Gay cake appeal case adjourned
The appeal by the Christian owners of a Belfast bakery who were found to have discriminated against a gay customer was adjourned last week to facilitate an intervention by Northern Ireland’s Attorney General.
John Larkin QC made a last-minute request to make representation in the case about any potential conflict between the North’s equality legislation and European human rights laws.
The court had ruled against Ashers, run by the McArthur family, for refusing to fulfil an order to make a cake with a slogan supporting same-sex marriage because it conflicted with their deeply-held religious beliefs.
Christian Bros’ role in education praised
Bishop Brendan Leahy has paid tribute to the “myriad works of mercy, both seen and unseen”, that have marked the Christian Brothers schools in Limerick.
Speaking at a Mass of Thanksgiving in St John’s Cathedral at the weekend to celebrate the bicentenary of their arrival in the city, Bishop Leahy said the Christian Brothers “have played and still do play a very significant role in our city”. “It is right that we express gratitude before God and to the brothers, teachers and staff for their zeal through the years,” he said.
Bishop Leahy also acknowledged “there are dark aspects to be found within the Christian Brothers schools’ collective memory” and the “failings and sinfulness of individual characters need to be humbly admitted and confessed”.
Moyross Jesuit ‘mercy envoy’ for Pope
The Parish Priest in Moyross, Co. Limerick, Fr Tony O’Riordan SJ is among a group of priests from around the world chosen by Pope Francis to play a special role in the Holy Year of Mercy.
Fr O’Riordan was commissioned as a ‘Missionary of Mercy’ and received a special mission from Pope Francis to preach and teach about God’s mercy at a ceremony in St Peter’s Basilica yesterday (Ash Wednesday). Fr O’Riordan will also have special authority to pardon sins that carry penalties that only the Holy See can lift.
Fr O’Riordan said that he hoped that in this role of Missionary of Mercy he can “be part of God’s plan for strengthening the goodness in others, helping relieve their burdens”.
Banks should be ‘barred from evicting tenants’
Rather than treating repossessed houses as assets to be liquidated, banks should be instructed to treat repossessed houses as ongoing businesses, a leading homelessness campaigner has said.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Focus Ireland’s Mike Allen said over a third of the more than 70 families becoming homeless each month late last year had been evicted from rented accommodation in houses which banks repossessed. Many such tenants, he said, “would have been completely up to date with rent, not knowing that their landlord is in serious difficulty”. A better option, he suggested, would be for the banks to become landlords for the tenants.
Belfast parish raises funds for repatriation
Generous parishioners at a west Belfast church have raised £5,000stg (€6,397) for a charity which assists families of Irish people who have died abroad.
At Mass in Clonard Monastery on Sunday, Fr Noel Kehoe presented Colin Bell, from the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust, with a cheque on behalf of parishioners, raised as part of the parish Christmas crib appeal.
Colin Bell and his family set up the trust in memory of his 26-year-old son Kevin who died in a suspected hit-and-run in New York in 2013. The charitable trust has since provided assistance to more than 100 families faced with similar tragedies abroad.
Dublin’s archbishop condemns gang violence
The Archbishop of Dublin has condemned the recent spate of gangland killings in the city as “despicable inhumanity”.
“Violence is to be condemned whatever its roots are,” Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said. “Dismembering bodies as some sort of warning is not a sign of prestige or power but of despicable inhumanity. Premediated shooting in public places even in the presence of terrified children and innocent bystanders only degrades the humanity of those who do it. They fail to see that such inhumanity inevitably rebounds on its own perpetrators and never leaves them with the security they seek.”
