Laws around school admissions should be changed to prevent religious-backed schools from offering priority to children of faith, a Government advisory panel has said. According to The Irish Times, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) has recommended that the law be altered so as to allow unbaptised children and those of minority faiths to...
Christians in the United States vary greatly in their levels of active involvement with their congregations, a new study has revealed. According to the ‘Religious Landscape Study, undertaken by the Pew Research Centre, Christian communities in the country vary greatly in levels of active participation with their congregations, with just 30% of all Christian adults...
The Papal Nuncio to Ireland has urged Catholics to protect religious ethos in schools from the risk of disappearing entirely. Addressing a conference to mark the 50th anniversary of Gravissimum Educationis, the Declaration on Christian Education by the Second Vatican Council, Archbishop Charles Brown warned: “Schools have to be concerned about their Catholic character, and...
A Swedish court has ruled against a midwife who was denied posts because she is unwilling to perform abortions. Ellinor Grimmark first took a case for discrimination in 2014, contending that she had been denied jobs on three separate occasions for her stated objection, on religious grounds, to participating in abortion procedures. Grimmark was supported...
The first same-sex marriage ceremonies are taking place in Ireland today. In anticipation today, numerous gay couples in Dublin, Cork and Galway had registered their intention to marry. Civil partners do not have to give notice of intent to marry. Under the terms of the Act, formulated after Ireland’s referendum on same-sex marriage last May...
Australia’s Anti-Discrimination Commission office is to hear a case against the country’s Catholic Bishops for distributing a booklet supporting traditional marriage. According to The Australian newspaper, the case against the Bishops was launched on foot of a complaint against Archbishop Julian Porteous of Hobart, Tasmania by transgender Martine Delaney. Delaney reported feeling humiliated by the distribution...
A blood test in use in Britain to check for genetic abnormalities in foetuses could be resulting in sex-selective abortions, a government report has warned. According to The Daily Telegraph, government concerns were raised following a review by the Department of Health into the use of Non Invasive Pre-natal Testing (NIPT), which, among other things, can...
Two Irish filmmakers who focused on the case of US abortionist Dr Kermit Gosnell (pictured) have warned against a rush to liberalise abortion in Ireland following their research of the case. Having made Gosnell’s infamous ‘house of horrors’ case the subject of a documentary film and book, Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney admitted, in an article...
A woman in Northern Ireland is taking a legal case over alleged failings to issue concrete guidelines on abortion there. According to The Irish Times, the unnamed woman travelled to England in 2013 to procure a termination of twins suffering foetal abnormalities after doctors treating her at a hospital in Belfast cited uncertainty in the...
Parents who back denominational education for their children must insist that religious ethos is defended, Archbishop Michael Neary has said. Speaking at the launch of two new texts on Religious Education for Catholic schools, the Archbishop of Tuam insisted that “we have Catholic schools because parents want them” and, therefore, “it is parents who must insist...
