A second challenge to Ireland’s abortion law has been filed with the UN’s Human Rights Committee by The Center for Reproductive Rights, an advocacy group that favours abortion-on-demand. The Center is making the case on behalf of Siobhan Whelan, who travelled to the UK for an abortion when she discovered that her baby had a...
“Support for marriage and family life is central to what the Church teaches and lives… The gift from God of the family, based on the love of wife and husband and open to life, is a gift that the Church seeks to protect and cherish”, the Irish Catholic bishops have said in a statement ahead...
The divorce rate in the US may have been increasing over the last 40 years, rather than slowly declining as previously thought, according to a new report from the University of Minnesota. The report, authored by Sheela Kennedy and Steven Ruggles, argues that previous metrics used to estimate the divorce rate were flawed, and tended...
Four new Educate Together primary schools are to open in Ireland, with three set to move into buildings left empty after Catholic schools amalgamated, and one taking over a divested Church of Ireland school. According to RTE, Minister for Education Ruari Quinn announced today that schools under the patronage of Educate Together will open in...
There will be no new exemptions for conscientious objection or religious freedom if the same-sex marriage referendum is passed next year, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has said in response to a parliamentary question. Only religious ministers will be protected from having to officiate at same-sex marriage ceremonies as previously announced. In response to the...
The so-called “Millennial Generation” meaning 18-to-33-year-olds, are are less likely to be married, to self-identify as religious, or to affiliate with a political party than the generations before them, according to a new US poll from the Pew Forum. They also have much lower levels of social trust, and are more likely to have high...
Irish women and men work very similar hours when the amount of paid and unpaid work they do each day is added together, a new OECD survey reveals. But they split their work in different ways, with men doing more paid labour and women more unpaid house work. According to the study, the average Irish...
A widow in the UK has won a High Court battle allowing her to keep her husband’s frozen sperm with a view to being impregnated with the sperm later. Beth Warren’s husband Warren Brewer, a ski instructor, died from a brain tumour two years ago, but signed paperwork before starting cancer treatment saying that his...
A senior Vatican official has strongly defended religious freedom at a conference on in Slovakia. He also criticised Uganda’s new law outlawing homosexual acts. On the subject of religious freedom, Cardinal Peter Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace said: “It is important to preserve and defend religious freedom because it concerns...
The Slovakian parliament is likely to pass a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a man and a woman, after the ruling Social Democratic party (Smer) agreed to support the move in parliament. A constitutional amendment can be passed by parliament if it has the support of 75 percent or more of parliamentarians. According to i24...
