A new document from the Joint Managerial Body gives guidance to Catholic secondary schools on how to show respect for children from diverse backgrounds while at the same time abiding by the schools’ own religious ethos.

Joint Managerial Body (JMB), representing almost 400 Catholic second-level schools, to reflect the growing religious and cultural diversity in schools.

At the same time, they stress that “it should always be made clear to parents that students will be experiencing the values and ethos of the school in the day-to-day running of the school, not just in RE class”.

The guidelines support the prominent display of Catholic religious imagery in schools, but also suggest that pupils from different faiths could be invited to display art/icons around the time of their own major religious feasts.

In the area of clothing, they state that no one should be prevented from wearing a religious symbol or garment in accordance with their tradition, such as the hijab for Muslim girls or the turban for Sikh boys.

The guidelines point to the practice by Hindu females particularly, and Muslims from India, to paint their hands and feet around the time of a religious festival, which “should be regarded with understanding”.

Where Muslims are concerned about sex education, schools are urged to provide an opportunity for parents to discuss the moral framework before discussing whether to withdraw their child. PE can also be problematic for Muslims, on modesty grounds, and among the solutions proffered are for girls to wear a burkini, a short wet suit.

Catholic bishops in the UK have made the right to life a priority in the upcoming Westminster election.

The bishops of England and Wales put the protection of life at the top of a list of key issues, while the bishops of Scotland also made abortion and euthanasia their primary concerns.

Their statements came as the UK’s Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats pledged to further liberalise the UKs already permissive abortion regime.

The State must seize the land on which the new national maternity hospital (NMH) is to be built to ‘ensure provision’ of all women’s ‘health services’, including abortion, a new group has said.

The Campaign Against Church Ownership of Women’s Healthcare said it was a “disgrace” two Catholic institutions were “still in the driving seat” on the future of the new hospital.

The NMH is to be built on the St Vincent’s hospital campus in Donnybrook, Dublin, on land leased to the State by the religious Sisters of Charity.

Spokesperson, Marie O’Connor, said even this would mean a “grossly inadequate” arrangement.

“The State needs to own the land on which it plans to build this hospital. Women’s healthcare is at risk. To expect a hospital [on land] owned by the nuns’ company to provide a full range of healthcare, including contraception, sterilisation, abortion, IVF and so on, is unrealistic.

“Only public ownership of the company can guarantee the healthcare will be secular.”

Bríd Smith TD (People Before Profit) said every candidate in the forthcoming general election should sign a pledge demanding that the new national maternity hospital be publicly-owned, publicly-run and secular.

While most U.S. adults who attend religious services express confidence in their clergy’s advice, a recent Pew Research Center survey finds that Catholics have considerably less confidence than Protestants. They are also less likely to claim a close relationship with their clergy.

Among U.S. adults who attend religious services at least a few times a year, six-in-ten Catholics (61%) say they have a “very” or “somewhat” close relationship with their clergy, compared with about eight-in-ten Protestants (78%). Just 8% of Catholics say they are very close with their clergy, compared with a quarter of Protestants. And while only 22% of Protestants say they are not close with the clergy at their church, the share among Catholics is nearly twice as high (39%).

Only three-in-ten Catholics say they have “a lot” of confidence in their clergy’s guidance about marriage and relationships. Larger shares of evangelical Protestants (66%), Protestants in the historically black tradition (54%) and mainline Protestants (45%) say the same. And Catholics are much less likely than Protestants overall to trust their religious leaders to give useful advice on parenting (23% vs. 49%, respectively).

The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin has announced “significant” reforms aimed at put more responsibility for sacramental preparation of children on parishes and less on schools. Other dioceses such as Kildare & Leighlin have already gone down this road.

Diarmuid Martin said training for the reform campaign, which will be implemented on a phased basis, should begin immediately.

Dr Martin wrote to priests and parishes this week informing them that the Priests Council had endorsed a new approach to the sacraments which would be centred on “supporting parents in sharing faith with their children and that in time will see parishes assume responsibility for the preparation and celebration of all four sacraments”.

The new law to significantly reduce divorce waiting times and further weaken the bonds of marriage, legally speaking, has come into effect this week. The legislation that followed upon the Divorce referendum cuts in half the required waiting period for divorce from four years to two years and removes any need for a waiting time from the Constitution altogether meaning the waiting time can be further reduced in the future. Minister for Culture, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan, who shepherded the Government’s campaign in favour of the change in law, celebrated the enactment of the legislation on Newstalk. Speaking to Mark Cagney, she called it a “significant achievement” by all those who campaigned for it and said it reflects “a kindness and understanding” that people have about other people’s situations.

The law took effect on Sunday.