The Government has approved a legislative proposal to recognise and facilitate what amounts to commercial surrogacy abroad, a practice banned almost everywhere in Europe because it commodifies babies and exploits low-income women. The Government denies it will recognise overseas commercial surrogacy, but this simply isn’t true. Once drafted, the new provisions will be part of...
The centenary of the foundation of the Irish State took place last week. Ireland in the first decades after independence is constantly demonised by commentators today for its ‘backwardness’, ‘repression’, ‘insularity’, and above all because of the influence of the Catholic Church. In this clip from ‘The Week that Really Was’ podcast, Iona Institute director,...
Canada only introduced assisted suicide in 2016, but already we see that the grounds to avail of it are widening and the country now has one of the most permissive euthanasia and assisted suicide laws in the world. Increasingly, assisted suicide is being seen an alternative to a lack of proper health care or welfare...
Numerically speaking, Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world and a new report by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), says things are getting worse. The document, titled “Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report on Christians oppressed for their Faith 2020–22”, was presented last week on Red Wednesday, the annual day when...
The Master of the Rotunda, Professor Fergal Malone, has revealed that up to 95pc of parents who are informed by the hospital that their unborn babies have Down Syndrome (DS) opt for abortion. This is a horrifying figure that appears to have soared since the abortion referendum even though the terminations in these instances are...
During the Covid-19 pandemic, people were barred in many countries from attending religious worship for long periods, and nowhere more so than in Ireland. When they were not barred, severe restrictions were put on the numbers who could attend. But strictly from a public health perspective, was it worth it? An important new study suggest...
At the time of writing, the Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences Bill 2022 is making its way through the Oireachtas. The chief aim is to control certain types of speech and thought. But free speech cannot be just for the virtuous, the well-intentioned and the polite, and so hate speech laws, however...
The US midterm elections took place on Tuesday. What has attracted little attention on this side of the Atlantic is the fact that voters in three US states backed extreme, pro-choice amendments to their constitutions. Pro-life proposals went before two other states, and they were rejected. Perhaps part of the reason is that the Democrats...
International development NGOs generally originated from the middle of the last century, but public support for faith-based and missionary organisations dates back centuries and they often laid the foundations for the work of secular agencies, something that is often forgotten. The Catholic Church was a pioneer in development infrastructure with 1822 being a significant year....
Upcoming ‘hate crime’ legislation could easily land the Church in trouble, warns a new article in The Catholic Herald. Last week, the Cabinet approved the ‘Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill, 2022’, and while it is uncertain exactly what its effects will be, it is not impossible to imagine a...
