Word: irelander
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...going to withstand this [latest] blow," says Elio Masferrer, an expert on the Catholic Church in Latin America at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Rome, he predicts, "will not take any meaningful action" - just as it hasn't, he argues, in widespread clerical-sex-abuse cases in Ireland and the U.S., despite Benedict's vow to remove the "filth" of sex abusers from the priesthood...
...Northern Ireland's Troubles may have officially ended, but it's a strange kind of peace. On Feb. 4, Catholic and Protestant parties in the province finally reached an agreement on policing, one of the most divisive issues between the two sides. Relations, though, remain frosty, and sectarian violence has made a worrying return. This week, as local politicians move to finalize major new legislative powers, the very foundations of power sharing are shifting again...
...Tuesday, March 9, the Northern Ireland Assembly will vote on the devolution of policing and justice powers from Westminster to the local government at Stormont, as the neoclassical building where the province's parliament meets is known. If the measure is passed, as is expected, a new post of Justice Minister will be created at the Assembly in April, carrying responsibility for the province's police, prisons and courts, hitherto controlled by London's Northern Ireland office. (See pictures of new hope for Belfast...
...move marks an important milestone in the peace process. Although many aspects of daily life in Northern Ireland - sports, housing, education - are divided along Catholic-Protestant lines, few issues are as contentious as policing. For decades, the Catholic minority has viewed the predominantly Protestant police force with deep mistrust. Many Catholic neighborhoods were no-go areas for security forces; republican politicians, such as those in Sinn Fein (now the largest Catholic-backed party in the province), would tell supporters not to assist the police...
...Since 2001, though, Sinn Fein has officially backed the reformed Police Service of Northern Ireland; party members now occupy seats on the watchdog body that oversees the force. In return for this support, republicans felt, there was an implied agreement that Northern Ireland's government would take control of policing and justice matters. After years of Protestant outcry, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) recently backed the move. Sinn Fein has agreed to support a new group overseeing contentious parades by the Protestant Orange Order. The accord has steadied the ship at Stormont, but the power-sharing government, particularly the beleaguered...