Taoiseach Brian Cowen made some warm remarks about the Pope’s message for World Day of Peace last week, echoing his call for the protection of religious freedom. Mr Cowen said that he welcomed “the focus of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI on the question of freedom of religion in his message for World Peace Day”....
In recent weeks the issue of the age of consent for sexual activity has twice come up in different guises. First it was the Irish Times lending its weight to proposals by the Law Reform Commission to reduce the age at which minors can access the Pill without parental knowledge or consent to 14. Now...
Among the other proposals found in the new document of the Law Reform Commission called ‘Report on Legal Aspects of Family Relationships’, is one that would pave the way for the one child having three or more legal parents. In addition, several other adults could have access rights to that same child. As mentioned in...
The Law Reform Commission issued a new paper on family law yesterday and needless to say it would propel us in a still more liberal direction that could only further undermine the social institution proven to be of most benefit to children, namely marriage. The LRC – in reality one more left-wing quango – either...
The European Commission has issued a Green paper that aims to make it easier for EU citizens to have their legal status in one country fully recognised in another. For most of us, a major legal status is our marital status, which the EU calls our ‘civil status’ in order to take into account same-sex...
In sociology there is something called the ‘selection effect’. For example, sociologists wonder whether religious people are less likely to divorce because they are religious or is it because the sort of people who are religious are less likely to divorce anyway? The same question applies to marriage. Are married men less likely to abuse...
The Irish Times today editorialises in favour of minors being given the Pill without the consent of their parents. It believes the Government should adopt the recommendation of the Law Reform Commission in this regard and copy the example of the UK. The editorial notes that conflicts can arise between doctors, their ‘patients’ and parents...
A recent survey by the Pew Centre and Time magazine entitled The Decline of Marriage and Rise of New Families highlights changing US attitudes to marriage and family. The poll shows declining support for marriage, but on the other hand it is constructed in such as way as to maximise support for family diversity ideology....
Sweden is the world’s fairest place for families according to a new report from The Fatherhood Institute in the UK. How do they come to this conclusion, you may ask? In a nutshell, they base it on how equally Swedish men and women divide up work and home duties. You may have noticed that reports...
The Manhattan Declaration is a pro-marriage, pro-life, pro-religious freedom statement signed by dozens of Christian leaders in the United States and by thousands of ordinary Christians. It has inspired similar declarations in other countries, for example the Westminster Declaration and the Canberra Declaration. Inevitably the Manhattan Declaration has been condemned by gay rights groups as...
