Claims by the Government that child protection is a top priority are “a load of rubbish”, a leading expert in the area has said. Dr Helen Buckley of The Children’s Research Centre in Trinity College Dublin, one of the authors of a report into clerical child abuse in the Ferns diocese made the remarks in...
A new ad hoc Committee for Religious Liberty has been set up by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) amidst growing concerns over the erosion of freedom of religion in America. The news comes in the wake of moves by the Obama Administration to require insurance companies to fund contraceptive services, including sterilisation...
The Constitution has proved “capable of guaranteeing rights and curbing power – including the power of the State”, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin (pictured) has said. In his homily for the annual Red Mass, which is held at the commencement of the year for the Irish courts, Archbishop Martin noted that the Constitution was “sometimes presented just...
An appeal against German laws which forbids parents from taking their children out of sex education classes has been dismissed by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) as “manifestly ill-founded”. Five German couples had appealed to the ECHR after they had been jailed for refusing to pay fines for removing their children from sex...
New guidelines set to be imposed by the Obama Administration requiring all US insurance programmes to cover all forms of contraception — including abortion-inducing drugs have been condemned by the chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo. Cardinal DiNardo has said that the religious employer exemption set...
People who marry are significantly less likely to engage in crime, because marriage enables them to develop greater self-control, according to a new study. The research examined changes in marital status and self-control between late adolescence and early adulthood. One factor it looked at in measuring levels of self-control was marijuana use. It found that...
An atheist writer condemned the “current fashion” for anti-Catholicism before an audience of over 150 people at a meeting last night organised by The Iona Institute. Brendan O’Neill, who is editor on the UK-based on-line magazine Spiked, said the driving forces behind the rise of anti-Catholicism were the emergence of the ‘New Atheism’, the scandals,...
Parents have a right to choose denominational schools and that right needs to be guaranteed by the State, Independent Senator Ronan Mullen (pictured) has said in the Seanad just days before Ireland appears before the UN Human Rights Council. Fianna Fail’s Jim Walsh reminded that Seanad that some of the UN treaties to which we...
A draft document on the family prepared by a committee of the Council of Europe downgrades the importance of both marriage and biological parenthood. The document allows member-states of the Council of Europe, including Ireland, to define anyone as a parent legally speaking. It gives no special status or recognition to the biological parents of...
Primary schools in the UK are being forced by some local authorities to teach sex education, leading family charity, the Family Education Trust, has claimed in a new report. Education bodies in parts of the country are using an awards scheme called Healthy Schools introduced by Tony Blair, designed to promote healthy behaviour in schools,...
