The Pope will be visiting the country for the World Meeting of Families on August 25th for a two-day visit.

The emoji, which features the leader of the Catholic Church’s face against a backdrop of the Irish flag, was made available on Tuesday and can be triggered by using the hashtags #PopeInIreland, #PápaInÉirinn, #WMOF2018 and #FestivalOfFamilies.

“The visit of Pope Francis is one of the biggest events happening in Ireland this year and naturally many people will be using Twitter to discuss his time here,” Karen White, Twitters’ Director of Public Policy for Europe said.

“We want to encourage everyone across the world to join the conversation on Twitter about his visit to Ireland so we’ve created this special emoji for people to use.”

Twitter has previously introduced event-specific hashtags and emojis for popular events including the World Cup and Eurovision.

But this isn’t the first time the Pope, who uses Twitter himself has had emojis created by the social media site to celebrate his trips.

Twitter unveiled similar emojis when the Pope visited the United States and Latin America.

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Rev Rupert Kalus, of Lanchester and Burnhope Benefice, and the Rev Ali Miller were both married when they started the affair, which has now ended, a Diocese of Durham spokesman said.

The Bishop of Durham, Rt Rev Paul Butler (pictured below), broke the news to parishioners at a service on Sunday.

Following an investigation by the Church of England, both the vicar and the curate have been suspended from public ministry.

Mr Kalus was suspended for 18 months and Ms Miller for twelve months.

A Diocese of Durham spokesman described the affair as “adulterous” and said the organisation was “deeply saddened” by events.

He said: “Following the procedures of the Clergy Discipline Measure, the Bishop of Durham has prohibited both Rupert and Ali from their public ministry for a period of 18 and 12 months respectively.

“They have both therefore had to resign their posts.

“The Rt Rev Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham, confirmed these facts to the congregation at the normal Sunday service which he led on Sunday 12th August.

“We are deeply saddened that this situation has arisen and ask that you respect the privacy of both families and hold them in your prayers.”

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On Sunday 12th August, Fox collapsed during a gig in Las Vegas playing for another band and was taken straight to hospital.

The Californian band Stryper released an official statement, saying: “After performing an MRI, doctors discovered an area of concern near his brain which they are now running a biopsy on. The doctors have instructed him not to drive or fly for 90 days. No additional information is available at this time. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers and we will communicate additional information as it becomes available.”

They add that he still plans to tour with them but in the meantime a Go Fund Me page has been set up by his wife, Annie Lobert, as he doesn’t have health insurance.

The page says: “We don’t know how much the brain biopsies will cost, nor what will happen when we get the results back–whether he will need more surgery to remove any tumors or treatment plans for healing.”

Annie Lobert wrote on facebook that “this has messed me up!” but added that she was reminded of 2 Chronicles 20: “Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.”

Lobert appealed to his fans: “So here is what I’m asking all of you to do—believe that God is good—worship with us & pray with us as we head into this battle.

“We trust God no matter what. This is how we fight our battles—it may look like we’re…

Vue Cinemas, which operates almost 90 venues across the UK and Ireland, has settled in full a legal claim brought by the makers of ‘Voices of the Voiceless’.

Dr Mike Davidson, who produced the documentary, said he was “delighted” by the outcome, adding: “Vue Cinemas has recognised that it was wrong to block us from showing the film.

“I hope that in future they won’t fold under pressure from LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] activists who want to suppress the voices of those who want to move away from same-sex attraction and behaviour.”

Dr Davidson had been due to unveil the feature-length documentary in front of 120 people at the Vue Cinema in Piccadilly in February when bosses cancelled his booking one day before the event.

Speaking after media coverage which criticised the premise of the move, Vue bosses claimed the film would be “unlawful”.

Although an alternative venue was found in central London, organisers staged a protest (pictured) and mounted legal action against Vue Cinemas, claiming a breach of contract and seeking compensation for wasted expenses.

It has now emerged lawyers representing the cinema chain last week agreed to settle the claim in full after admitting a breach of contract.

Filmed in eight countries, ‘Voices of the Voiceless’ presents reflections from doctors and theologians, as well…

Italian authorities have revealed three people are still believed to be missing in the twisted remains of the crossing.

Rescue and recovery efforts have continued at the scene of the disaster, which occurred during a torrential downpour when the bridge was busy with people heading away for the summer Ferragosto holiday.

Local pastor, William Jourdan told Premier there could have been even more casualties if the accident didn’t occur in the holiday season.

“For the people belonging to the Church in Italy, it is the major time of holiday so many members of our church are outside of the town and many other people in general are outside of town,” he explained.

“I think that also, one of the reasons why it was possible to avoid a (bigger) tragedy is that if the normal traffic was there, everything could have been worse.”

Italian premier Giuseppe Conte has visited the city and called the collapse of the 51-year-old bridge “a serious wound for Genoa, Liguria and Italy”.

Dozens of cars and other vehicles plunged almost 150ft when a 260ft stretch of road broke off from the 150ft high Morandi Bridge, and the cause is under investigation.

The disaster has focused attention on Italy’s ageing infrastructure, particularly its concrete bridges and viaducts built in the post-war boom of the 1950s and 1960s. There had been proposals to…

The grand jury said it believes the “real number” of abused children might be “in the thousands” since some records were lost and victims were afraid to come forward. The report said more than 300 clergy committed the abuse over a period of decades, beginning in the mid-1950s.

Pennsylvania attorney general Josh Shapiro said the two-year probe found a systematic cover-up by senior church officials in Pennsylvania and at the Vatican.

“The cover-up was sophisticated. And all the while, shockingly, church leadership kept records of the abuse and the cover-up. These documents, from the dioceses’ own ‘Secret Archives,’ formed the backbone of this investigation,” he said.

Significantly, the report faulted Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the former long-time bishop of Pittsburgh who now leads the Washington archdiocese, for what it said was his part in the concealment of clergy sexual abuse.

Mr Wuerl, one of the highest-profile cardinals in the United States, released a statement on Tuesday that said he had “acted with diligence, with concern for the victims and to prevent future acts of abuse”.

The grand jury scrutinised abuse allegations in dioceses that minister to more than half the state’s 3.2 million Catholics. Its report echoed the findings of many earlier church investigations around the country in its description of widespread sexual abuse by clergy and church officials’…

Colm O’Gorman said: “It is staggering on the part of the Vatican, they can’t even be bothered to go through the motions of making it appear that this matters to them.

“It’s become a trope, he goes to a country and has a confidential meeting and releases a statement about how moved he was by victim testimony, expresses sorrow and regret and we move on.

“I’m not sure that meeting would’ve had any value anyway, but the idea that it’s an afterthought, that is utterly unacceptable.”

Mr O’Gorman was repeatedly raped by a local priest in Co Wexford for three years, beginning just a year after Pope John Paul II’s visit to Ireland in 1979, when he was 13.

He said: “When I heard Pope John Paul’s quote: ‘Young people of Ireland, I love you’, it sickened me, he didn’t.

“It’s important that all that has happened here over decades isn’t just swept aside of convenience of the Vatican.

“I respect people’s desire to have faith, I would never deny people their opportunity to profess their faith, but it cannot be at the cost of people all over the country struggling with the hurt and the trauma the church has caused.”

The event, to be held in the Garden of Remembrance on Sunday 26th August at 3pm, invites anyone who has been hurt by the church, and those who support them, to attend.

“The response I have had has been extraordinary, so many…