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Parents angry at shortage of places at local Catholic schools
~The Department of Education is refusing to meet a demand by parents for extra places in a Catholic school in the Co. Meath town of Ashbourne. Instead, it is insisting that the parents send their children to a new Educate Together school which does not teach denominational-specific education during school hours. The parents do not want to send their children to the Educate Together school. In the Ashbourne area there are approximately 260 baptisms annually but only 150 places in the local Catholic schools at junior infant level. Read more...
Children could be better off with three parents not two says academic
~Children might be better off having three legal parents rather than just one or two, an academic has argued. In an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics, Daniela Cutas, of the University of Gothenberg suggested that “the necessity of the max-two parents framework” needed to be challenged. Cutas argued that while there may be drawbacks to families with more than two parents, the benefits could be significant. Read more...
Thirty thousand child protection cases a year in Ireland
~There are 30,000 child protection cases every year and of these 1,500 involve children who are the victims of sexual, physical or emotional abuse, the Minister for Children, Frances Fitzgerald (pictured) has revealed. The minister was speaking at the Fine Gael ardfheis at the weekend. Her comments come after it emerged that a report into the deaths of a number of children in care is set to reveal serious and sustained failures by the State to properly protect 115 vulnerable children. The report is set to be released in the next number of weeks. Read more...
Hospital acknowledges right of nurse not to perform abortions
~A Catholic nurse in the UK who was threatened with being fired because she refused to work on an abortion ward has won her case without having to go to court. The nurse, who does not wish to be named, managed to persuade her employers that her right to refuse to carry out, or assist in, abortions was protected under the 1967 Act which liberalised the abortion law in the UK, according to The Daily Telegraph. Read more...
Doctor fired after sending a prayer to colleagues
~A Christian doctor in the UK who was disciplined and eventually fired for emailing a prayer to colleagues in a bid to raise their spirits is suing the hospital that sacked him. Dr David Drew, 64, said that he was made to feel like a “religious maniac” after sending out a prayer by St Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, to motivate his department. He told an employment tribunal that he was subsequently disciplined and ordered to refrain from using religious references in professional communication. Read more...
RTE and bishops at odds over education story
~The head of the Catholic Schools Partnership has strongly denied RTE reports that the Catholic Church and the State had “behind the scenes” talks to organise religious education in new VEC-run multi-denominational primary schools in which children are taught religion in their separate faith groups. Speaking on RTÉ Radio's Drivetime yesterday, Fr Michael Drumm (pictured) said the RTE report which suggested that the Church and the Department of Education had been engaged in secret negotiations to impose a particular type of religious education upon five pilot Community National Schools was “completely at odds of actually what happened.” Read more...
Catholicism remains religion of ninety percent of Irish nationals
~Catholicism remains the overwhelming majority religion in Ireland, Census 2011 shows. The number of Catholics has risen by nearly 180,000 people since 2006, according to the figures. Overall, there are now 3,861,335 Catholics in Ireland, an increase of 179,889, or 4.9 per cent since the last Census in 2006. Among Irish nationals, Catholicism retains an even bigger percentage. Just under ninety percent of Irish nationals identify as Catholics. Read more...
Census shows almost 250,000 Irish adults have experienced marital breakdown
~The number of Irish people who have experienced divorce has increased 150 percent since 2002, according to Census 2011. Combining separation, divorce and remarriage following divorce, the overall number of Irish people who have experienced a broken marriage has jumped from 155,239 in 2002, to 247,000 last year, an increase of just under 60 percent in that time period. The Census, published today, showed that there had been a 150 per cent increase in the number of divorced people in the last nine years. Read more...
Bad parenting and absent fathers key cause of UK riots says report
~Bad parenting and absent fathers were a key factor involved in the riots which swept London and the UK last year, according to people questioned from the areas affected by the riots. The report is entitled the Riots, Communities and Victims Panel report and highlights the absence of fathers from the lives of many of the rioters. According to The Daily Telegraph, the report cities earlier research that showed children without positive engagement with their father and wider family were more likely to perform poorly at school, use drugs, go to prison and develop behavioural problems. Read more...
Slovenians vote in favour of traditional family
~Slovenian voters have affirmed the importance of man/woman marriage and motherhood and fatherhood in a national referendum last Sunday. Results from the vote, showed that 55.1 percent of voters rejected a proposed new family code which opponents say diminished the importance of motherhood and fatherhood, while 44.9 percent backed it. Aleš Primc, head of the Civil Initiative, which proposed the referendum said that the vote demonstrated that the people of Slovenia “expressed their belief that motherhood and fatherhood are both unique and represent a fundamental value; for the good of a child". Read more...
Church of Ireland warns of threat to its schools
~The Government's treatment of Protestant schools is “a test case of the nation’s commitment to its citizens who are members of a religious minority”, Church of Ireland bishops have warned. They also warned that the Government's proposed Education Bill, which would remove of the right of patrons to determine who teaches in their schools “could result, for example, in having one teacher schools where the single staff member could not be assumed to be sympathetic to the characteristic spirit of the school”. Read more...
Close family ties promote civic virtues says study
~Having close family ties creates individuals with “stronger civic virtues” who are less likely to lie and cheat, suggests new research. Those from loving families were more likely to disapprove of fraudulent behaviour and “lying in your own interest”, the study, which looked at a wide range of social groups, showed. The data contradicted previous research which suggests the more a person is attached to his or her family the less likely they are to be concerned with “tolerance and justice” outside of their immediate group, the Daily Telegraph reports. Read more...
College religious groups lose right not to be headed by atheists
~An appeal by two religious groups at San Diego State University who sought to limit their membership and leadership to those who share their beliefs has been refused by the US Supreme Court. The university told the groups that they must allow themselves in theory to be headed by atheists or else they would be guilty of discrimination. In a one-sentence order with no comment, the court declined to hear the case. Read more...
Catholic schools must be allowed to maintain their identity, Archbishop says
~The distinctive identity of Catholic schools must be allowed to thrive, or they will lose the ability to maintain their identity, Dr Diarmuid Martin, the Archbishop of Dublin (pictured), has said. Dr Martin noted that the Catholic schools system “was one that was marked in its overall openness to children of different cultural and religious backgrounds” But he added: “There are limits to its ability to integrate and still maintain its Catholic identity." Read more...
Children’s rights referendum later this year still the aim
~The Government has reiterated its committment to holding a referendum on children's rights this year. Speaking yesterday in the Dáil, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Frances Fitzgerald (pictured) said that the referendum was a Government priority. In response to a question from Fianna Fáil's Charlie McConalogue, she pointed out that the Government had decided recently to hold a stand-alone referendum on the issue “to allow for a full debate on the issue and in order that the people clearly understand the proposition”. Read more...
Conscience rights of health-care providers ‘under attack’
~The freedom of conscience of health care providers in Australia is threatened by aggressive secularism, the archbishop of Melbourne has said. Archbishop Denis Hart, preaching at Mass to open the clinical year at Melbourne's St Vincent's Hospital, warned that an increasing number of Australians were beginning to believe that a person's right to any form of medical intervention, including abortion, took precedence over the conscience of the professional from whom the care was expected. Read more...
Reports on child deaths in State care out soon
~Serious and sustained failures by the State to properly protect 115 vulnerable children in its care are set to be revealed in an independent report into the deaths of children in care over 10 years, The Irish Times reports. The report is to be published in the next few weeks, and comes after a series of damning revelations into how the Health Service Executive handles child protection issues. The last few years have seen a number of reports highlighting failures in such cases. Read more...
Grandparent care often better than nursery care says study
~Young children cared for by their grandparents frequently develop better than those looked after in nurseries, a study has found. Children’s vocabulary and emotional security can be markedly improved by more time spent in a loving family environment, it found. And the study concluded that while more formal environments such as a nurseries may prepare children better for school, even this advantage was not especially significant in the long term, the Daily Telegraph reports. Read more...
Anti-Christian prejudice harming faith-based charity groups
~Anti-Christian prejudice is placing unnecessary obstacles in the path of religious groups who are doing vital work in the community according to new studies. Research into the involvement of faith groups in social and charity work says that “inaccurate and out-of-date assumptions” is still hindering the work of such groups, the Daily Telegraph reports. The studies suggest that faith groups are finding it harder than others to access government money, with civil servants wrongly assuming a faith organisation will put pressure on people they help to convert. Read more...
New report outlines intolerance against Christians
~Christians are the victims in 85pc of ‘hate crimes’ in Europe according to a new report published yesterday. The report, published by the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe, a European body established to record instances of anti-Christian bias, provides a series of examples of attacks on Christians in 2011. Launching the report, Dr Gudrun Kugler, the director of the Observatory, referred to research showing that “85pc of hate crimes in Europe are directed against Christians”. Read more...
Religious leaders join forces against redefinition of marriage
~A senior Sikh leader and a senior Jewish rabbi have both spoken out against redefining marriage as opposition continues to mount against the Government. Lord Singh and Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet voiced their concern as it emerged from the Government's consultation document that the words "husband and wife" are to be removed from some official forms under plans to legalise same-sex marriage. Lord Singh, the head of the Network of Sikh Organisations, said that the Government's proposals would provide “no real gain because the law rightly gives every respect to a civil partnership”. Read more...
Majority of Americans oppose Obama's insurance mandate, poll shows
~A clear majority of Americans oppose the Obama Administration's mandate which requires Church-run institutions to provide health insurance to their employees which covers abortifacient drugs, according to a new poll. A survey commissioned by the New York Times and US TV network CBS finds Americans strongly oppose the new Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate and favour a broad exemption for religious groups and employers who do not want to pay for birth control drugs or drugs that may cause abortions. Read more...
Redefining marriage ‘will lead to accusations of hate crimes’
~Redefining marriage could lead to people who believe in traditional marriage being accused of ‘hate crimes’, UKIP’s openly gay London Regional Chairman has warned. David Coburn, who is also a London Assembly candidate, also said that rewriting the definition of marriage would represent an “unnecessary victory roll” by homosexuals. Writing on a homosexual news website Mr Coburn said that UKIP “thoroughly supports equal rights for same sex civil partnerships”. Read more...
Two married parents best for children says Minister
~Two married parents are the best way to bring up children, a new British Government document has said. Work and pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith (pictured) said policy had "cloaked neglect of the family under the veil of neutrality". Mr Duncan Smith promised Government funds to ensure troubled households get more support, rather than "shrugging our shoulders". Read more...
Laws favouring opposite sex couples in adoptions not discrimination, Euro court rules
~French legislation which favours opposite-sex couples in regard to both adoption and access to certain Assisted Human Reproduction (AHR) techniques are not in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled. In the case of GAS et DUBOIS c. France (Requête no 25951/07), the court held, by six votes to one, that there had been no violation of the Convention by the limitation of artificial insemination to heterosexual couples and by the French refusal to allow a woman to adopt her same-sex partner’s child. Read more...
Legislation could "undermine" denominational schools, Oireachtas committee hears
~Proposed Government legislation on education could undermine partnership between denominational patrons of schools and the Department, according to senior figures from the Catholic Church. A delegation from the Catholic Church's Council for Education appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Jobs, Social Protection and Education yesterday. Bishop Brendan Kelly, Chair of the Council for Education, warned that the proposed Education Bill rebalanced the relationships between the Department and patrons “too strongly in favour of the Minister and the Department”. Read more...
Denominational schools have right to a clear identity conference hears
~The right of denominational schools to have a clear identity and ethos was strongly defended at a conference on denominational education organised by The Iona Institute today. Proposals to amend rules which allow denominational schools to permeate the day with their own ethos would “undermine the characteristic spirit” of such schools, Fr Michael Drumm, the Chairman of the Catholic Schools Partnership told the conference. Read more...
Cameron supports right to wear crosses at work
~Prime Minister David Cameron (pictured) has signalled that he supports the right of Christians to wear crosses at work, despite the fact that his Government will argue against this very right before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). On Monday a spokesman for Mr Cameron said: “The PM’s personal view is that people should be able to wear crosses,” said the spokesman. “Our view is that the Equality Act as it stands should allow people to express their views in this kind of way.” Read more...
Church of Ireland reaffirms belief in man/woman marriage
~Marriage is the union of one man and one woman, and this definition “remains constant,” the two senior figures in the Church of Ireland have said in a joint statement following a conference which discussed homosexuality. The Archbishop of Armagh, Alan Harper and the Archbishop of Dublin, Michael Jackson (pictured), in a letter on the issue of ‘Human Sexuality in the context of Christian Belief' said at the weekend that “the Church seeks to witness to society – with humility – rather than simply reflect current popular opinion”. Read more...
College drops material criticising atheism
~An independent online teacher-training institution has been pressured into removing material criticising atheism from its religion course for primary teachers. Atheist Ireland objected to a religion module being used by Hibernia College, which contained some remarks which said that atheist humanism “produced the worst horrors history has ever witnessed” and that atheism was “not a benign force in history”. Read more...
Ireland to defend schools against accusation of religious bias
~Ireland will defend our education system against accusations that it is guilty of de facto religious when a Government delegation appears before the UN Human Rights Council next week. However, the Government has partially accepted a recommendation to amend legislation which allows denominational schools to protect their ethos through their hiring policies. In a report to be presented to the Council, the State will say there is a growing non-denominational school sector in Ireland which caters for all pupils, according to a report in the Irish Times. Read more...
Big majority of Britons don’t believe same-sex marriage is a priority
~Over three quarters of British people believe that introducing new laws permitting same-sex marriage should not be a priority of the Government, according to a new poll. In an ICM survey for The Sunday Telegraph, voters said that such legislation should not be fast tracked while other issues such as the economy and public-service reform are competing for parliamentary time. The poll also showed that the public are split on the merits of the proposal itself. Read more...
Alberta schools banned from teaching traditional sexual morality
~Religious parents from the Canadian province of Alberta say they are gravely concerned about new legislation which a government spokesperson has said would ban schools from teaching aspects of traditional sexual morality as part of their curriculum. A spokesperson for the province's Education Minister, Thomas Lukaszuk, told news website LifeSiteNews last week that faith-based schools and homeschooling families would not be able to teach that homosexual behaviour is a sin as part of their courses. Read more...
New Hampshire exempts Churches from abortifacient requirement
~Religious institutions have been exempted from having to provide health insurance plans which include abortion inducing drugs and contraception by the lower house of the New Hampshire legislature. The vote was the latest in a national effort against President Obama's healthcare mandate which require all insurance plans, even those sponsored by religious institutions, to provide coverage for abortofacients and other contraception. The bill now goes to the state Senate, which, like the House, is controlled by Republicans. Read more...
Many Irish children have emotional problems says study
~Between 15pc and 20pc of nine-year-olds are growing up with “significant levels of emotional or behaviour problems” according to a major Government-funded study of children's wellbeing. The study, Growing Up in Ireland, also found that children in single-parent households, as well as those in more economically disadvantaged families, “displayed higher levels of social and emotional problems”. It said: “Coming from a lower socio-economic background or single-parent family may increase a child’s risk for poorer social and emotional outcomes. Read more...
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