Catholic schools must be “robust, unapologetic, and committed to their mission”, the educational office of the Catholic Church in Ireland has said. The Catholic Schools Partnership’s new document Catholic Education at Second-level in the Republic of Ireland: Looking to the Future, has also pointed out that religious and other voluntary secondary schools are under-funded compared...
French Socialist Prime Minister, Manuel Valls has said that surrogate motherhood “is and will be banned in France” because it is “an intolerable commercialisation of human beings and commodification of women’s bodies”. His promise was made as hundreds of thousands of people marched in Paris and Bordeaux last weekend calling on the French government to...
The organisers of the “One of Us” citizens’ initiative are challenging the European Commission’s rejection of the Initiative before the General Court of the European Union. The initiative, which called on the EU to stop financing embryonic stem cell research and other practices that destroy unborn life, garnered over 2 million signatures, but the European...
Third level institutions in Ireland are becoming increasing intolerant of those who “dissent from the prevailing liberal orthodoxy”, a former chaplain of University College Cork has warned. According to The Irish Catholic, Fr David Barrins expressed particular concerns about UCC, saying that “there is a growing intolerance in the Students Union and the student body...
A white woman is suing a Chicago sperm bank after she claims she was mistakenly sent a black man’s sperm, and gave birth to a mixed-race daughter. She claims that while she loves her now 2-year-old daughter, it is extremely difficult for her and her same-sex partner to raise her because of her “limited cultural...
The Chairman of the Catholic Schools Partnership (CSP) has warned that the Catholic Church in Ireland could mount a constitutional challenge to any attempt to strip schools of the right to defend their religious ethos. The Irish Catholic reports that Fr Michael Drumm, a leading figure in recent discussions over religious education, ethos and school...
A new organisation called ‘Mothers and Fathers Matter’ was launched yesterday, with its Chairman saying that its purpose was to draw attention to the anti-child nature of the Children and Family Relationships Bill in its present form. Mothers and Fathers Matter Chairman, Professor Ray Kinsella of UCD, said: “We believe this legislation seriously undermines the...
The Court of Cassation, France’s highest court of civil and criminal law, has ruled that same-sex couples can jointly adopt the biological children of one of the partners, even when they are conceived abroad through sperm donation. France legalised same-sex marriage and adoption last year, but does not allow same-sex couples to make use of...
Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish Prime Minister, has scrapped a planned move to tighten Spain’s abortion laws, abandoning a much-repeated campaign promise. Spain’s Minister for Justice, Alberto Ruiz Gallardon, the proposal’s main proponent, resigned from politics after hearing about Mr Rajoy’s reversal. “I believe it is my duty to resign with humility, recognising that I have...
A state-funded ethics committee which advises the German government on social policy has recommended that laws criminalising incest be scrapped, the Telegraph reports. “Criminal law is not the appropriate means to preserve a social taboo,” the German Ethics Council said in a statement. “The fundamental right of adult siblings to sexual self-determination is to be...
