Europe

Crowds flock to Little Flower
MORE THAN two million people may participate in events surrounding the visit of the relics of St Therese of Lisieux to Ireland, a bishop has estimated.
The relics of St Therese of the Child Jesus have inspired turnouts far greater than expected, said Bishop Brendan Comiskey, who is overseeing the visit.
In the event at Ferns, he said: "We estimate that more than 75,000 took part in the event."
He said he had, "no reason to offer for it [the crowds] other than to suggest the great hunger for the spiritual in so many hearts".
Ireland 'is not Catholic'
THE IRISH president has angered critics by an attack on the role of Catholicism in Irish society.
President Mary McAleese said that the term "Catholic Ireland" should no longer be used. She claimed that Catholicism had been hurtful to Ireland's history. She was, however, happy to claim that Irish people continued to possess "a generosity of spirit and decency", but did not discuss from where that derived.
She said: "I would take no pride in the idea of [the Church] having this grip on every single aspect of Irish life."
Pope to beatify Ukraine martyrs
TH1: POPE is to beatify 28 Ukrainian martyrs on his visit to the country this June.
Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, gave the necessary conclusions to the Pope of the cases for the 10 martyrs who will be canonised and the 28 to be beatified. He explained that the opening up of Eastern Europe had allowed the Congregation to collect the proofs necessary to testify to their "heroic virtues".
Cardinal Saraiva Martins said: "They heroically witnessed their fidelity to Christ and the Roman Pontiff during the Second World War and subsequent years, when • the Church and Ukrainian hierarchy were persecuted by the communist regime."