the Vatican rather than the law of the land.
 
But Cloyne was of a different order too. It detailed how the Vatican deliberately organized to frustrate an Irish State-commissioned inquiry into clerical child sex abuse as recently as 2009. In an unprecedented move, Mr. Kenny, a devout Catholic, entered the Dáil chamber, the seat of political power in Ireland, and called the Vatican to account. And, he declared the primacy of the State’s standards, not those of the Catholic Church, in all matters related to the protection of Ireland’s children.
 
The “Cloyne speech” represents a watershed moment because it encapsulates a new vision for the nation:

The latest census figures from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Branch show that Catholics in Northern Ireland are more likely to be unemployed or living in overcrowded conditions with worse health than Protestants.

Walls separating Protestant and Catholic communities in parts of Northern Ireland are to come down within the next 10 years, ministers pledged on Thursday.

A Boston College spokesman has been forced to defend and justify their selection of Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny as the commencement speaker after hearing criticism from Catholic groups over his stance on Ireland abortion law reform debate.

An elderly Catholic nun is among the three people convicted for damage they caused when they broke into a defense facility where enriched uranium for nuclear bombs is stored.

This week Pope Francis raised eyebrows around the world when he told a group of 800 visiting nuns they must be spiritual mothers and not 'old maids.'

The abortion bill being proposed by the Irish government is the best that can be achieved on this incredibly difficult issue.

The Irish Independent has reported that the planning approval has been granted for Northern Ireland’s first ever shared campus for Catholics and Protestants. 

The president of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) has apologized to the Catholic Diocese in Pittsburgh who were gravely offended by a female student who dressed up as a “Naked Pope”, while passing out condoms at the annual art school parade.

In the old days religious organizations could fire gay staff without a word of explanation. But suddenly things are changing.

A homeless man in Dublin has pleaded not guilty, by reason of insanity, to the charge of arson of a Catholic Church at Christmas, causing $5.2 million (€4m) in damages.

Nearly 30 years after he was originally convicted, former priest Bill Carney has finally been arrested in London. He will soon appear in court to face the charges of sexual abuse made against him, according to the Irish Sun. Having avoided punishment of any sort, and receiving $39,283 from the Catholic Church to leave the priesthood, his case has been called “tragic” and “nothing short of catastrophic.”

Catholic bishops are to write to the Northern Ireland Assembly in opposition of the legalisation of the same-sex marriage motion which is to be debated by the Assembly in Stormont on Monday, 29 April, 2013.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSCCCI) has published audits of several dioceses and states that the now retired bishop of Clogher, Joseph Duffy, repeatedly missed opportunities to prevent clergy from abusing children.

The incoming head of the Catholic Church in Ireland has vowed to restore faith amongst his flock after his full ordination.

Pope Francis is making a reputation for himself as a frugal man who will forgo the luxuries associated with his office. Gone are the signature Prada red shoes, the ermine fur and the fabulous robes and golden thrones of his predecessor Pope Benedict.

A Galway midwife has admitted she told Indian native Savita Halappanavar that she could not abort her terminally ill fetus because Ireland was a Catholic country. Savita was working as a dentist in County Mayo when she began having labor pains with her 17 week old fetus.