Ireland awaits a September report on its abortion laws by a European Court of Human Rights panel of experts at a time of rising political tensions over the issue and a backdrop of steep declines in the popularity of religion.

Terry Sanderson says the Vatican's great plan to reassert its authority in the Western world has so far delivered little in the way of results.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York has ramped up the Catholic Church's politically motivated assault on the Obama administration by accusing the President of "strangling" religious freedom by requiring Catholic employers to provide workers with birth control coverage.

Terry Sanderson on how the Pope is trying to run American politics and bring it in line with his own teachings, regardless of what the people want.