Latest news with #Jesuitical
Irish Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Daily Mirror
Gerry Adams to donate €100k to Irish language and Palestinian charities
Gerry Adams said he will donate the €100,000 (£84,000) he is to receive in damages from the BBC to charities that help children in Gaza, the homeless in Ireland and Irish language groups. Mr Adams took the BBC to court over a 2016 episode of its Spotlight programme, and an accompanying online story, which he said defamed him by alleging he sanctioned the killing of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson, for which he denies any involvement. Last Friday a jury at the High Court in Dublin found in his favour and awarded him €100,000 (£84,000) after determining that was the meaning of words included in the programme and article. The BBC will also have to pay Mr Adams's legal costs. During an eight-minute video posted on the official Sinn Fein YouTube channel, Mr Adams accused the BBC of showing "arrogance" when it did not resolve the dispute after he issued legal letters nine years ago. In Putting Manners On The BBC – The Gerry Adams Blog, Mr Adams said that the BBC has been held accountable for the content it broadcasts. Mr Adams said: "As for the money that the jury awarded me in damages, I will donate this to good causes. "These will include the children of Gaza, groups in Ireland involved in helping the homeless, Cumann Carad, the Irish language sector and other projects like this in west Belfast." He added: "When the case began six weeks ago, the BBC's legal strategy was evident very quickly. Their narrative was that pursued by successive British and Irish governments for years. "They blamed everything during the conflict on Irish Republicans and by extension, during this trial, on me. "The BBC lawyers embarked on a Jesuitical presentation of the case that tried to convince the jurors that the words broadcast and published by the British Broadcasting Corporation, that I had sanctioned the murder of Denis Donaldson, did not, in fact, mean that I sanctioned the murder of Denis Donaldson. "They were, they said, that's the British Broadcasting Corporation, not defending the truth of the accusation. "Instead they were defending, they claimed, their journalism, which they said was fair and reasonable, in the public interest and made in good faith. "They concluded their case by trying to exert moral pressure on the jurors by claiming that a defeat for the British Broadcasting Corporation would be a blow to freedom of speech and a setback to victims. "In the end the jury didn't buy in to any of this. "On all the key issues the jurors unanimously accepted that the script used by the Spotlight programme did mean that I had sanctioned and approved the murder of Denis Donaldson." He said that after the BBC's decision to air the Spotlight programme, he decided to sue the broadcaster. Mr Adams said the BBC could have resolved the dispute there and then. "They chose not to. Why? That's a question to be asked. Why did they not resolve this issue when they could have? "Was it arrogance? Yes, that's part of it. But I also suspect political interference. "In January, the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer responded to a decision in the High Court in Belfast, which included that I and, by implication, up to 400 other former internees, were wrongfully detained and that we were entitled to compensation. "Mr Starmer told the British Parliament that he would look at every conceivable way to block compensation being paid." Mr Adams also urged the Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan to meet Denis Donaldson's family. He signed off by saying "slan agus tog go bog e", which means goodbye and take it easy. Earlier this week the BBC was granted time to consider appealing against the jury's decision. The broadcaster was granted a stay on paying the full costs and damages to allow it time to consider whether to lodge an appeal. The stay was subject to paying half the damages (€50,000 or £42,000) and €250,000 (£210,000) towards solicitors' fees.
Powys County Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- Powys County Times
Gerry Adams to donate 100,000 euros to Irish language and Palestinian charities
Gerry Adams said he will donate the 100,000 euros (£84,000) he is to receive in damages from the BBC to charities that help children in Gaza, the homeless in Ireland and Irish language groups. Mr Adams took the BBC to court over a 2016 episode of its Spotlight programme, and an accompanying online story, which he said defamed him by alleging he sanctioned the killing of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson, for which he denies any involvement. Last Friday a jury at the High Court in Dublin found in his favour and awarded him 100,000 euros (£84,000) after determining that was the meaning of words included in the programme and article. The BBC will also have to pay Mr Adams's legal costs. During an eight-minute video posted on the official Sinn Fein YouTube channel, Mr Adams accused the BBC of showing 'arrogance' when it did not resolve the dispute after he issued legal letters nine years ago. In Putting Manners On The BBC – The Gerry Adams Blog, Mr Adams said that the BBC has been held accountable for the content it broadcasts. Mr Adams said: 'As for the money that the jury awarded me in damages, I will donate this to good causes. 'These will include the children of Gaza, groups in Ireland involved in helping the homeless, Cumann Carad, the Irish language sector and other projects like this in west Belfast.' He added: 'When the case began six weeks ago, the BBC's legal strategy was evident very quickly. Their narrative was that pursued by successive British and Irish governments for years. 'They blamed everything during the conflict on Irish Republicans and by extension, during this trial, on me. 'The BBC lawyers embarked on a Jesuitical presentation of the case that tried to convince the jurors that the words broadcast and published by the British Broadcasting Corporation, that I had sanctioned the murder of Denis Donaldson, did not, in fact, mean that I sanctioned the murder of Denis Donaldson. 'They were, they said, that's the British Broadcasting Corporation, not defending the truth of the accusation. 'Instead they were defending, they claimed, their journalism, which they said was fair and reasonable, in the public interest and made in good faith. 'They concluded their case by trying to exert moral pressure on the jurors by claiming that a defeat for the British Broadcasting Corporation would be a blow to freedom of speech and a setback to victims. 'In the end the jury didn't buy in to any of this. 'On all the key issues the jurors unanimously accepted that the script used by the Spotlight programme did mean that I had sanctioned and approved the murder of Denis Donaldson.' He said that after the BBC's decision to air the Spotlight programme, he decided to sue the broadcaster. Mr Adams said the BBC could have resolved the dispute there and then. 'They chose not to. Why? That's a question to be asked. Why did they not resolve this issue when they could have? 'Was it arrogance? Yes, that's part of it. But I also suspect political interference. 'In January, the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer responded to a decision in the High Court in Belfast, which included that I and, by implication, up to 400 other former internees, were wrongfully detained and that we were entitled to compensation. 'Mr Starmer told the British Parliament that he would look at every conceivable way to block compensation being paid.' Mr Adams also urged the Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan to met Denis Donaldson's family. He signed off by saying 'slan agus tog go bog e', which means goodbye and take it easy. Earlier this week the BBC was granted time to consider appealing against the jury's decision. The broadcaster was granted a stay on paying the full costs and damages to allow it time to consider whether to lodge an appeal. The stay was subject to paying half the damages (50,000 euros or £42,000) and 250,000 euros (£210,000) towards solicitors' fees.
Evening Standard
5 days ago
- Evening Standard
Gerry Adams to donate 100,000 euros to Irish language and Palestinian charities
'The BBC lawyers embarked on a Jesuitical presentation of the case that tried to convince the jurors that the words broadcast and published by the British Broadcasting Corporation, that I had sanctioned the murder of Denis Donaldson, did not, in fact, mean that I sanctioned the murder of Denis Donaldson.
Irish Times
04-05-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Fast-track planning approval for 112 houses and apartments in Co Cork overturned by High Court
A fast-track planning approval for more than 100 houses and apartments in Co Cork has been overturned after the High Court dismissed An Bord Pleanála's 'conveniently Jesuitical' reading of the county development plan. The permission was quashed over the board's failure to justify, in accordance with planning law, its material contravention of objectives of the Cork county development plan (CDP) providing that it 'should' carry out a proper historic buildings assessment, in this case of a post-medieval heritage structure, Highlands House, and associated buildings, before granting planning approval. The board defended its decision on the basis of the notion that the best interpretation of the wording, intention and purpose of the CDP was to say 'that 'should' means you don't have to do it' and the word 'assess' means to assess after the decision has been taken to knock the structure down, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys said. Neither the developer nor board had inspected the interior of Highlands House, which appears on maps from the 1840s and therefore benefits from the protections in the objectives of the CDP, he said. READ MORE The board incorrectly placed 'outsize reliance' on the non-inclusion of the buildings in the Record of Protected Structures and the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. The scheme of the CDP was clearly to extend protection for structures not included in those, he held. In his judgment on Friday, he rejected the board's 'conveniently Jesuitical reading' of the CDP and upheld the challenge by a local resident, Deirdre Condon, to the permission granted in late May 2022 to Ruden Homes Ltd. The permission was for demolition of existing buildings and the construction of 112 residential units – 72 houses and 40 apartments – on the site at Ballynaroon, Glounthaune. Cork County Council objected to permission in the absence of an archaeological assessment of the site structures and the board's approval was made under what the judge described as the 'ill-fated', 'much-criticised' and since repealed strategic housing development (SHD) procedure. This particular application was coming before the board as its record of SHD permissions in breach of development plans was 'coming to something of a crunch point, as its deputy chairperson [Paul Hyde] stepped aside on May 10th, 2022', he noted. A board inspector had completed a site visit on May 16th 2022 and, in his report, had recommended permission be granted. The report said Highlands House and other buildings had been heavily modified over time, with 'little' remaining of importance, and disagreed with the local authority's view the house should not be among structures for demolition. Having agreed with the inspector's report, the board directed on May 31st, 2022 that permission be granted. The judge agreed with the board that the relevant CDP – which was replaced on June 6th, 2022 by the Cork County Development Plan 2022-28 – was not mandatory in relation to preserving historic buildings in situ. Before demolition, other options included preservation by a record or by recovered artefacts. However, an assessment, in the clearly intended sense of a physical survey, was envisaged by the CDP as required in advance of demolition, he said. In this case, the board had decided that a full physical survey was required but argued that did not have to be done before a grant of permission and could instead be addressed via a planning condition. That logic was 'incompatible' with the view that there was compliance with the CDP, the judge held. The primary purpose of a survey of historic buildings can only be to guide whether development consent should be granted. Otherwise, if anything of interest that would affect the permission to demolish was discovered in the survey, all that could then be done was to close an empty door 'with the runaway horse just a dot on the horizon'.
New York Post
21-04-2025
- Health
- New York Post
Pope Francis, the first pontiff from the Americas, dead at 88 after long respiratory crisis
Pope Francis, who became the first South American and first Jesuit to ascend to the most powerful position in the Catholic Church, has died at age 88. The Vatican confirmed the beloved pontiff's passing on Monday after a prolonged battle with double pneumonia. 9 Pope Francis making an appearance on the balcony of the Gemelli hospital in Rome on March 23, 2025. Maria Laura Antonelli/Shutterstock Advertisement Pope Francis spent 37 days in Rome's Gemelli Hospital with a bilateral lung infection which took hold of the pontiff on Feb. 14, with the 88-year-old requiring high flows of supplemental oxygen throughout the prolonged stay and at least once requiring an emergency blood transfusions, the Vatican said. His health was touch-and-go during the lengthy stay, with doctors reportedly having considered ending the treatment of double pneumonia so that the pontiff could die in peace. On Mar. 23, Francis made his first public appearance before departing Gemelli hospital, managing to give a wheelchair-bound thumbs-up from a balcony before returning to the Vatican residence where he began a two month convalesce to recover from the health scare. Advertisement 9 Francis was hospitalized for five weeks. ETTORE FERRARI/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock The 88-year-old Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1936, was the eldest of five children. His parents were Mario Bergoglio, an Italian accountant who fled Piedmont Italy to escape the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini, according to his Vatican biography. 9 Francis leaving the hospital on March 23. Photo byAdvertisement His mother, Regina Maria Sivori, came from a Catholic family in Buenos Aires, though they too migrated from Italy. The young Bergoglio held a variety of jobs in his youth, including stints as a janitor, a bouncer and a chemist before he was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969. He was Jesuit provincial superior in his home country from 1973-1979, where he also completed his rigorous studies and Jesuitical spiritual training. 9 Pope Francis has passed away at the age of 88. Getty Images Advertisement Bergoglio became archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2001. As a cardinal he held several high profile administrative positions in the Roman Curia. Famously, during the 2001 Ordinary General Assembly, he replaced the iconic Cardinal Edward Michael Egan as Realtor Adjunct, as the beloved Egan remained in New York in the wave of the September 11th terror attacks. As a replacement, Bergoglio is said to have made a favorable impression upon the college of cardinals, In 2005, at the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI, Bergoglio received the second most votes in every round of voting and nearly ascended to the lofty height as a 68-year-old. When Benedict XVI would shockingly resign from the papacy in 2013 — an action not undertaken willingly since Pope Gregory XII ended the Western Schism — Bergoglio was a favorite amongst insiders to put a new face on an scandal-plagued institution. 9 Francis war born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina. Getty Images He was elected as the next heir to St. Peter by a papal conclave on Feb. 28, 2013 — a first for a Jesuit — choosing Francis as his papal name to honor of one of the beloved St. Francis of Assisi. Much like his namesake, Francis' papacy was marked by expressions of humility and compassion, particularly for the poor. The Jesuit rankled some critics, both inside and outside the Vatican walls, with progressive attitudes and advisements, including naming several women to hold major posts in the Vatican and urging the Church to be understanding of both gay and divorced Catholics who desire to received the Eucharist — though he stopped short of voicing approval for gay marriage. Advertisement 9 Francis meeting with his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI in 2013. ABACA/Shutterstock During his tenure as pontiff, Francis expressed support for abolishing the death penalty, and at times spoke out against capitalism, even criticizing 'trickle-down' economics. 'There was the promise that once the glass had become full it would overflow and the poor would benefit. But what happens is that when it's full to the brim, the glass magically grows, and thus nothing ever comes out for the poor,' he told Italian newspaper La Stampa in 2013. Francis also used his grand pulpit to dabble in global diplomatic affairs, including helping restore diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba, and brokering a deal with China over the Communist Party's sway over appointing Chinese bishops. Advertisement 9 Pope Francis was elected pontiff in February 2013 after the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. AP 9 Francis was the first pope to be born in the Americas and Southern Hemisphere. Getty Images Pope Francis was a vociferous advocate for the rights of migrants and refugees and implored countries in the West consider the plight of the least among us. This advocacy included recently speaking out against President Trump's promise to enforce American immigration policy — calling mass deportations a 'disgrace.' 'I, myself, was born in a family of migrants,' Pope Francis said in a Ted Talk in 2021. 'My father, my grandparents, like many other Italians, left for Argentina and met the fate of those who are left with nothing.' Advertisement 'I could very well ended up among today's 'discarded' people. And that's why I always ask myself, deep in my heart: 'Why them and not me?'' In 2024, Francis became the first pope to speak at the G7 summit, which was held in Puglia, Italy. He addressed the world's major superpowers on the risks of AI, urging leaders to use it in a way that benefits humanity. Francis, elected at age 76, faced several high-profile health scares over the course of his papacy, which at times prompted rumors he may resign — which he denied but left the door open to doing so should his health decline irrevocably. 9 Pope Francis was outspoken on issues like immigration, capitalism and the death penalty, which at times put him at odds with right-wing critics. AP Advertisement At the age of 21, Francis had part of his lung removed after a bout with life-threatening pneumonia, which his doctors said would not significantly impact his health — unless he was stricken with a major respiratory infection. In March 2023, Francis was hospitalized in Rome with bronchitis but returned in time for the Easter Vigil Mass on Holy Saturday, which was on April 9th. That June, the pope underwent a hernia operation, spending several days at Rome's Gamelli Hospital, where he also spent his final days. He skipped a pair of planned visits to Africa in 2022 after getting knee surgery, and has used a wheelchair at public appearances ever since, a move disabled Catholics praised for making his disability 'part of his visible identity.' Leading up to his death, Francis was hospitalized for several days for a 'complex' lung infection, which he battled for more than a week and later became full-fledged double pneumonia. Pope Francis leaves a lasting legacy as an advocate for the poor and needy who carried on the papal legacy of participating in politics — though using his power to advocate for the powerless, inspiring a generation of Catholics
