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Tenerife Weekly - 23rd March - 29th March 2012 IRISH NEWS
Vatican admits sex abuse ‘shame’
The Catholic Church has acknowledged “with a great sense of shame” that “innocent young people were abused by clerics” in Ireland. Those “who should have exercised vigilance often failed to do so effectively”, it said. Its acknowledgement of this “terrible phenomenon” came on Tuesday 20th March, in a summary of reports prepared by seven teams sent by the Vatican to conduct an unprecedented examination of the island’s four Catholic archdioceses, seminaries, and religious congregations. They made several recommendations and said it was up to the Irish church to implement the findings of the visitation teams, whose work “should now be considered completed”. They called on Irish church authorities to continue to devote time to listening to and providing support for victims and their families. The 7½-page report was published in Maynooth at a press conference
Archbishop Charles Brown
attended by the Catholic primate Cardinal Seán Brady, the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, the papal nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown and the secretary general of the Conference of Religious of Ireland Sr Marianne O’Connor. The visitation report called on the Irish church to update its child protection guidelines in accordance with those published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome last May. It said the Irish church’s child protection watchdog, the National
Board for Safeguarding Children, should be supported by “bishops, religious superiors and the whole community of the church in Ireland”. Where Irish seminaries were concerned “the seminary buildings [should] be exclusively for seminarians of the local church . . . to ensure a well-founded priestly identity”. There should be “more systematic preparation for a life of priestly celibacy . . . more consistent admission criteria . . . greater concern for intellectual formation” including “an academic programme [of] in-depth formation on matters of child protection”. It advised religious congregations to focus over the next three years on their “fundamental sources, particularly the following of Christ as revealed in the scriptures”. Archbishop Martin said the extent of abuse that had happened in the church was “shattering” and those who were abused “should be foremost in our minds”.
Family Pet Rescued From Ravine
A dog has been rescued from a ravine on the north coast by the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service. ‘Pepper’ fell into the ravine near Fairhead on Monday afternoon. Firefighters from Ballycastle were called out to rescue the dog and managed to successfully winch him to safety. Once safe, Pepper was returned to his owners. They thanked the fire and rescue service for their hard work
in saving the faithful family pet. Watch Commander Hugh McGill and his team posed for a photo with Pepper after the rescue. The area near the ravine is popular with dog walkers and was busier than usual because of the good Bank Holiday Monday weather.
Cannabis Plants Worth 520,000 Euros Seized In Cavan A large quantity of being cultivated in a vacannabis plants, with an estimated street value of 520,000 Euros, have been found following a search of a house in Coothill, Co Cavan. Gardaí discovered over 1,300 cannabis plants
cant property on Church Street at around 2pm on Tuesday, 20th March. The area remains sealed off pending a forensic examination and the investigation is on-going. There have been no arrests.
It’s Official: Obama is Irish
US President Barack Obama hosted a party at the White House last night at which Taoiseach Enda Kenny gave him a bowl of shamrock and a certificate of Irish ancestry. Mr Kenny concluded his five-day visit to the United States on Wednesday (21st March). US President Barack Obama hosted a party at the White House on Tuesday night at which the Taoiseach gave him a bowl of shamrock and a certificate of Irish ancestry. President Obama thanked Mr Kenny for the gifts and spoke fondly of his visit to
Ireland last May. He pledged to be a steadfast friend of Ireland when needed and seemed genuinely pleased to receive the gifts. Mr Obama joked that he will put the certificate on the wall beside his birth certificate. It was a reference to the campaign by some of his political opponents challenging his birth in the US. It was also a reminder that this is an election year and that Mr Obama has a ferocious battle ahead as the economy remains fragile and his opponents get ready to challenge him on all fronts.
Tribunal upholds dismissal for Facebook comments
An industrial tribunal has ruled that a Belfast call centre worker who was sacked for posting obscene comments on Facebook was fairly dismissed. Daniel Joseph Teggart was sacked from TeleTech in 2011 for sexual comments he made about a female colleague. He told the tribunal he had not intended to harass his colleague.
However the tribunal ruled that TeleTech had behaved reasonably in dismissing Teggart. He had been employed as a customer service representative by the firm, which employs almost 800 people in Belfast, from July 2007 until January 2011. He was dismissed from the firm for gross misconduct. The letter informing him of his dismissal stated that: “The
reason for dismissal is gross misconduct in that on your own admission you made multiple postings on a social media site regarding a fellow employee, one of which made reference to TeleTech.” Mr Teggart appealed his dismissal with TeleTech but was unsuccessful. As well as stating that he had not intended to bully his colleague, he also claimed that the firm’s code of conduct did not cover internet use outside of work. The industrial tribunal found that it was reasonable that the firm had dismissed Teggart for an “act of harassment”.