VATICAN CITY - In the presence of family, bishops and priests from Ireland and colleagues from the Vatican, Irish Msgr. Paul Tighe was ordained a bishop Feb. 27 by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.

DUBLIN - The Catholic bishops of Northern Ireland have described as "profoundly disquieting" a ruling by the High Court that the region's ban on abortion in all but very limited circumstances breaches human rights legislation.

In the early 1940s, as a barefoot-in-summer lad in Ireland, I had my introduction to the natural environment. My family had a small store and pub on a gravel coast road in The Burren, a barren karst limestone district on Galway Bay.

My father had built a small windmill, using the dynamo from a Ford car, with a wooden wind direction indicator, on an eight-metre pole. The constant winds from the ocean kept three “wet” batteries charged, which provided enough electricity for four light bulbs and a wireless radio. Every night, my father and the neighbours from miles around gathered around the wireless to listen to the news/propaganda from the war fronts.

KNOCK, Ireland - Two American cardinals of Irish descent praised the role of immigrants -- especially Irish -- in building the United States.

TORONTO - Fr. Michael Doyle, a Spiritan priest who served around the world but called Toronto home, has died. He was 82.

CORK, Ireland - The outcome of May's same-sex marriage referendum in Ireland and the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court on the same issue clearly show the extent to which Western society is abandoning many of its Christian legal foundations, said Australian Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Vatican's Secretariat for the Economy.

Irish journalist John Waters might be forgiven for skipping the cheering and Guinness-drinking in Dublin after the country’s referendum legalizing gay marriage.

DUBLIN - Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has said the Church needs a "reality check" after Irish voters overwhelmingly supported same-sex marriage.

CANTERBURY, England - “In Ireland,” says a character in a 1904 George Bernard Shaw play, “the people is the Church, and the Church is the people.”

DUBLIN - Catholic bishops have not made any decision on whether priests should decline to perform civil aspects of weddings if a May 22 referendum on same-sex marriage is passed.

DUBLIN - Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin said he would seek assurances from religious congregations operating in his diocese that they are rigidly following child protection guidelines after a fresh round of audits raised serious concerns.

One of the 20th century’s most vocal Church antagonists is dead. The Rev. Ian Paisley died peacefully in Northern Ireland on Sept. 12, ending a life that for most of its 88 years was spent stoking division and inciting violence between Protestants and Catholics in his troubled homeland. 

BELFAST, Northern Ireland - For years, the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, refused to heed repeated calls for him to step down over alleged cover-ups of sexual abuse of children by clergy.

Updated 06/09/14

LONDON - The Roman Catholic archbishop of Dublin, regarded as among the most influential church leaders in England and Ireland, has added his voice to those calling for an urgent inquiry into the discovery of nearly 800 babies and children buried in a septic tank at Tuam, a home for unwed mothers in western Ireland.

DUBLIN - The Irish government established a working group to address details emerging about Catholic-run, state-funded mother-and-baby homes and the burial of deceased children.