UNLIKE the 'old guard' of Sinn Féin, the current leadership would appear to have a more strained relationship with the Catholic Church.
Former leaders - including former President Gerry Adams and the late Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness - were both regular Massgoers and church attendees.
Speaking in 2015, two years before his death, Mr McGuinness confirmed his strong Catholic faith in an interview with UK Christian radio station Premier, telling listeners: "I would describe myself as a practising Catholic."
He continued: "I also am influenced by Jesus Christ, he was someone who, if the history books are as accurate as people claim them to be, was someone who was very special. I'm prepared to accept he was the Son of God."
Mr Adams meanwhile, opened up about his faith in a 2009 interview with the late RTÉ presenter gay Byrne. The former West Belfast MP admitted that he didn't attend confession, but confirmed he was a regular Massgoer.
"I still attend Mass. I suppose it's a matter of faith," he said.
The current party president, Dubliner Mary Lou McDonald, told The Irish News in 2018 that she was a practising Catholic, who had raised her three children in the Catholic faith.
However the Sinn Féin leader has had to defend how she could reconcile her religious beliefs and her efforts to modernise Ireland's abortion laws.
"I believe in the separation of Church and state, and I believe that the law has to serve and accommodate everybody and protect everybody, so I don't want Catholic laws," she said.
There have been more recent strains due in part to Sinn Féin's support for abortion legislation.
In one case it led to a priest cancelling a planned Sinn Féin meeting at a church hall in Coalisland, Co Tyrone in January.
Fr Eugene O'Neill said of his decision: "In light of their recent behaviour regarding the abortion debate...I would not entertain the use of church property for any such meeting."
Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill has been openly critical of the Catholic Church. Ahead of the Pope's 2018 Dublin visit, she said: "We must specifically acknowledge the damage done...to the lives of many women and children in the mother and baby homes, the Magdalene laundries and a succession of abuse scandals and cover-ups."
