The Iona Institute ~ for Religion and Society
Most Recent News Articles
All News Articles
Huge fall in the number of women working in the home
~The number of women engaged in ‘home duties’ has fallen by a massive 30,000 in just one year according to the latest Quarterly National Household Survey from the CSO. The number of women working in the home in the fourth quarter of 2012 stood at 491,000 down from 521,000 in the final quarter of 2011. Read more...
.jpg)
Sex education in schools ‘must be closely monitored’
~The head of the Sexual Health Centre (SHC) in Cork has said that take-up of its sex education programmes by schools in the area is “patchy” and called for the State to rigorously monitor schools on the issue. Deirdre Seery, CEO of the SHC, said the centre was involved in Transition Year and fifth and sixth year programmes in only around 50pc of Cork schools, and the take-up for its junior programmes was “much lower”. Read more...
Supreme Court to hear assisted suicide case
~The Supreme Court is set to hear an appeal against a ruling by the High Court in January which upheld Ireland's ban on assisted suicide. Marie Fleming, who lost the case, argued that the ban infringed her personal autonomy and equality rights under the Constitution and European Convention on Human Rights, the Irish Times reports. Read more...
Australian law on marriage ‘not gender discrimination’ judge rules
~Australian law permitting only opposite-sex marriage does not amount to gender discrimination, a federal court judge in Sydney has ruled. Justice Jayne Jagot said that neither gay men nor women are allowed to marry under the Sex Discrimination Act of 1984 and thus both sexes are treated equally to that extent. Read more...
French fast-food shop forced to close over Valentine’s Day deal
~A French branch of Subway, the fast-food retailer, has been forced to shut after it advertised a Valentine’s Day deal that did not include gay couples. The store, which offered a discounted meal specifically for male/female couples, said it was exercising “freedom of expression,” the Huffington Post reports. Read more...
.jpg)
Experts urge distribution of the ‘morning-after’ pill in schools
~An influential group of NHS experts is urging the Scottish Government to allow the morning-after pill to be handed out in schools. The morning-after pill can act as an abortifacient. However, the demand has faced criticism for being irresponsible and “pours more fuel on the flames”. Read more...
Payment for chaplains attacked by FG councillor
~A Fine Gael county councillor has criticised the HSE for its payments to hospital chaplains. Kieran Dennison, who represents the Mulhuddart Ward of Dublin West, questioned whether the State should be paying chaplains ahead of nursing staff, The Irish Times reports. Read more...
Conspiracy of silence around marriage says leading family lawyer
~A ‘conspiracy of silence’ surrounded the issue of marriage because political leaders were afraid to say married families were better for children than cohabiting families or single parent families, a leading family lawyer has said. Baroness Ruth Deech (pictured) also said marriage is as important to the future of the nation as climate change and poverty, The Daily Telegraph reports. Read more...
.jpg)
Sweden to create new category of ‘pregnant person’
~The Swedish government is to amend a law to replace the term ‘pregnant woman’ with ‘pregnant person’ as a concession to transsexuals. It will mean a pregnant person will no longer be automatically considered to be a woman. Read more...
European Court finds in favour of same-sex couple
~An Austrian law which forbids same-sex couple from adopting children in certain circumstances has been found to be in breach of the European Convention of Human Rights The Austrian law allows a man to adopt his own child when he is in an unmarried partnership with the child’s biological mother, but it does not allow a person in a same-sex relationship to adopt the biological child of their partner. Read more...
Convention votes to amend not delete women-in-the-home provision
~Delegates at the Constitutional Convention have voted overwhelmingly to amend rather than delete Article 41.2 of the Constitution which deals with women in the home. This was in line with the recommendations of submissions from the Iona Institute and Curam, which advocates for carers in the home, both of whom argued for the amendment as against the deletion of the article. Read more...
‘Squeezed’ middle could bear brunt of Child Benefit cuts
~Middle-income families are set to bear the brunt of the Government's proposed changes to Child Benefit, according to an expert report. ‘Squeezed’ middle-income families, not high earners, will suffer "the most significant losses" in relative terms under the proposed changes, the report says, according to The Irish Independent. Read more...
French medical council recommends allowing assisted suicide
~France's medical ethics council has edged the country closer to legalising euthanasia by ruling that assisted suicide should be allowed in certain cases In a statement issued on Thursday, they said that patients who make "persistent and lucid requests" to have their lives ended should be permitted to have access to assisted suicide. Read more...
Remove financial barriers to marriage, says Obama
~President Obama has pledged that his administration will work to remove financial barriers to marriage for low income couples. In his State of the Union address he said that strong families have always been “the source of our progress at home” and “the foundation of our power and influence throughout the world”. Read more...
Government's proposed abortion law unconstitutional, says Bruton
~Legislation along the lines of the X case which allows abortion in the case of suicide would not vindicate the equal right to life of the unborn child and would be unconstitutional, former Taoiseach John Bruton has said. In an article in today's Irish Times, Mr Bruton says that article 40.3.3 “acknowledges an equal right to life of a mother and of her unborn child”. Read more...
Amend, rather than delete constitutional article on women in home, Iona says
~Article 41.2 of the Constitution, which deals with women in the home, should be amended to make it gender-neutral, not deleted, the Iona Institute has said. In a statement, they said that the article, which is set to be discussed at the weekend by the Constitutional Convention, “says something very important, which is that the domestic or private sphere must be protected from the demands of the marketplace and work”. Read more...
Women in the home provision should not be deleted Convention told
~Article 41.2 of the Constitution which protects the role of mothers in the home should not be removed, carers’ organisation Cúram says in its submission to the Constitutional Convention. The Convention is meeting this weekend to discuss Article 41.2. Read more...
Britain becoming more reliant on the Churches for ‘crucial’ needs says Government Minister
~Britain is becoming increasingly reliant on Churches and religious groups to meet “crucial” needs once met by the state, a minister in the UK government has acknowledged. Baroness Warsi (pictured) told a meeting in Westminister that Christians, Muslims, Jews and others have a right to publicly practise their faith insisting that “people who do God do good”. Read more...
First reading of same-sex marriage bill passes in France
~The lower house of the French parliament has approved the first reading of a bill to introduce same-sex marriage. The bill would also legalise same-sex adoption. President Francois Hollande's Socialists have pushed the measure through the National Assembly in a 329-to-229 vote. Read more...
Marriage under growing pressure says Accord
~Marriage in Ireland is under more pressure than ever, new figures produced by the Church's marriage counselling agency Accord reveal. The figures, published yesterday, showed a significant rise in demand by individuals and couples for Accord’s marriage counselling service over the last three years. Read more...
Judge permits recognition of three ‘parents’
~A judge in the US state of Florida has approved an adoption allowing three people — a gay man and a lesbian couple in a same-sex marriage— to be listed on the birth certificate of their 23-month-old daughter. Local Judge Antonio Marin approved a private settlement between the three individuals and the court adoption clerk submitted paperwork for the child’s new birth certificate. Read more...
US bishops say Obama insurance proposals fall short
~The US Catholic bishops have rejected the “compromise” proposed by the Obama Administration regarding its mandate requiring religious groups to place their employees in health insurance schemes covering abortion-inducing drugs, contraception and sterilisation. Read more...
Irish marriage rates fall to EU average
~Irish marriage rates have fallen to the EU average, new figures from the Central Statistics Office show. According to new data on marriage from 2010, Ireland now has a marriage rate of 4.5 per thousand people, which is roughly the same as the EU average of 4.4. This represents a fall from 4.9 in 2009 and from 7.4 in 1973. Read more...
Transfer of Catholic schools hits legal difficulties
~Attempts to transfer the ownership of a former Christian Brothers school building to a new patron in Dublin city have run into legal difficulties, according to RTE. The Department of Education wants the Edmund Rice Schools Trust to relinquish control of the building. Read more...
Surviving the first ten years of marriage is key says study
~Young couples who get through the first 10 years of marriage have the same chance of staying together as their grandparents’ generation, a study of divorce patterns over the last 50 years suggests. The study says that divorce rates for those who have been together more than a decade have remained almost completely unchanged since the 1960s, the Daily Telegraph reports. Read more...
Tory MPs stage biggest ever rebellion over same-sex marriage bill
~Tory MPs have staged the biggest rebellion in party history to vote against their own Government's plans to legalise same-sex marriage. The final tally of vote showed that 134 Conservative MPs voted against the Bill on Tuesday night, with 22 Labour MPs also opposing the Bill. Read more...
Children with divorced parents more likely to perform badly in school, says study
~Children whose parents divorce after they turn seven are more likely to misbehave and perform badly at school, according to a new UK Government-funded study. It also showed that children who are brought up in homes where rules are enforced display strong verbal skills and are more likely to do well in school exams, the Daily Mail reports. Read more...
Obama ‘religious freedom’ health mandate concession rejected
~New Obama administration proposals concerning the Health and Human Services mandate do little to expand religious freedom protections for employers that object to it, a range of campaigners for religious liberty have warned. The mandate requires employers to fund insurance policies which provide abortion-inducing drugs, contraception and sterilisations. Read more...
Dublin Castle conference hears about growing family instability
~Families across Europe are less stable, less likely to be based on marriage and are formed later than in the past, a leading academic has told a conference on the family in Dublin Castle. Professor Juho Härkönen, a sociologist at Stockholm University, told the conference that trends across the European Union meant that families tended to have fewer children and were more likely to experience divorce Read more...
New Archbishop of Canterbury says marriage must remain between a man and a woman
~The new Archbishop of Canterbury has issued a challenge to David Cameron by insisting that marriage should remain “between a man and a woman”. In his first official day as leader of the Church of England, Rt Rev Justin Welby voiced his opposition gay marriage on the eve of the first parliamentary vote on the controversial new law. Read more...
UK doctors permit to help patient seeking assisted suicide overseas
~Doctors in the UK will be permitted for the first time to provide medical records to patients who want to travel abroad for an assisted suicide without being struck off , according to new guidelines. Handing over records to patients who then use them to take their own life is “too distant” from encouraging a suicide to risk their fitness to practise being called into question, the General Medical Council said. Read more...
MPs back Bill protecting conscience rights
~British MPs have backed an amendment to the Equality Act aimed at protecting ‘conscientious beliefs on marriage’, voting 86 to 31 at the first reading of a private member’s Bill. The timing of the vote is highly significant as it comes a week before the second reading of the Government’s Same-Sex Marriage Bill. Read more...
Church must fill void left by declining welfare state says Anglican bishop
~The welfare state cannot go on doing the job it has done for the past 70 years and the Church should take on some of its role, the Archbishop-elect of Canterbury has said. Justin Welby, the Bishop of Durham, said the financial crisis and a series of scandals had “toppled the idols” on which British society had been based. Read more...
Surrogacy case concludes in the High Court
~The genetic parents of twin girls born to a surrogate have rejected the Government's claim that a birth mother should be the only type of mother under Irish law. The married couple with whom the twins live would face substantial legal hurdles and unprecedented litigation if they tried to adopt the young sisters, the High Court was told. Read more...
Bishops handed three month deadline to decide on schools
~Education minister Ruairi Quinn (pictured) has given Irish bishops an interim deadline of just three months to decide on handing over some Catholic schools to other forms of patronage, according to The Irish Catholic. This means parishes in some parts of the country will only have weeks to identify the schools they want to give up. Read more...
Showing 106 - 140 of 1767 Articles | Page 4 of 51
