State-run primary schools will no longer provide sacramental preparation classes for Catholic students during the school day under new changes, with faith formation as a whole being phased out. This is irrespective of the wishes of parents. The move means it will be up to parishes and parents in these schools to organise sacramental preparation outside normal school hours. The move affects 12 community national schools across the State under the patronage of local Education and Training Boards with almost 4,000 students. They were originally established ten years ago as multi-denominational schools which allowed for religious instruction and sacramental preparation for Catholics. The Church at the time warned that provision of faith formation for Catholic pupils was a “minimum non-negotiable requirement” for its support for the new school model.
Minister for Education Richard Bruton has welcomed the move. “Clearly, it is line with good practice models…” he said. “The idea of a community national school is a clear multi-denominational school which welcomes all faiths and creates an environment where faith is respected, without any particular faith being promoted,” he said. “This anticipated decision reflects the evolution of that model.”
Ms Justice Laffoy, the Chair of the Citizens’ Assembly, has defended its recommendations and rejected claims it was misled into taking a liberal stance on abortion. “I believe the legitimacy of the Assembly’s recommendations is built upon the robust process applied to our consideration of the topic,” she told the opening public session of the joint Oireachtas Committee on abortion yesterday. Asked by Fine Gael TD Kate O’Connell if she thought the assembly members were “somehow misled into voting as liberally as they did,” Justice Laffoy responded, “It did not mislead the citizens, and it was not responsible for a liberal approach.”
Independent Senator Ronan Mullen defended the Eighth Amendment, saying “thousands of lives have been saved by having this amendment”. He argued representatives of certain bodies which appeared before the assembly, such as the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) were “not neutral” and said it was inevitable they would attempt to “sanitise” abortion. Fine Gael TD Peter Fitzpatrick said he was “personally shocked” that 64 per cent of assembly members recommended the termination of pregnancy without restriction should be lawful.
The committee will meet again on Wednesday of next week.
Legal permission will no longer be required by courts in the UK before life-supporting treatment is withdrawn from patients with severely debilitating illnesses, a high court judge in London has ruled. As long as doctors and relatives of the patient are in agreement and medical guidelines have been observed there is no need to bring a lengthy case to obtain judicial authorisation, Mr Justice Peter Jackson declared. His ruling affects those deemed to be in persistent vegetative or minimally conscious states. The ruling was welcomed by pro-euthanasia groups. Sarah Wootton, the chief executive of Compassion in Dying, said: “[This] is a helpful step towards a clearer, more person-centred view of end-of-life care. When all parties – family, the hospital and treating doctors – are agreed on what someone would have wanted for their care, it seems absurd to require a costly court process to confirm this.”
The Chairwoman of the Citizens’ Assembly will speak at the opening public session of the joint Oireachtas Committee on abortion today and will urge the assembled TDs and Senators to view with “respect and due consideration” the recommendations of the Assembly. She will also defend the process that led to the Assembly’s surprising, radically pro-abortion recommendations. “I am aware that the results caused surprise across some sections of society but I truly believe they were reached not by chance or accident but following a thorough and rational thought process each member undertook as they stepped up to the ballot box,” she will say.
The majority of the Assembly voted to remove article 40.3.3° from the Constitution. Sixty-four per cent of members recommended that the termination of pregnancy without restriction should be lawful. Furthermore, they also recommended a provision be inserted into the Constitution that explicitly authorises the Oireachtas to legislate for abortion, any rights of the unborn, and any rights of the pregnant woman.
While the researchers could only surmise what was driving these changes, they do not think the culprit is an ‘upsurge in virtue’; rather, it might simply be that teens are spending more time online instead. “It’s an important factor in how young people organise their time today, so I wouldn’t be surprised if future research found it to be a part of what’s driving change,” Dr Park said.
Speaking at a Joint Managerial Body (JMB) Education Conference in Dublin, the Church’s Dean of Waterford Maria Jansson said, while Irish society has become more multi-cultural due to the influx of immigrants, “I contend it most definitely is not post-Christian, nor is it secular. That over 90 per cent of the population claim religious affiliation gives legitimacy to the existence of faith schools, albeit working and responding to a changed and pluralist culture”.
She also defended faith-based education itself as offering students a spiritual perspective to understand the world and an ethical system that teaches the intrinsic value of each individual while establishing behavioural boundaries and attitudes that enable each student to grow in maturity and responsibility.
The European Parliament (EP) has been blasted by MEPs and activists for adopting a report that contains a radical pro-abortion agenda. The parliamentary report charges that “the denial of sexual and reproductive health and rights services, including safe and legal abortion, is a form of violence against women and girls”. It also says all member-states must “guarantee comprehensive sexuality education, ready access for women to family planning, and the full range of reproductive and sexual health services, including modern contraceptive methods and safe and legal abortion” and if they fail to do so, it is implied they could be complicit in “forced pregnancy”, which the report asserts is “defined as a crime against humanity in Article 7 of the Rome Statute”.
Independent MEP Steven Woolfe condemned this section of the report, saying “This clause could effectively make it a criminal offence for anyone who believes in the reduction of abortion.” Marie Smith, the director of the Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues, issues a scathing assessment, saying “This dreadful depiction of laws that seek to protect unborn children and their mothers from the violent act of abortion as an actual form of violence is astonishing, especially for a legislative body that purports to not have any “competence” on abortion laws and supposedly allows Member States to decide abortion laws for themselves.
A former Master of the Coombe hospital has called for the repeal of the pro-life amendment and its replacement with a law that would permit abortion-on-demand in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy when about 85pc of abortions take place.
Writing in the Irish Times, Prof Chris Fitzpatrick said he would vote for the repeal of the 8th Amendment. “After that I would support the liberalisation of legislation to include (a) a serious threat to a woman’s health (b) fatal foetal abnormalities (c) pregnancies arising from rape and incest and (d) crisis pregnancies in the first trimester.”
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he does not believe the country would support the radical pro-abortion recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on the issue of abortion. Mr Varadkar was speaking at a Fine Gael think-in on Friday when he said: “I honestly don’t know if the public would go as far as what the Citizens’ Assembly have recommended. Public opinion polls have indicated that they wouldn’t, but that may change during the course of the debate, and having observed the Citizens’ Assembly and how that debate evolved, we have become aware of the availability of abortion pills and how they work. It is actually quite possible that people’s views may change as we have the debate.”
An Oireachtas committee is currently meeting to make concrete legislative proposals in the light of the Assembly’s recommendations. Fine Gael TDs will have a free vote on the committee and in the Dáil and Seanad on the proposals that arise from those deliberations. Mr Varadkar said members of Fine Gael would be allowed campaign on either side of the argument if a referendum arose.
Mr Varadkar also confirmed he is to bring a memo to Cabinet in the coming weeks to outline the timescale for a number of referendums.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has confirmed the right of Churches to govern their internal affairs without interference by the State. In the case Nagy v. Hungary the Grand Chamber of the Court ruled that Church autonomy is a basic right deserving protection and upheld the right of churches to “ecclesiastical courts and the discipline of ministers.” Mr Karol Nagy, a Calvinist pastor, was disciplined by his Church after claiming that State subsidies had been paid unlawfully to a Calvinist boarding school. In 2009 Mr. Nagy filed an application with the ECHR complaining that the State courts refused to weigh in on the matter on his behalf.
“This Grand Chamber judgment has confirmed the principle of church autonomy by dismissing a claim by a former pastor that he was entitled to use the state courts against a church when he was unhappy with the decisions of the internal ecclesiastical courts. This decision is welcome as it reinforces the rights of religious believers in all 47 member states of the Council of Europe to manage their own affairs without unwarranted external interference.” Said Paul Coleman of Alliance Defending Freedom.
