New rules governing the scheduling of religious education are marginalising the subject and are unfair to students, according to both parents and bishops in Poland.

Speaking to Vatican News, Bishop Wojciech Osial explained that if even one student in a class does not attend religion, the religious classes must be scheduled before or after regular classes. As a result, those students must come to school earlier or stay later.

Bishop Osial said Church representatives had proposed a different solution during talks with the Ministry: every student would choose between religion and ethics and attend one of the two subjects.

“Today, especially when we see a crisis of values among young people, such a solution would benefit both believers and non-believers,” he said.

However, the Ministry refused.

Bishop Osial who is chairman of the Catholic Education Commission of the Polish Bishops’ Conference called the decision “unfair” and said: “We do not accept the marginalisation of religion classes.”

Bishop Marek Mendyk added: “There is an attempt, at all costs — including through deceptive means and violations of the law — to remove religion from schools”.

Singapore has approved a massive expansion of financial supports for children in hopes of averting a looming demographic catastrophe.

The Asian city-state’s fertility rate is just 0.86 and falling, well below the replacement figure of 2.1 that is needed for a population to simply sustain itself.

The new scheme will direct 70,000 Singapore dollars (about 47,000 euros) worth of aid over the course of a child’s lifetime.

Parents will receive a lump sum upon the birth of each child; annual payments for expenses; contributions to health and education schemes, and to a children’s savings account; and a lump sum for higher education costs, upon reaching 17.

There will also be more parental leave, cheaper nurseries and extra advantages in the public housing lotteries.

Unlike previous schemes, this new one will be available to all children, regardless of the parents’ marital status. Nonetheless, the Government affirmed that the traditional family unit “remains the prevailing social norm in Singapore”.

“The government’s longstanding position has been to support parenthood within marriage. This continues to be the case and there is no shift in thinking on this”.

He said the Irish State’s claim to a pluralist education system is false as “its policy has become internally contradictory and has narrowed the real exercise of parental choice while claiming to promote diversity”.

He also noted that the State’s use of the designation “multi-denominational” [i.e., no faith ethos] is ambiguous and may mislead families as to the actual character of such schools.

This affects parental freedom of choice and “the cultural and religious identity of children, including the protections recognised in international human rights law”.

Mr Hynes-Cendrzak recommended that it be affirmed in law, policy and administrative practice that “parents are the primary educators of their children and that the State’s role in education is supportive and facilitative rather than monopolistic”.

Three Catholic families have filed a lawsuit challenging the eligibility requirements of the US State of Georgia’s school scholarship program, claiming the rules violate their religious freedom.

Passed in 2024, the program grants up to $6,500 (~€5,500) per child annually. The state funds can be used for private school tuition, homeschooling expenses or therapy services.

However, it requires that students must have first attended a state (secular) school for at least two semesters before they can apply.

Exemptions are offered for military families, pre-school children who have not started ‘big school’ and recent adoptees. No exemption is offered for religious reasons.

The lawsuit contends that religious families have a religious obligation to give a religious education to their child, but forcing them to attend a secular state school for a year would be unduly burdensome against the free practice of their religion.

Lead attorney, Nathan Loyd, said the children’s schooling would have no catechism, no access to sacraments, no prayer, no learning about their faith’s history or saints.

One mother who enrolled her daughter in a state school said it caused her to hide her faith and become isolated and withdrawn. A change to a mixed Catholic homeschool network led to her flourishing again. She said she does not want to put her son through the same experience just to access state funding.

There has been a “breakdown in respect for authority” and the “value of life”, the Tánaiste has said, as he spoke about the crash in Co Kildare in which five teenagers were killed. His comments on the value of life come despite his key role in deleting the protection for unborn life from the Constitution.

Simon Harris said there are deep societal issues which need to be examined, saying it is multifaceted and crosses social media, government, the criminal justice system and road safety issues.

“We are now seeing almost a breakdown of authority or any respect for authority in society. On occasion, we’re seeing a lack of respect for the value of your own life. We’re seeing a lack of respect and understanding of the value of human life, the lives of others.”

Five teenagers died when the car they were driving the wrong way down a motorway and collided head-on with another car.

Four members of the same family – three women and a seven-year-old boy – in the second car were seriously injured and remain in hospital.

The need to uphold freedom of religion and belief is urgent, according to a UN Special Rapporteur in a message to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a Catholic charity which helps persecuted Christians all over the world.

In a video message to ACN, Dr Nazila Ghanea said people in every corner of the world, “needlessly suffer, day in and day out, violations of their human rights and fundamental freedoms, purely and simply because of their religion or belief.”

Last Saturday marked the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief.

On the occasion, Dr Ghanea called for renewed commitment to protecting one of the world’s most fundamental human rights.

Her message closely reflected ACN’s own Article 18 Petition.

Inspired by Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it calls on governments to respect, protect and promote every person’s right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

A Californian couple is suing a surrogate mother for $100,000 in damages after she refused to abort the child she was carrying for them, following the discovery of a serious heart condition.

The Los Angeles based couple had contracted McKenna West, a nurse in Alaska, to carry the child for them under a surrogacy contract worth $60,000

The agreement contained an abortion clause if complications arose during the pregnancy.

At approximately 20 weeks, the child was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a rare congenital heart defect in which the left side of the heart does not develop properly.

Following the diagnosis, the commissioning couple asked West to have an abortion. She refused and subsequently travelled to Texas so she could give birth in a hospital that provides expert care for the child’s condition.

The couple are now seeking more than $100,000 from West for allegedly breaching their agreement. They are also pursuing unspecified additional damages over what their lawsuit describes as her “malicious, outrageous conduct.”

A custody dispute has also arisen between the so-called “intended parents” who commissioned the surrogacy, and the nurse who carried and gave birth to the child.

France has ordered life insurers to pay out to the families of those who consent to ‘assisted dying’, despite the risk of creating economic incentives that could pressurise vulnerable people into ending their lives.

A provision in new so-called ‘right to die’ laws, announced this week by Emmanuel Macron, stated that death insurance must cover policyholders who legally decide to end their own lives.

Crucially, the rule also applies to insurance policies taken out before the new law came into force.

This means insurers cannot use suicide exclusion clauses, which are common in many policies for the first 12 to 24 months, to refuse a payout after an assisted death.

France’s state council said the provision was to ensure that a patient’s decision to seek an assisted death had no financial consequences for the beneficiaries of their policy.

Opponents of the law, however, had warned that guaranteeing insurance payouts could give relatives a financial interest in a vulnerable person choosing assisted dying.

During the senate debate, critics warned of an “economic incentive to resort to assisted dying”. They cited the example of an elderly person who might be influenced by knowing their death would trigger a payout to their heirs.