As predicted the report by the North’s Police Ombudsman has revealed that senior officials in the Northern Ireland Office and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) were aware in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attack in 1972 (which killed nine innocent civilians) that a Catholic priest, Fr Jim Chesney, was a suspect.

Despite this knowledge, Fr Chesney was never arrested. In fact, it was decided at the highest levels of the British government that he would not be arrested. This decision was communicated to Cardinal William Conway, the then Primate of All-Ireland, by Britain’s

The finding this week of the remains of Charlie Armstrong, who was abducted by Provisional IRA paramilitaries while on his way to Mass almost 30 years ago, murdered and secretly buried will come as some relief to his family.

They have waited 29 years to offer Mr Armstrong the dignity of a Christian burial on consecrated ground. Those who murdered him and secretly buried his body have committed a dastardly, wicked and sinful crime.

Today was another important milestone in the history of the Catholic community in the North as the region struggles to come to terms with the terrible legacy of the past.

The Bishop of Down and Connor, Dr Noel Treanor, made public a number of documents relating to the ‘Ballymurphy Massacre’ when British soldiers shot dead 11 innocent Catholics in west Belfast in August 1971.

The new Association of Catholic Priests, which emerged this week, will aim to give a voice to the ordinary foot soldiers labouring in parishes up and down the country. Many priests have felt as let down as their parishioners by sexual abuse by some of their brethren and the reckless cover-up and hopeless mismanagement of the abuse by their bishops.

Uniting Ireland’s disparate priests will not be an easy task. Uniting them behind this new movement’s one-sided manifesto will be even more difficult.

There has long been a debate about the future provision of Catholic education in Ireland. A combination of falling faith practise and religious diversity in communities across the country has led to a broad consensus in Church and State that there are simply too many Catholic schools in the country.

The 2006 Census showed a substantial increase in religious minorities in Ireland. The Islamic community, for example, grew by 69.9pc from 19,147 in 2002 to 32,539 in 2006.