State discrimination against religious views and bodies is becoming an issue. Recent reports indicate that Tusla (the Child and Family Agency) is set to withdraw public funding from the Boyle Family Life Centre, an ethos-based service provider of the Diocese of Elphin, which serves the practical needs of both the parish community and the wider...
A previous post reported on the proceedings of a recent surrogacy conference in Dublin. It is fair to say that most people would find at least some of the information revealed at the conference quite shocking. This blog will examine a few of the ethical issues raised by surrogacy, including issues that were directly raised...
RTE’s exit poll conducted on the day of the General Election throws up some very interesting data concerning religion and political affiliation. More on that very shortly, but for me the most striking thing is that it was the first poll I’ve come across that distinguished between the non-religious who call themselves ‘atheists’ or ‘agnostics’,...
Ireland’s first ever commercial surrogacy conference took place last week in Dublin. (It also dealt with ‘altruistic’ surrogacy). The event was organised by a group called “Families through Surrogacy” which call itself a non-profit group. However, the conference sponsors, variously categorised as “platinum”, “gold” and “silver” sponsors, are composed of big surrogacy firms from the...
Mother’s Day in Ireland was marked last Sunday, but what are we now marking on that day given the radically new view of the family and of parenthood that exists in Irish law following the passage last year of the marriage referendum and the Children and Family Relationships Act? Instead of celebrating ‘Mother’s Day’ and...
There is an interesting clip on YouTube of the late Adrian Hardiman on RTE on the day of the count for the 1983 pro-life referendum. Hardiman (RIP) will be a sore loss to the Supreme Court because he was that very rare thing in Irish public life; a classical liberal who believed in limited government....
GE 16 saw a number of prominent socially liberal politicians lose their seats. Alan Shatter, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, Jerry Buttimer, James Reilly, Alex White and Anne Ferris each took very public positions in favour of gay marriage and abortion during the last term, and each lost a seat in one of the most socially liberal...
Joe Humphreys writing in The Irish Times on Tuesday claims that the Catholic Church need have no fear of secularism. He is writing in opposition to public funding of denominational education. He admits that secularism can be hard to define, and so indeed is ‘liberal democracy’. He quotes Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his favour but...
The Irish Times in its leader today is pleased that the Catholic Church isn’t telling people how to vote. It says this is a sign of a “humbler” Church. One wonders if the Irish Times will follow suit and not tell its readers how to vote in this election or next time a referendum comes...
The bishop of Cork and Ross, John Buckley, issued an excellent statement a few days ago to coincide with the General Election campaign. In it, he tackles issues such as the right to life, housing and immigration. He urges Catholics to “engage with them [politicians] when they call looking for our vote. Our priorities and...
