There is a huge double think going on in the media about the importance of the natural ties. When it comes to adoption, they seem to think they are very important, but when it comes to assisted human reproduction they seem to have a completely different view. This double think became apparent again back...
When abortion and euthanasia are first introduced in a given country, we are usually told that the grounds on which they can take place are very limited. But over time those grounds become ever more elastic. For example, earlier this year the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service decided not to prosecute doctors who performed sex...
This week the CSO issued a report on marriage in Ireland. One fact it revealed is that the rate of marriage in Ireland wasa very low 4.3 people per thousand in 2011. In his column in The Irish Independent this week, David Quinn says this is just one more piece of evidence showing how marriage...
Reacting to the decision by the Mater to comply with our new abortion law, a nurse tutor at the hospital, Sr Eugene Nolan, made a very interesting comment that reveals the contrast between a pro-life hospital and one that is not. Referring to the fact that five seriously ill pregnant women were transferred for treatment...
It’s interesting that in most jurisdictions that have introduced same-sex civil partnerships/marriage it is most men who avail of them at first. I wonder why that is. More interesting, however, is the average age of those entering civil partnerships. New CSO data tell us it is in the mid-forties. For opposite-sex couples the average age...
Officially at least, the Mater hospital has decided to comply with the new abortion law. This means we now have two Catholic hospitals in Ireland – the other one being St Vincent’s – that have raised no ethical objection to carrying out abortions on certain grounds. In his Irish Independent column this week, David Quinn...
One would think from much of the media coverage of the Pope’s big interview that he was telling Catholics to take a step back from politics and pro-life and family issues most of all. What received far less coverage were remarks he made a few days earlier that Catholics ought to “meddle” in politics. At...
The Department of Education have launched a consultation process to ascertain the views of parents as to how Catholic schools, when they are the only one in a given area, should become more ‘inclusive’ towards children from other religions and none. A leaflet will be sent to parents and it draws on the recommendations, published...
The new Growing Up in Ireland study, published yesterday, acknowledges the importance of family structure and cites research that saying having two parent is generally better than one. Given the huge reluctance on the part of ‘official Ireland’ to ever own up to this research, this has to count as something of a breakthrough. The...
Australia recently recently threw the Labour party out of office after six years in government. One of the major planks of Labour’s election campaign was a promise by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to legalise same-sex marriage. It got him precisely nowhere. According to the blog, Mercatornet, “[Rudd] pushed it all the way to election eve...
