Voluntary religious organisations such as pregnancy counselling agencies and adoption agencies should not be forced by the State to act against their ethos, according to Minister of State, Martin Mansergh. Minister Mansergh (pictured) was speaking at Trinity College Chapel on Sunday. He also said that republics such as Ireland are not required by republican ideology...
Supporters of home-schooling have reacted angrily to attempts to link home-schooling with the death by starvation in Birmingham of seven year old Khyra Ishaq. Khrya was imprisoned in her home by her mother and step-father and died of starvation in May 2008. She had been withdrawn from her school the previous December. The school had...
A ten-year UK strategy costing millions of pounds to cut the “shameful” number of teenage pregnancies in Britain has failed to make any serious impact. Labour Ministers accept that they cannot meet Tony Blair’s target, set in 1999, of halving pregnancies among under-18s by 2012. Figures today will show that Britain still has the highest...
All parents, whatever their denominational background, have the right to have their children educated in accordance with their religious convictions, the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, has said. Speaking to the annual conference of the Northern Ireland Catholic Principals’ Association, Cardinal Brady said that this right was “recognised in international...
Independent Senator, Ronan Mullen, has questioned aspects of the proposed children’s rights amendment, especially its reference to ‘children of the State’ and a child’s ‘best interests’. He was speaking yesterday in the Seanad debate on the proposed amendment. Senator Mullen said that the Constitution as it presently stood was already able to deal with abuse...
Attempts by the Labour Party in Scotland to attract religious voters backfired spectacularly this week when the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, condemned the party for an “unrelenting attack on family values” during its time in government. In an stinging rebuke that could significantly damage Labour’s prospects in Scotland at...
A number of Church of England bishops have called for homosexual couples to be allowed to enter civil partnerships in churches. A proposed amendment to the Equality Bill to allow, as distinct from require, civil partnerships to be conducted in religious premises is believed to have gained the backing of some bishops in the House...
The situation whereby parents can obtain the Lone Parent Allowance until their child reaches 22 if the child is in full time education, is “not in the best interests of the recipient, their children or society,” the Minister for Social Welfare, Mary Hanafin, has said. Minister Hanafin was responding to a Dáil question from Fine...
A leading constitutional lawyer has expressed scepticism about the need for a children’s rights referendum. Speaking on the RTE radio programme, This Week, Dr Gerard Hogan, the co-author of a text book on the Constitution, and a prominent barrister, said that the current Constitution acknowledged the rights of children, although it did so in “a...
The Church’s ability to speak out on marriage and the family, sexual morality and on its role in education has been damaged by the impact of the scandals, a leading Irish bishop has acknowledged. In a statement following last week’s meeting of the Irish bishops with Pope Benedict, the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael...
