Couples under 45 without children are more likely to be cohabiting than married according to a new report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) The report also reveals that cohabiting couples are very likely to marry once their first child is born, confirming the link in the public mind between marriage and children....
Christianity gets tougher treatment than other religions, BBC director general Mark Thompson has admitted. He claimed that the reason for the difference in treatment was that Christianity had “pretty broad shoulders”. In an interview about faith and broadcasting for the Free Speech Debate, a research project at Oxford University, Mr Thompson said that producers were...
A man from another EU country who claims to have a female gender identity has entered a civil partnership with a woman in Ireland. The civil partnership is Ireland’s first involving a transgendered person, according to a report in The Irish Times. The man was fully recognised as a woman in his country of origin,...
A federal judge in the US state of Washington has upheld the conscience rights of pharmacists who do not wish to sell abortifacient drugs. Judge Ronald Leighton ruled last week that the requirement for pharmacists to stock and dispense pills that can cause abortions, a requirement imposed by Washington state’s Board of Pharmacy, violated the...
A British politician has revealed he received a death threat and hate mail after speaking out in support of traditional marriage. David Burrowes (pictured), Conservative MP for Enfield Southgate, made the revelation at the launch of Coalition for Marriage (C4M) in London. A number of politicians, lawyers and religious leaders have signed C4M’s petition, supporting...
Catholic parents must have their right to give their children a Catholic education vindicated by the State, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said last night. Such an education can only be guaranteed “by fostering Catholic schools that are truly Catholic and there is an obligation on the State to foster that possibility also,” Dr Martin added. The...
Canadian parents are to be forced to send their children to classes in ‘multi-culturalism’ after the Canadian Supreme Court found that the course did not violate the religious freedom of two Catholic parents. According to Lifesitenews, among the other things taught by the Ethics and Religious Culture (ERC) course is that homosexuality is a normal...
More than half of births to Irish women under 30 occur outside marriage, new figures show. There were just over 6,300 children born to women under 30 in the second quarter of last year, according to the latest Vital Statistics report from the CSO. Of these, just over 3,700, or 57 per cent, were born...
The Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, has published new guidelines for people who have used surrogate mothers abroad to advise them on their legal rights and how to obtain a passport for the child they bring home. The guidelines do not consider such ethical issues as whether surrogacy is inherently exploitative or whether motherhood should...
The Government is set to issue draft guidelines for its proposed “Constitutional Convention” over the next week, The Irish Times has reported. According to the Programme for Government, the Convention is set to look at proposals to legalise same-sex marriage, removing the clause which refers to women in the home and removing the offence of...
