A leading columnist has accused the Irish media for being “completely corrupt” on the issue of child abuse. Speaking on Newstalk, Irish Times and Mail on Sunday columnist John Waters (pictured) said that the coverage of Senator David Norris’ request for clemency in respect of for his former partner who was convicted of the statutory...
One of the most powerful secular groups in the US, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), has filed a brief against Catholic adoption agencies in the US state of Illinois. The group object to the policy of Catholic Charities, which administers Catholic adoption services in Illinois, of refusing to place children with same-sex couples. Catholic...
U.N. policies on youth should respect parents’ right to educate their children, including in the realm of human sexuality and “reproductive health,” the Vatican has said. Speaking last week at the UN General Assembly’s High Level Meeting on Youth, Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, the permanent observer of the Holy See at the United Nations, said that...
New official figures from the UK show that the number of children being adopted in England and Wales has fallen to its lowest level on record. Last year, 4,472 adoptions were recorded in England and Wales, a decline of 4.1 per cent since 2009, the Office for National Statistics said. The figures showed most of...
A San Francisco judge has ruled that a proposal to ban circumcision, which would have been voted on by citizens later this year must be withdrawn. In a ruling yesterday, Judge Loretta Giorgi found that the measure, which has drawn fierce opposition from the city’s Jewish population would violate a California law that makes regulating...
A Fine Gael senator has called for the postponement of the International Eucharistic Congress, set to be held in Ireland next year, in the wake of the publication of the Cloyne report. The Congress is set to be one of the biggest events held by the Catholic Church in recent times. It was suggested that...
A US atheist group has sought the removal of a cross found amid the wreckage after the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in 2001 from the 9/11 memorial in New York. The group, American Atheist, filed a lawsuit seeking a court order to remove a cross-shaped steel beam, found by a construction worker after...
The European Court of Human Rights has awarded €32,000 to an Irish father because the Hungarian state failed to enforce the return of his child France, where they lived, following the parents’ divorce. Leslie Shaw and his ex-wife had joint custody of their daughter, who was taken to Hungary by her Hungarian mother in December...
The leading medical defence group in the UK has said that GPs are free to pray with their patients as long as they are receptive to the offer. New guidance from the Medical Defence Union’s quotes a senior figure at the General Medical Council (GMC), which regulates the medical profession in the UK, saying that...
The Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn, is set to put forward proposals to limit the power of schools to set their own admissions policies, according to a report in the Irish Times. According to the report, a discussion paper formulated by the Minister suggests that schools will no longer be able to use “siblings policies”,...
