The recommendations of the Forum on primary schools “caused serious concern among those involved in denominational schools”, the Catholic hierarchy has said in a statement. The hierarchy’s Council of Education was responding yesterday after Education Minister Ruairi Quinn (pictured) revealed details of how the State will survey parents as to the kind of schools they...
Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe are being urged to sign a petition condemning surrogacy as a violation of the fundamental rights of women and children. There are currently three cases on the issue of surrogacy pending before the European Court of Human Rights, an institution of the Council of Europe....
Almost 30,000 reports of suspected abuse, neglect of children as well as general welfare concerns were reported in 2010 to social services, according to a new official report. The findings are in the Health Service Executive’s Review of Adequacy of Child and Family Services for 2010 and 2009. The number of cases reported increased a...
A “sexual health strategy” is set to be put before the Government by the end of 2012, Minister of State for Health Róisín Shortall has said. Speaking at the launch of a campaign by Dublin Aids Alliance to encourage young people to carry condoms, Ms Shortall said: “The Department of Health have set up a...
The refusal by a divorced mother to give her former husband access to their children could lead to her being banned from travelling abroad, driving or even leaving her home in the evening, under plans announced by the UK government. The proposals are part of a series of changes to the law aimed at establishing...
Catholic schools could become unwitting agents of secularism unless teachers, parents and school authorities take heed of the report of the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism, a leading expert in Catholic education has warned. He said the recommendations did not give proper recognition to the positive role of religion in society. The report, published earlier...
Christians “have both a right, and an obligation, to bring their faith to bear in their engagement in politics,” former Taoiseach John Bruton (pictured) has told the International Eucharistic Congress. Speaking last night in the RDS on the topic of Christianity in politics, Mr Bruton said that he believed that a “separationist “ view aimed...
A father’s love is at least as important, and sometimes more important, to a child’s emotional development as a mother’s, a large-scale study has confirmed. And the belief that children only need the love of their mothers is “fundamentally wrong”, Professor Ronald Rohner, the study’s lead author, says. Norman Wells, of the Family Education Trust,...
The Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, has reiterated that priests will be compelled to break the Seal of Confession if they hear any information about child abuse. Speaking in the Seanad on Tuesday in a debate about the Government’s Children First legislation, which will make it a crime not to report information about child abuse,...
Churches in the UK could be forced to celebrate same-sex marriages, despite repeated promises by Prime Minister David Cameron (pictured) to exempt them. Both the Church of England and Roman Catholic Church have already voiced fears that the Government’s pledge would not withstand a challenge in Parliament or the courts. In its official response to...
