Irish people believe the Catholic Church will decline further over the next decade, and so will marriage. These are just two of the findings of a newly released survey of Irish attitudes. The ‘Future of Ireland’ study was undertaken by the OMD media agency with the backing of Ulster Bank and was based on conversations...
The pace of divestment of patronage of Catholic schools has been described as “disappointing” by the former chair of the Forum of Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary sector. Speaking to The Irish Times newspaper, Professor John Coolahan, whose report to Government in 2012 set in train efforts to shift some religious schools to alternative...
The dismissal of a Church of England cleric from a preaching position following his marriage to his same-sex partner has been upheld by an employment tribunal in Britain. According to The Daily Telegraph, the Rev Canon Jeremy Pemberton, a hospital chaplain in Lincolnshire took a case for discrimination when his licence to preach in the Diocese...
Bishop Brendan Leahy has defended the right of denominational schools to choose their ethos. Responding to plans by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) to introduce a new Beliefs and Religions subject at primary level which has the potential to negatively affect the daily 30 minutes of teaching time afforded to faith formation...
Voters in the US city of Houston, Texas have repealed a local ordinance which offered transgendered people the right to use toilet and changing facilities of their self-identified sex. According to Lifesite News, the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) was struck down by 63% of voters who agreed that the law adversely affected the privacy of...
Women in Britain are deferring motherhood as they pursue the desire to own a home first, a new survey has revealed. According to the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), which has unveiled its findings in ‘Becoming a Mother – Understanding women’s choices today’, rather than the commonly held belief that women are today putting careers...
Time allotted to faith formation in Catholic primary schools could be slashed under new Religious Education plans unveiled by the Government, The Irish Independent reports. The Education about Religion, Beliefs and Ethics (ERBE) subject is being proposed by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) as an additional component of the school day to introduce...
Amnesty International in Ireland has been criticised for urging the repeal of the country’s Constitutional protection for the unborn. Quoted by The Catholic Herald as he responded to a new campaign ad from Amnesty to ‘Repeal the 8th’, Lord Alton told the House of Lords that the campaign was “simply disingenuous”. “Their publicity makes it...
A fifth attempt to introduce same-sex marriage to Northern Ireland has failed after a majority vote in favour was blocked by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). For the first time since Members of the Liberal Assembly (MLA) began repeated drives to legislate on marriage redefinition so as to bring the North into line with both...
There is a “growing scientific consensus” that the family structure based on marriage is best for both children and parents. In a piece penned for the US-based National Review, W. Brad Wilcox, a sociologist at the University of Virginia pointed to a host of studies, including three recent research projects, which clearly demonstrated that, “despite...
