Education reform should stress genuine pluralism over a ‘one size fits all’ model of religious education , Independent NUI Senator Rónán Mullen has said today. Speaking alongside Labour education spokesman Ruairi Quinn TD at the Jesuit Education Boards of Management Conference in Maynooth, Senator Mullen also criticized attempts to link the abuse issue with the...
Critics have attacked as “flawed” a new scheme in which Scottish children as young as eleven receive sex education from 14-year-olds. The Health Buddies pilot project, which is taking place in Dundee, involves pupils as young as 14 teaching younger children about issues such as contraception and puberty in a bid to cut teen pregnancy...
The decision of the three main UK political parties to ban their candidates from signing up to a declaration of their Christian beliefs has been condemned by the Catholic Church in Scotland. Leading Christian leaders, including Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the primate of the Catholic Church in Scotland and the former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey,...
A ruling last week by a federal judge which held that the US National Day of Prayer was unconstitutional, has been attacked by a politicians and legal experts. President Barack Obama supports the national prayer day. U.S. Federal Judge Barbara Crabb ruled in favor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which argued that the government...
The union representing university lecturers, the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) is to discuss a motion to remove compulsory religious courses on teacher education programmes at their annual delegate conference in Dublin this weekend. The motion calls for the abolition of compulsory religious courses for trainee primary school teachers to be replaced with a...
A leading Catholic bishop in the UK has said that Catholics should “think very carefully” before deciding to vote Liberal Deomcrat in next month’s election. He attacked a key election pledge of the Lib Dems, suggesting it would damage the right of parents “to bring up their children according to their consciences”. Bishop Malcolm McMahon,...
A lesbian couple has become the first gay parents in Britain to use a controversial new provision which allows same-sex couples to jointly sign a child’s birth certificate. Natalie Woods and Betty Knowles countersigned the document after the birth of Lily-May Betty Woods. The father is not named. The biological mother is Miss Woods. The...
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, has accused courts in Britain of showing “insensitivity to the interests and needs of the Christian community” and starkly warned that this could lead to “civil unrest” in the future. His comments were made as a relationship counsellor appeals a decision by his employer to sack him after...
A motion calling for the repeal of the admissions policy of religious schools has been unanimously passed at the Labour party conference. Denominational schools are currently allowed to admit pupils on the basis of their religion but the motion describes this as “religious discrimination” and wants it brought to an end. The motion “calls on...
The health spokespersons of both Fine Gael and Labour have questioned the right of a Catholic fertility doctor at Galway Clinic to treat only married couples. According to yesterday’s Dail Mail Fine Gael’s James Reilly (pictured) said he disagreed with the doctor’s stance. He stated: “I would not agree with that [pro-marriage] ethos at all....
