Three candidates for the Presidency have said that the reference to God in the Presidential Oath of Office in the Constitution should be reviewed. Labour’s Michael D Higgins (pictured), Senator David Norris and Sinn Féin’s candidate Martin McGuinness, speaking on RTE’s Prime Time Presidential debate said that the wording of the oath should be reviewed....
Parents in the UK will be given greater power to protect children from sexually explicit images on the internet, in plans unveiled yesterday. In addition, children will protected from sexually explicit TV and on-street advertising. Four of Britain’s biggest internet service providers, BT, TalkTalk, Sky and Virgin Media, have agreed to make new customers choose...
The growing trend across the Western world of devaluing the importance of biological mothers and fathers has been sharply criticised in an important new report. Entitled ‘One Parent or Five? A Global Look at Today’s New Intentional Families’, the report challenges assumptions that “intentional parenthood”, resulting from surrogacy and sperm or egg donations, is good...
Patronage is not a major issue for parents, and most are not even familiar with the term, according to the head of the Church’s umbrella body for Catholic schools. Speaking yesterday at the launch of a major new report commissioned by the Catholic Schools Partnership (CSP), Fr Michael Drumm (pictured) said that the issue of...
The Government has accepted a recommendation made at a UN meeting last week to make contraceptive information “available and accessible” to “boys, girls and adolescents”. It has also said it will consider changing the constitutional definition of the family and amending Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act which protects the rights of religious employers....
Children raised in intact, married families are more likely to acquire the human and social capital they need to become well-adjusted, productive workers, according to a new report from a leading US think tank. The report, Sustainable Demographic Dividend: What Do Marriage & Fertility Have To Do With The Economy also says that men who...
Catholic education officials are preparing a major “fact-based” study in response to Government plans to significantly reduce the number of Catholic primary schools. It is believed to be the first such research project of its kind on the subject, and will take into account the wishes of parents, according to a report in the Irish...
Ireland was put under pressure yesterday to legalise abortion, change our laws on the family and weaken the protection given to religious employers at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The meeting was part of the UN’s Universal Periodic Review, which is designed to monitor the progress of member states in...
One of the UK’s top Catholic bishops has warned Prime Minister David Cameron (pictured) not to redefine marriage. The Most Rev Peter Smith, the Archbishop of Southwark was responding to Mr Cameron’s speech to his party conference earlier this week in which he said he supported plans to legalise gay marriage. The Prime Minister said...
Ireland has appeared before the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva this morning to have its human rights record reviewed. This is part of the so-called Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The process is designed to monitor the progress of member states in implementing UN human rights treaties. Representing Ireland in Geneva, Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter...
