There are fears over State funding for bodies with a religious ethos after it was confirmed by the Diocese of Elphin that it has been forced to withdraw from a family life centre in Roscommon after pressure from Tusla, the State’s child and family agency. The Irish Catholic newspaper reports that the diocese has reluctantly withdrawn so as to protect funding to the ongoing work of the centre.
The headmaster of one of Ireland’s leading Jesuit schools has called for an academic approach to religious education to better protect religious ethos. As he addressed Catholic educators at a meeting in Dublin, Gerry Foley of Belvedere College warned that, “unless there is an academic rigour in RE you don’t really do it”.
US Secretary of State John Kerry (pictured) has said America accepts that the Islamic State (IS) group has committed genocide against Christians and other minorities. Describing IS as “genocidal by self-proclamation, by ideology and by actions”, Mr Kerry called for an international investigation and criminal charges for those believed to be responsible for atrocities.
