Rapid reading summary
£500,000 boost for NW youth charity HURT
BBC – A support group which works with vulnerable young people in the north west has been awarded a grant of almost £500,000 by the Big Lottery Fund. HURT supports young people in Londonderry, Limavady and Strabane who are dealing with alcohol and drug addiction. The money will allow the charity to run preventative courses in schools and community groups. It will also help young people gain educational qualifications.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-foyle-west-17283117
Vatican reports on abuse due this spring
Irish Times – Reports from the seven visitation teams sent to Ireland by the Vatican last year are on course to be published this spring, Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said.
The teams, which visited Ireland’s four Catholic archdioceses, seminaries and male and female religious congregations, all completed and sent their reports to Rome by the end of last year. The apostolic visitation was ordered after publication of the Murphy report into clerical sex abuse
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0308/1224313004086.html
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0307/breaking54.html
Bishops told seven more abuse reviews will be complete by June
thejournal.ie – A group of Irish bishops has been told that seven further reviews into the handling of allegations of clerical child sex abuse by authorities in dioceses and religious congregations will be completed by mid-summer.
The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland gave a wide-ranging presentation of the current work being undertaken in the review process at the annual general meeting of the Irish Bishops’ Conference this week.
http://www.thejournal.ie/bishops-told-seven-more-abuse-reviews-will-be-complete-by-june-376620-Mar2012/
Prophets of doom greatest threat facing North now
Irish Times – The report tells us that public housing in Northern Ireland (which, excluding private rentals, accounts for about 17 per cent of the stock) is still split along religious lines, but doesn’t proffer any ideas on what can be done about it.http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/0308/1224313002703.html