The number of births recovered significantly in the third quarter of last year, and were higher even than 2019 levels, according to the latest Vital Statistics Report from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Commenting on the release, Gerard Doolan, Statistician, said: “The number of births has increased by 2,270 (or 15.7%) from the same quarter in the previous year, up from 14,477 in Q3 2020 to 16,747 in 2021”.
The 2019, 3rd quarter figure was 15,379, which itself was a decrease from 15,428 in 2018.
In addition, the average age of mothers was 33.2 in Q3 2021, which is an increase of 0.2 years from that reported in the same quarter in 2020, while 10 years ago it was 32.0 years for the same period.
More than two in five (42.6%) of all births were outside of marriage, compared to the same quarter a year earlier when 39.3% of births were to mothers outside of marriage. Ten years ago, in Q3 2011, this proportion was one in three (34.0%) of all births.
The Catholic and Anglican Archbishops of Armagh have said they will write jointly to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow to reinforce their call for all Christians of Europe, including the Russian Orthodox leader, to unite in spiritual and practical efforts in support of an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.
Speaking in Armagh on the eve of St Patrick’s Day, Archbishop Eamon Martin and Archbishop John McDowell called for an end to the “relentless bombardment which has trapped countless civilians in a nightmare of destruction and displaced millions of others from their homes and families”.
They expressed their fear that the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine may yet accelerate before it dissipates.
“Although we are many miles away from the horrific bombardment and loss of life, the sacrifice of the Ukrainian people shockingly comes home to us this St Patrick’s Day,” they said.
Organisers of the National St. Patrick’s Day Parade said they were “committed to a secular, inclusive, non-political approach” to this year’s Festival and Parade in their response to a Christian group who had requested permission to participate.
The Evangelical Catholic Initiative (ECI) sought to include an inter-church float at the Parade with the theme ‘the authentic Patrick – hope after Covid’, and claim they were refused on the grounds that the parade is a ‘secular’ celebration.
This is disputed by the parade organisers themselves, who told Gript that the ECI could not take part because the event is a “uniquely commissioned artistic Parade made up of marching bands and productions by professional pageant companies”. They said that “unfortunately, the Parade is not able to accommodate individual groups and does not accept applications for participation.”
In its email to the ECI, the St. Patrick’s Festival team added: “This year we chose Connections as we have spent so long apart, and we are all so delighted to be coming back together. We celebrate community, inclusion, diversity, and we bring the nation together in a global celebration of Irish arts, culture, and heritage.”
They also affirmed their commitment to a secular celebration, stating: “We are committed to a secular, inclusive, non-political approach to the Parade and St. Patrick’s Festival. I hope this clears things up for you”.
Almost 1,000 Catholic convents in Poland are helping refugees from war-torn Ukraine.
An agency of women religious in Poland said on March 15 that sisters in 924 convents in Poland and 98 in Ukraine were offering “spiritual, psychological, medical, and material help.”
All of the nearly 150 religious congregations operating in Poland and Ukraine are believed to have helped people in need. Some have offered help to a few people, while others have offered assistance to as many as 18,000.
The Council of Major Superiors of Congregations of Women Religious said that 498 convents in Poland and 76 in Ukraine have organized housing.
So far 3,060 children, 2,420 families, and roughly 2,950 adults have received shelter.
In 64 institutions, there are 600 places for orphans, and in 420 institutions there are almost 3,000 places for mothers with children.
Sisters have helped to prepare and distribute hot meals, food, sanitary products, clothing, and blankets. They have also helped to transport people from areas affected by war and assist newcomers in finding work in Poland.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250669/ukraine-war-almost-1000-polish-catholic-convents-are-helping-refugees
Boys from working-class families who grow up religious are defying the trends that see their non-religious male counterparts fall behind in society.
That’s according to Dr. Ilana M. Horwitz, an assistant professor of Jewish studies and sociology at Tulane University and the author of “God, Grades, and Graduation.”
Writing in the New York Times, she reveals the results of her research on the relationship between teenagers’ religious upbringing and its influence on their education: their school grades, which colleges they attend and how much higher education they complete.
Interestingly, she found that what religion offers teenagers varies by social class because of religion’s pro-natal beliefs.
“Those raised by professional-class parents, for example, do not experience much in the way of an educational advantage from being religious. In some ways, religion even constrains teenagers’ educational opportunities (especially girls’) by shaping their academic ambitions after graduation; they are less likely to consider a selective college as they prioritize life goals such as parenthood, altruism and service to God rather than a prestigious career”.
“However, teenage boys from working-class families, regardless of race, who were regularly involved in their church and strongly believed in God were twice as likely to earn bachelor’s degrees as moderately religious or nonreligious boys”, she writes.
An abortion lobby group has called for further expanding the already radical abortion regime in Ireland.
The Abortion Working Group – an umbrella of 20 healthcare and civil organisations, led by the National Women’s Council – is calling for key changes, including the removal of the mandatory three-day waiting period between seeking a medical abortion before 12 weeks’ and getting one; removal of the 12-week time limit for abortion on request, and, removal of the stipulation that two doctors certify a baby will die within 28 days of birth in cases of a grave foetal abnormality.
The website of the Central Statistics Office says the CSO “recognises the importance of accounting for gender identity as distinct from sex”, and that work is actively under way to introduce a question on ‘gender identity’ for the next census.
As part of this work the CSO is testing questions on gender identity in its Labour Force and Pulse surveys in order to devise a way of asking the appropriate question and providing for the “appropriate range of answers”.
There will be a public consultation later this year on what questions should go into the census after the one scheduled for April, the spokeswoman said.
The Govt agency also said that people who choose not to declare themselves as male or female in this year’s census will have a biological sex assigned to them on a random basis.
A spokeswoman said said that the random allocation in such cases would not have a statistical impact.
BBC polling shows significant proportion of women report being given abortion pills without their consent, as over 600 medical professionals in the UK have called for an end to ‘DIY’ home abortion services in an open letter to the Government.
The Savanta ComRes poll commissioned by the BBC shows that 5% of women aged between 18 and 24 and 4% of women aged between 25 and 34 had been given “something (tablets/substance) to cause an abortion” without their consent.
The polling also shows that 15% of women experienced “pressure to terminate a pregnancy” when they did not want to and 5% of women experienced “physical violence with intention to force a miscarriage / end a pregnancy”.
Prior to ‘DIY’ abortion being allowed during the pandemic, women were given the first set of abortion pills in a medical abortion in person, making it much harder for third parties to influence, pressure, or coerce them into taking the lethal drugs.
The open letter from the medics requests that the ‘at-home’ abortion schemes in England, Scotland, and Wales be revoked with immediate effect.
The Department of Health and Social Care already confirmed that the temporary measure introduced for the COVID-19 pandemic will be wound down, but not until 30 August 2022.
An appeal has been made for moral principles to guide the legislation on the the practice of surrogacy in this country.
Writing in the Irish Times on Monday, former social worker, Margaret Lee, says the State has to find its moral compass in dealing with the complexities around surrogacy.
“It has to decide to either outlaw or regulate the manner in which one woman pays another woman to bear a child which she then will raise as her own. Whatever the outcome, it is important that the ethical issues be debated, she writes.
She mentions three morally dubious aspects of surrogacy that must be dealt with: “possible exploitation of the surrogate mother, transparency of the transaction that takes place between the parties, and potential for future conflict which could embroil all the three parties [surrogate, child, contracting client(s)/intending parent(s)”.
The State will pay rent to the Catholic Church for its schools that transfer to new patrons under new 40-year leases.
The arrangement forms part of a Department of Education deal with Catholic bishops aimed at speeding up the process of transferring patronage.
Under the deal, the Church would retain ownership of schools and receive “appropriate” rents which take into account the fact that schools may have benefitted from State capital investment in the past.
The insurance premium for school buildings also forms part of the leasing arrangement, as well as contributions to legal costs involved in securing any State interest in the property.
The department should, where possible, have the option of extending any leases or purchasing school properties if they are put up for sale in future.
The department said commercial rents are not appropriate due to the educational use of the properties and a “reasonable” rent should be agreed.
