The idea about the real, and growing, possibility of a united Ireland holds a romantic appeal far beyond a small corner of north-western Europe. For many years, unification was never more than a Republican fantasy. But something has changed. This week, Sinn Fein, which campaigns for unification, won the most first-preference votes in the republic’s election.

Irish unification is becoming likelier

Time to start thinking about what it might mean 

Dublin, Feb.13.– For most of the century since Ireland gained independence from Britain, control of the country has alternated between two parties. On February 8th that duopoly was smashed apart, when Sinn Fein got the largest share of first-preference votes in the republic’s general election. The party, with links to the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which bombed and shot its way through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, won with a left-wing platform that included promises to spend more on health and housing. Yet it did not hide its desire for something a lot more ambitious. “Our core political objective”, its manifesto read, “is to achieve Irish Unity and the referendum on Unity which is the means to secure this.”

Vatican officials: 'Querida Amazonia' is magisterium, Amazon synod's final doc is not.

by Hannah Brockhaus
Catholic News Agency

Vatican City, Feb.12.– Pope Francis' post-synodal exhortation on the Amazon is part of the Church's ordinary magisterium — that is officially a kind of Church teaching — while the final document of the Vatican’s 2019 Amazon synod is not, Cardinal Michael Czerny, special secretary of the Amazon synod, said Feb. 12.

The distinction in the authoritative weight of the two documents was also emphasized by Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, and by Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See Press Office.

Bruni emphasized that “the apostolic exhortation is magisterium, the final document is not.” He later added that “anything in the final document should be read in the lens of the apostolic exhortation,” including any “application.”

“So we have two documents of two different kinds,” Cardinal Czerny said in a presentation to journalists.

Pope Francis released Feb. 12 the apostolic letter, "Querida Amazonia," which presents his response to the discussion of the Amazon synod, which took place in Rome over three weeks in October 2019.