2021

• August 2021 : Catholic leadership challenges state’s covid-related regulations regarding sacraments

In recent weeks, Catholic bishops have spoken out against perceived inconsistencies in government regulations aimed at tacking the spread of the coronavirus, particularly regarding the holding of the sacraments of first communion and confirmation. Some bishops have pushed back against public health guidelines, highlighting how different rules seem to apply to quite similar events and urging clergy to press ahead with the sacraments. Other bishops have sought their postponement till a later date. The recent public debate around first communions and confirmations – which has brought out disunity within the hierarchy as well as between clergy and bishops – has shown how these sacraments have become a wedge issue for articulating broader dissatisfaction with the treatment of religious groups by the state during the pandemic as well as the place of religion more generally in Irish society.

For more detail, see Irish Catholic bishops’ conference website, Midwest Radio, The Irish Times, or Kfm Radio.

• January 2021 : Mother and baby homes report and religious and state institutions

On 12 January 2021, the Irish government published the Final Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes, institutions where Irish women who had children outside marriage (then known as “unmarried mothers”) and their children (then known as “illegitimate children”) were admitted in the 1922-1998 period. These homes were part of a wider network of institutions in Irish villages, towns and cities, including industrial schools, Magdalen laundries and reformatories.

The almost 3,000-page report documents the origins, running and closure of these institutions and the church-state interactions, at a local level, that took place in relation to them over many decades.

Catholic and Protestant authorities have expressed their shame at the findings revealed by the report, which they accepted fell a long way short of even basic Christian standards.

For more detail, see :
– Final report of the commission of investigation into mother and baby homes
– Statement by Archobishop Michael on the publication of the report of the commission of investigation into mother and baby homes
– A Joint Statement from the Archbishop of Armagh and the Archbishop of Dublin in relation to the Report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation.