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Coalition Government ‘will do God’ says Cameron
~Britain is a Christian country and it should go without saying that Christians should have a voice in political debates, Prime Minister David Cameron has said, adding his Government will “do God”. Addressing Church leaders at a Downing Street reception, the Prime Minister said that because “so many political questions are moral questions”, Christianity is already involved in politics. Read more...
Micheal Martin clashes with Government over denominational schools
~The leader of the Opposition, Michéal Martin, has clashed with the Government over faith-schools. Speaking yesterday in the Dáil during Leader's Questions he suggested that Churches would be worried “about the impact of Government policy on their schools”. Read more...
Law to protect right of religious expression in universities passed
~The US state of Arizona has passed a law protecting the right to religious expression of university students. The move comes after a series of cases in which various Christian students and student groups have been sanctioned by a range of colleges. Read more...
Cameron has ‘broken promise’ to support marriage
~David Cameron has reneged on his promise to support marriage and tackle family breakdown, and instead unfairly penalised middle-class parents, a leading UK think-tank has said. Mr Cameron made backing marriage a centrepiece of his stance as the Leader of the Opposition, promising to make Britain “the most family-friendly country in Europe”. Read more...
Nearly half of grandparents child-mind their grandchildren
~Nearly half of Ireland's grandparents – the so-called ‘granny-nanny’ - assist their adult children by providing care to their grandchildren, according to a new study. The Trinity College research shows that 47 pc of grandparents in the over-50 category provide childcare to their grandchildren. Read more...
Average pharmacist selling 2.4 ‘emergency contraceptives’ per week
~A survey carried out by the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) shows that more than two over-the-counter requests are made every week in pharmacies for the Morning-After-Pill (MAP), also called ‘emergency contraception’ . Read more...
Happy parental relationships equal happy children, study says
~Children whose parents have happy relationships with each other do better in life, irrespective of social class or race, according to a new US study. The study, carried out by US think-tank Child Trends, looked at data from the 2007 US National Survey of Children’s Health. Read more...
Sex ed should teach girls to say ‘no’ says MP
~All schoolgirls should be taught “how to say no” to sex as part of a new sex education curriculum, according to a prominent UK Conservative MP. Speaking in the Commons, Nadine Dorries said that society was "saturated in sex". Read more...
Convention on Constitution to begin within weeks
~Environment Minister Phil Hogan (pictured) has said that the Government will set up a Constitutional Convention “in the next few weeks”. The Convention will look at issues such as same-sex marriage, removing the clause on women in the home, and removing the offence of blasphemy from the Constitution. Read more...
Vatican conference hears about threat to religious freedom
~Religious freedom faces a “critical challenge” in today’s society, according to one of the Vatican’s most influential academics. Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon said that, in some jurisdictions with a long tradition of religious freedom, there were growing threats. Read more...
Christian lawyers to step up campaign to defend rights of UK Christians
~Christian lawyers in the UK are promising to step up their campaign against the marginalisation of religion in society as they prepare to fight more than 50 different cases. The Christian Legal Centre (CLC) pledged to stand up against what it feels is the growing problem of traditional Christian views being "silenced" Read more...
European Commission apologises after omitting Christmas from diary
~The European Commission has apologised for printing more than three million school diaries containing no reference to Easter or Christmas, but has rejected calls for the diaries to be recalled. Read more...
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Ireland has one of the highest rates of lone parenthood in the world: report
~Ireland has the one of the highest rates of lone parenthood in the developed world according to a new report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The report, called ‘Doing Better for Families’ highlights family poverty which has a strong link to lone parenthood. Read more...
Motion to reinstate Prop 8 to be heard in June
~A date has been set for the hearing on a motion to nullify the decision to overturn Proposition 8, the state constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2008 in the US state of California that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Read more...
Pro-marriage Hungarian Constitution signed into law
~The Hungarian President Pal Schnitt has signed a new constitution which defines marriage as being exclusively between a man and a woman. The new document also acknowledges the right to life of the unborn child from conception and affirms the role of Christianity in Hungary’s history. Read more...
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Marriage "a good product" says Anglican Archbishop
~A leading Anglican bishop has praised the institution of marriage, and warned of the danger of it being hidden away “for fear of offending or sounding self-righteous”. Writing in the Telegraph yesterday, the Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu, also warned that more and more people seem to be wary of the commitment which marriage requires. Read more...
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Three pro-marriage politicians reelected to Senate
~Three leading pro-marriage Senators have been re-elected to the Senate. Independent NUI Senator Ronan Mullen and Fianna Fáil Senators Jim Walsh and Labhras O Murchu all got back into the Senate. Senator Mullen topped the poll in the NUI panel, with 6459 votes, while Senator Walsh, on the Agricultural panel, and Senator O Murchu on the Cultural and Educational panel, were both comfortably reelected. Read more...
Government to examine Section 37, says Minister
~The Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn has said that the Government will examine Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act, which enables institutions such as schools and hospitals to hire according to the ethos of the religion in question. Read more...
UK Catholic adoption agency loses appeal against new regulations
~An English Catholic adoption agency has had its appeal against new regulations which would require them to place children with same-sex couples. Catholic Care, a charitable group serving three dioceses (Leeds, Middlesbrough, and Hallam), has argued that the rules would require the agency to violate principles of Catholic moral teaching. But the Charity Tribunal dismissed the agency’s argument. Read more...
Limerick leads way in out of wedlock births, new figures show
~Nearly 60 per cent of all births in Limerick city in the third quarter of last year were outside marriage, according to the latest Vital Statistics figures. Nationally, 33.8 per cent of all births were outside marriage, according to the figures, compiled by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). This constituted a rise of 1.4 per cent on the same figure in 2009. Read more...
Compromise reached in Christian palm cross case
~A Christian in the UK threatened with the sack for displaying a small cross in his company van looks set to reach a compromise agreement with his employer. Colin Atkinson has agreed to move the palm cross from the van’s dashboard to the outside of the glove box, and his boss has removed a poster of Che Guevara from his office wall. Read more...
Christianity has made an "enormous contribution" to Britain, says Prime Minister
~The Prime Minister, David Cameron, has spoken of the “enormous contribution Christianity has made” to Britain. In an Easter message, he said that the season “reminds us all to follow our conscience and ask not what we are entitled to, but what we can do for others. It teaches us about charity, compassion, responsibility, and forgiveness”. Read more...
Atheists "intolerant of religion" says Patten
~The new chairman of the BBC has said that many leading atheists are "intolerant" of religion. Lord Patten of Barnes, who headed up the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland minister and is a former Cabinet Minister, said that he felt he was regarded as "peculiar" over his religious faith. Lord Patten is a practicing Catholic. Read more...
Out-of-wedlock births highest in British history, report says
~The rate of out-of-wedlock births in Britain is at its highest point for at least 200 years, according to a major new study of the history of the family from a leading think-tank. Cohabitation levels have also soared from under five per cent pre-1945 to 90 per cent today, according to report by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) published on Monday. Read more...
Boy (10) can have sex change, court rules
~An Australian family court has issued an order to approve a sex change procedure for a 10-year-old boy. The court was told that the boy, known only as Jamie, had been dressed as a girl for the past two years, had been allowed to use the girls’ toilet at school and was “presenting as a very attractive young girl with long, blonde hair.” Read more...
Minister "not doctrinaire" about 50 per cent target on schools
~The Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn (pictured), has said that he is not “doctrinaire or rigid” about his target of transferring 50 per cent of Catholic primary schools to other patrons. His statement came after senior Church figures expressed alarm at the Minister’s suggestion last month that half of its schools would change patrons under his plans. Read more...
Court says Spanish doctor must refer women for abortions
~A Spanish GP who opposes abortion has been refused the status of "conscientious objector" in a landmark ruling in Spain. The unnamed family doctor from a public medical centre in Antequera in southern Spain, who refused give referrals to pregnant women seeking terminations tried to register as a conscience objector, the Daily Telegraph reports. Read more...
Christian electrician faces sack over cross
~An electrician in the UK who has worked at a publicly funded housing association for 15 years is facing the sack because he has a small palm cross in his company van. Colin Atkinson, from Wakefield, has been found in breach of company rules on ‘neutrality’ and faces a disciplinary hearing in May. His case is being run by the Christian Legal Centre. Read more...
Equality tribunal in payout to "transsexual woman"
~The Equality Tribunal has awarded more than €35,000 in compensation to a transsexual for gender discrimination. The worker, whose new identity is Louise Hannon (50, pictured), won the case against former employer First Direct Logistics Ltd yesterday. Read more...
Many US women have children by multiple fathers, study shows
~Nearly a third (28 per cent) of all American women with two or more children have children by more than one man, according to a new study. The report, which is the first nationwide study multiple partner fertility shows that 28 percent of all U.S. women with two or more children looked at data on nearly 4,000 U.S. women who were interviewed more than 20 times over a period of 27 years, as part of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Read more...
US Court strikes down attempt to force state to alter birth cert
~An attempt by two gay men who adopted a child born in Louisiana to force that state to reissue a birth certificate in their name has been struck down by US Appeals court. The two men, Oren Adar and Mickey Smith, jointly adopted a Louisiana-born boy in New York in 2006, and they sought to have the state alter the birth cert to include their names. Louisiana, however, does not recognise unmarried couples as adoptive parents, so they sued the state. Read more...
Bishops to examine "Sunday school" option for some children
~Plans by Ireland’s Catholic bishops may see parents accompanying their children to “Sunday school” at weekends. The classes are set to be proposed for Catholic parents whose children don’t attend church schools but who still want them to get religious instruction, according to an Irish Independent report. T here is no link between the new policy document and the plans to divest Catholic schools to other patron bodies. Read more...
Adoption agency conscience clause fails in Illinois
~A bill sponsored by Democratic state Senator in the US state of Illinois to amend civil union legislation to provide for a conscience clause for faith-based adoption agencies was defeated yesterday. The state’s Senate Executive Committee rejected the bill by a narrow vote, 7 to 6, after homosexual rights groups and the influential secular liberal lobby group the American Civil Liberties Union fiercely opposed the legislation. Read more...
Fall in demand for childminding hours, survey finds
~Childminders are reporting a significant fall in the amount of time that parents want to put their child in daycare, according to a new survery. According to the study, which spoke to childminders across the country, nearly 50pc of parents have reduced the number of hours for which they are seeking childcare in the past year, the Irish Times reports. Read more...
Fertility in EU remains below replacement level, Eurostat confirms
~There has been a slight rise in the overall EU fertility rate, according to the latest report of Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. However, the figures reveal that that the total fertility rate (TFR), remains significantly below the level required to keep the population size constant in the absence of migration flows. Read more...
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