On Friday, the UK House of Commons will vote on a bill by a Labour MP to introduce assisted suicide in England and Wales. Some interesting opposition to it has emerged. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said a whip would not apply and Labour party members could “vote their conscience”, but some important members of...
Persecution of Christians around the world has increased further over the past two years from already high levels, according to a new report from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), published this week in Ireland for the annual ‘Week of Witness’. The problem has worsened not only in individual countries but across continents and...
A major new study shows that unmarried individuals are much more likely to experience depression than those who are married. The study looks at seven different countries, including Ireland. Unmarried people include those who are single, divorced, separated, or widowed. Specifically, the analysis found being unmarried is associated with an overall 86pc higher risk of...
In this week’s US election, citizens voted not only in the presidential and two congressional elections but also in numerous referendums, including several on pro-life issues. In three states, attempts to make abortion laws more liberal were rejected, while seven states passed pro-choice ballot measures. The most significant pro-life victory occurred in Florida, where an...
Sweden is moving to ban marriage between close cousins. Such bans were once common, but oddly enough some have been rescinded as laws around marriage have been liberalised. However, sometimes we discover that certain prohibitions were introduced for good reasons. Traditionally in the West, close cousin marriage has been banned for genetic reasons, but historically...
A recent study by two pro-choice academics provides interesting insights into the GPs who offer abortion services in Ireland. Those GPs, while fully in favour of abortion, nonetheless have reservations about some of what they are seeing, and in particular about women who have had multiple abortions in a relatively short time. Very revealingly, when...
A recent survey has found that, for the first time, atheists in the UK outnumber those who believe in God. Or do they? Because an awful lot depends on exactly what people are asked. The “Explaining Atheism” project is a global research initiative led by Queen’s University Belfast and recently released interim findings appearing to...
On Saturday October 5th, The Iona Institute held its annual youth conference. The theme was ‘Whatever Happened to Tradition?‘, the title of a recent book by historian, writer, and columnist with The Daily Telegraph, Tim Stanley. Tim was the keynote speaker on the day and addressed a packed house on the theme of his book, but...
David Quinn was on RTE’s Today With Claire Byrne on Monday debating the future of religious schools with Aodhan O’ Riordáin of the Labour Party. David argued that the school system must reflect the wishes of parents, including for faith-based schools if that is what they want. Aodhan O’Riordain wants religion removed from schools completely. You can listen to...
A NEW paper from The Iona Institute shows that last year a quarter of all weddings that took place in Ireland were broadly ‘New Age’ in character, while Christian ceremonies accounted for not much more than a third of the total. The paper, by columnist Breda O’Brien, says that the Churches must respond to this...
