A couple from Dundee in Scotland face having their children put up for adoption after social services ruled they had not lost enough weight, according to a report in The Daily Telegraph. If Dundee City Council acts on its threat to remove their children, the mother and father face the “unbearable” prospect of never seeing...
The number of Americans getting married is at an all-time low, while those who do marry are waiting longer to marry for the first time, according to US Census Bureau figures. Just 52 per cent of adults 18 and over were married in 2010, compared to 57 per cent in 2000, according to the U.S....
Students who attend US Catholic schools are less likely to go to church but more likely to attend university compared to those who attended ‘Protestant Christian schools’, according to a new survey. The study, carried out by the University of Notre Dame and Cardus, a Canadian think-tank, found that those who attended Protestant Christian schools...
Marital infidelity is no longer the top reason for couples divorcing, with “falling out of love” replacing it, according to a survey of divorce lawyers. The survey found that the most common reason for a marriage to end was couples claiming that they no longer felt in love and had “grown apart”. The research, compiled...
The impact of labour law, equality law, laws on freedom of expression and assembly, and laws related to religious communities and right of conscientious objection must be reassessed “in view of discrimination and intolerance against Christians” in European Countries, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has said in...
Cardinal Sean Brady has been attacked by The Irish Times for expressing misgivings about the Government’s proposals to undermine the seal of confession. In an editorial today, the paper criticised as “unfair and disproportionate” his suggestion that the proposal to require priests to report confessions of child abuse to the civil authorities amounts to an...
A new federal government mandate which will force private health insurers to cover contraception, including abortifacients, has been attacked by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) over its failure to include a conscience clause. In a statement, the legal representatives for the bishops say that the mandate provides virtually no protection for religious...
There are now a record number of children in State care, according to figures from the Health Service Executive. There are 6,175 children in either foster or residential care, The Irish Times reports. In the first six months of the year the number of children in care increased by 385, about three times the number...
Couples who live together before they marry are significantly more likely to end up divorced, according to a new report. The study, produced by the Jubilee Centre in the UK, found that couples who have lived with each other were 15 percent more likely to get divorced than those who didn’t first live together. And...
Proposed Government legislation which threatens the inviolability of the seal of confession is a challenge to the right of every Catholic to freedom of religion and conscience, Cardinal Seán Brady (pictured) has said. Speaking in Knock, Dr Brady, the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland said confession was a sacred and treasured rite....
