The emotional well-being of parents is strongly linked to the successes and failures of their children – especially their least happy children-even after their children are grown up, according to a new study. Researchers had assumed that having successful children would completely mitigate the effects of problem children. Surprisingly, however, they found that mothers and...
A teacher in the US state of Florida who was suspended for making comments on his personal Facebook page expressing opposition to same-sex marriage has been reinstated. Social studies teacher Jerry Buell, who was voted Teacher of the Year by pupils at Mount Dora High School last year, has said he plans to use his...
Only marriages which are faithful and open to the gift of life are “adequate to the grandeur and dignity of marital love,” the Pope told young people at last weekend’s World Youth Day in Madrid. Speaking to one and a half million people from all over the world, Pope Benedict said that God “many people...
A sex education kit for primary school aged children which includes models of male and female sex organs has sparked a storm of controversy in Switzerland. Daniel Schneider, a deputy kindergarten rector for Basel who helped develop the programme, said: “Children should be encouraged to develop and experience their sexuality in a pleasurable way”. The...
Mothers and fathers who are committed to each other provide the best environment in which to raise children, one of the country’s leading clinical psychologists has said. Speaking on RTE Radio’s Marion Finucane show on Saturday, Marie Murray said that the ideal circumstance for raising children was “a mother and father, committed to each other,...
Happily married people who undergo major heart surgery are three times more likely to survive than those who are unmarried, according to a new study. In addition, while women only enjoy the additional health benefit if they and their husband are happy together, men gained most of the benefit regardless. Single women and unhappily married...
Children raised by cohabiting parents are at a greater risk of suffering psychological stress, physical abuse and of causing trouble at school, according to a new study. The report, Why Marriage Matters, 3rd edition, published by the National Marriage Project in the US, says that cohabitation is now a bigger problem for children than divorce....
The US state of Illinois has been given the right to stop funding Catholic adoption agencies in four dioceses after a ruling by a Circuit Court judge. Catholic Charities, the umbrella group running the adoption services, had argued that the state did not have the right to terminate their contracts, as the reason for the...
Reforms aimed at making it harder for couples to obtain divorces in the US are being touted as part of the solution to runaway government spending. According to figures from the University of Virginia’s National Marriage Project, a new single-parent family with children, created as a result of divorce, can cost the government $20,000 to...
Former Fianna Fáil TD Mary O’Rourke has criticised the Government for its relative silence on the child protection failures of the HSE. Speaking yesterday at the Merriman School, Ms O’Rourke noted that the Taoiseach had gotten “great kudos” for his speech condemning the Church over its failures in handling clerical sexual abuse of children. “Rhetoric...
