Stones were thrown through the window of a mosque in Galway while people were at prayer, and in Kerry the wall of an ancient Cathedral was defaced with lewd graffiti in the latest incidents of anti-religious bigotry. Over 100 people were in the Mosque on Monday night when rocks smashed windows, leaving the people inside “terrified”. The Imam of the Mosque said he thought the attack was a reaction to the terrorism in London over the weekend. Meanwhile, in Kerry, ancient Ardfert Cathedral was daubed with obscene graffiti. The historic site had been the seat of the Diocese of Ardfert from 1117 and is dedicated to Saint Brendan. Locals are said to be “outraged” by the vandalism.
Two years after Ireland redefined marriage to make the requirement for sexual complementarity obsolete, the Irish Times is reporting the rise of a new kind of ‘marriage’ in the US that makes the requirement of a second person obsolete: solo-marriage or marrying one’s own self. There may be a ceremony where a person walks up the aisle, in the company of friends and family, makes vows to himself and then throws a party, but it is not yet recognised as marriage in civil law, so it confers no rights or responsibilities. Irish Times columnist, Padraig O’Morain, comments that he “cannot help seeing self-marriage as, on some level, a form of weirdness”, adding somewhat ruefully, “Perhaps I’m just old-fashioned and out of touch with the times”.
Sister Stanislaus Kennedy has spoken of her shock at the portrayal of the Sisters of Charity during the recent controversy surrounding the National Maternity Hospital and likened their depiction in the media to ‘elder abuse’. “A lot of the stuff that came out in the media about us was very hurtful. There was a lot of misunderstanding and misrepresentation. It was very distasteful.” Sr Stanislaus, the founder of Focus Ireland and the Immigrant Council of Ireland, is herself a Sister of Charity. She said her order had been unfairly portrayed as “a power-grabbing congregation” and “a group of old ladies who didn’t know what they were doing”, adding, “In another context, this would come under elder abuse”.
A major new study on gender and families reveals the costs paid by women as they attach ever greater importance to work and career in their personal lives. The book, Changing Gender Roles and Attitudes to Family Formation in Ireland, is authored by Dr Margaret Fine-Davis of the Department of Sociology at Trinity College Dublin. Among other findings, Dr Fine-Davis said, “Women are caught between their biological clocks and their wish to continue actively in the labour market. It is apparent these factors are contributing to delays in couple formation, delays in marriage, postponement of first birth, an increase in the proportion of single people and an increase in childlessness.” The costs are a decreasing population and diminishing social capacity to support an ageing population, and also a “greater proportion” of people with poorer psychological wellbeing. The book is set to be published on Wednesday.
The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Katherine Zappone, has confirmed that the definition of ‘child’ used by her department does “not extend to the unborn”. She made the statement in response to a parliamentary question from Tipperary South TD, Mattie McGrath, who commented that the exclusion of all unborn children regardless of gestational age from the definition of ‘child’ borders on the incredible. “I think most people will be absolutely stunned and appalled to hear the Minister for Children apply such a discriminatory and disingenuous meaning to the definition of the word ‘child’. . . . Is Minister Zappone seriously suggesting that a full term child minutes or seconds away from birth is not a child or a human person?,” he said.
The Minister claimed this exclusion is consistent with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), but Deputy McGrath pointed out that the Preamble to the UNCRC states that “the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth”. This means, “that a child is to be considered a ‘child’ before birth and that a pre-natal child is entitled to legal protection,” he said. “I would appeal to Minister Zappone to reconsider her Departments failure to accept a basic human truth; that a real human ‘child’ is in existence long before birth, and that this is confirmed by the very Convention that she says refutes this,” concluded Deputy McGrath.
A new study, published by the Journal of Health Economics, shows that recent cuts in funding for contraception and sex education aimed at teenagers in 149 local authority areas in the UK coincided with a fall in teenage pregnancy rather than an increase. To their surprise, the researchers found that authorities who made “bigger cuts saw relatively larger decreases in both birth and abortion rates among teenagers”. The research suggests that the State’s efforts to teach adolescents about sex and make access to contraceptives easier may have encouraged risky behaviour rather than curbed it.
Parents and children took to the streets outside Dáil Eireann yesterday to protest neverending delays in building a permanent home for their Educate Together Primary school in Ballinteer, County Dublin. Pupils have been making do with cramped conditions in temporary arrangements with one little girl told to leave her schoolbag at home due to overcrowding. “We’re going to be moved to other temporary accommodation in September, and we’re still waiting for the Department to put in planning permission for the new school”, said parent, Darina Mulligan. “We can’t understand what they delay is,” she added.
A US Bishop has condemned surrogacy as a “moral evil” that commodifies human beings and subverts the natural relationship between mother, father and child. Bishop Robert Morlino said the creation of a new human being within marriage is a “safe space” for God. Surrogacy, however, disrupts the “sacred circle” of marriage by inserting a third party into what should be between husband and wife. For the same reason, he said, in-vitro fertilization and artificial insemination aren’t morally permissible. The Bishop was speaking in response to the opening of a surrogacy agency in his diocese. The agency is charging $15,000 to coordinate surrogate pregnancies for gay and straight couples and single people, although they say the total cost of a surrogacy can range from $75,000 to $125,000.
The Catholic Bishops of Northern Ireland have released a set of questions for voters to put to election candidates in advance of the upcoming UK elections. They encourage people to raise issues relating to poverty, education, health, the environment and Brexit, as well as fundamental issues regarding the right to life and human dignity. Among other questions, they suggest voters ask candidates directly, “How will you and your party protect and promote the value of every human life from conception until natural death?”
The Sisters of Charity have announced that they are relinquishing all involvement in St Vincent’s Hospital Healthcare Group, which they founded. They will also then have no involvement in the new National Maternity Hospital. As a consequence, the Group will relinquish its catholic-inspired, medical ethos and adopt a legal-positivist ethos instead. A statement of the Sisters of Charity said: “Upon completion of this proposed transaction, the requirement set out in the SVHG Constitution, to conduct and maintain the SVHG facilities in accordance with The Religious Sisters of Charity Health Service Philosophy and Ethical Code, will be amended and replaced to reflect compliance with national and international best practice guidelines on medical ethics and the laws of the Republic of Ireland.”
Irish Times journalist Paul Cullen predicts that more Church institutions may retreat from health and education due to a “deep seated public antipathy” to their work.
