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Parents who share child care duties may experience increased conflict, study suggests
~Mothers and fathers who share caregiving for their preschool children may experience more conflict than those in which the mother is the primary caregiver, a new study suggests. The study, 'Relations between coparenting and father involvement in families with preschool-age children', showed that couples had a stronger, more supportive co-parenting relationship when the father spent more time playing with their child. Read more...
Health worker cleared over pro life leaflet
~A health worker who faced the sack after giving an NHS colleague a booklet about the potential dangers of abortion has been allowed to return to work. Margaret Forrester, 39, said yesterday that she has now been offered a better job at the same NHS trust. Read more...
Father considers suing Catholic school over prayers
~A school in Co. Leitrim under fire from the parent of one of its pupils has said that its Catholic ethos is “an integral part of the curriculum and day-to-day life of the school”. In a statement, school principal David O'Farrell said this ethos “includes a short prayer at the start and the end of the day”. Read more...
New Christian radio station launched
~Ireland's first Christian radio station, Spirit Radio, was launched today. The new station will broadcast today in Dublin on 89.9FM, Cork (90.9), Limerick (89.9), Galway (91.7) and Waterford (90.1). It will launch across Ireland on AM by July 2012. Read more...
Adult children of divorce more likely to consider suicide
~Adult children whose parents have divorced are more likely to have seriously considered suicide than their peers from intact families, according to new research from the University of Toronto. The paper, Suicidal ideation among individuals whose parents have divorced: Findings from a representative Canadian community survey, published online in the journal Psychiatry Research, examined gender specific differences among a sample of 6,647 adults, of whom 695 had experienced parental divorce before the age of 18. Read more...
Bishops criticises Cameron over legal attacks on Christians
~A Scottish Catholic bishop has criticised Prime Minister David Cameron (pictured) for surrounding himself with religiously illiterate, secularist advisers. The Bishop of Motherwell, Joseph Devine, said the coalition's attitude was a continuation of that of previous Labour Government, which forced people to act against their conscience or face punishment from the state. Read more...
Christian guesthouse owners targeted by campaign
~Same-sex couples have bombarded a Christian-run guesthouse with demands for double rooms, in an apparent bid to destroy the business. It comes in the wake of a high profile court ruling last week which ordered Peter and Hazelmary Bull (pictured) to pay £3,600 in damages to a homosexual couple who sued because double rooms were restricted to married couples. Read more...
State has far more say over faith-schools than Churches says bishop
~The State has “by far the greatest say in what goes on in Catholic and in all other schools”, according to the Chair of the Catholic hierarchy’s Council for Education, Bishop Brendan Kelly. Speaking yesterday in Waterford at the launch of Catholic Schools Week, he said, “The control [by the Church] card has been vastly overplayed by our critics, in Dáil Éireann and in newspaper columns particularly.” Read more...
Alcohol and obesity harming children says new report
~Growing levels of alcohol abuse and obesity continue to undermine the wellbeing of Irish children, a children’s rights organisation has said. A report by the Children’s Rights Alliance for 2011 has given the Government a grade of D minus for progress on its commitments to children in the areas of education, health, material wellbeing and safeguarding childhood, the Irish Times has reported. Read more...
Trial of Christian therapist suspended
~The professional trial of a psychotherapist who agreed to try to change a homosexual man’s orientation has been suspended after allegations of attempts to intimidate a key witness. Supporters of Lesley Pilkington, the Christian therapist who faces being struck off, called in police after they said an expert witness was threatened in several ‘menacing’ phone calls. Read more...
New website invites donor-offspring to share their stories
~A new website, AnonymousUs.org has been launched with the aim of inviting anyone and everyone involved in reproductive technologies, but especially persons born via egg or sperm donation, to write about their experiences and opinions- anonymously. Read more...
Catholic college defends time spent teaching religion
~Catholic teacher training college, Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, has defended the number of hours that its teaching students spend on religious knowledge. In an interview with the Irish Catholic, Dr Daniel O'Connell, lecturer in Religious Education, responded to recent criticism in a report by the Teaching Council, which suggested that the college's teaching course gave a disproportionate amount of time to the teaching of religion. Read more...
Aggressive secularism exists in Ireland says Archbishop Martin
~The aggressive secularism highlighted by Pope Benedict also exists in Ireland, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin (pictured) has said. In a homily at a service to mark the week of prayer for Christian unity, Archbishop Martin said that in Ireland “we encounter the aggressive secularism about which Pope Benedict spoke on his visit to Britain”. Read more...
Government's children's rights wording "diluted", says Barnardos
~The Government's proposed children's rights amendment has been criticised by children's charity Barnardos. Their criticism comes after reports said that the wording agreed between the office for the Minister for Children and the Attorney General would not give social workers more power to intervene in families and would not give agencies a right to sue the State on behalf of children. Read more...
More than half of US teens not living with both married parents
~More than half of older US teenagers are not living with both married parents, according to a new study. The data, taken from that US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, shows that of the 12.8 million teenagers aged 15-17 years old in the U.S. in 2008, just 5.8 million, or 45 per cent were living with both married birth parents. Read more...
EU must stand up for persecuted Christians, says Mitchell
~The European Union needs to stand up for unity and diversity and protect the religious freedom of Christians throughout the world, Dublin Fine Gael MEP, Gay Mitchell (pictured) has said. Speaking as the co-sponsor of a European Parliament motion condemning attacks against Christians in the EU and beyond, Mr Mitchell said: "Over the past number of weeks, there has been a shocking escalation of violence against Christian people... Read more...
Christian guest-house owners must pay damages
~The Christian owners of a guesthouse in the UK who restrict double rooms to married couples have been ordered to pay £3,600 in damages to a homosexual couple, but leave to appeal has been granted. In a ruling earlier today, His Hon. Judge Andrew Rutherford declared that Peter and Hazelmary Bull's (pictured) policy was illegal. Read more...
A quarter of young adult relationships prone to violence
~More than a quarter of young adults in the US say that they have experienced violence in their current relationship, according to a study produced by the Child Trends think-tank. The report examined the sexual relationships of those aged 18-25, and found that 26 per cent of those in that age group reported experiencing violence, perpetrated by either themselves or their partner. Read more...
Row as EU diary snubs Christian feastdays
~A row has erupted over an official EU diary for 2011 which refers to Jewish, Hindu, Sikh and Muslim festivities but makes no mention of Christmas, or any other Christian holidays. More than three million copies of the diary, intended for secondary schools, have been produced by the European Commission. Read more...
Children’s rights referendum retains limits on State power of intervention: report
~Social workers will not be given new and additional powers to intervene in families under the Government's planned children's referendum, according to a report in the Irish Independent. Currently, the Constitution only allows the State to remove children from their families "in exceptional cases" where parents, for physical or moral reasons, fail in their duty towards their children. Read more...
Only 81 same-sex couples have applied for Civil Partnership so far
~Only 81 same-sex couples so far have notified the General Registrar Office (GRO) of their intent to enter into a civil partnership, according to a report in the Irish Times. The GRO received 18 notices of intention to enter a civil partnership up to January 10th. A further 63 appointments to give notice of an intention to enter a civil partnership were received. Read more...
Children’s rights wording to be published soon
~The Government has provisionally signed off on the wording of a constitutional amendment enshrining children’s rights. It is believed that a wording will be published shortly, once a minor technical issue is resolved in the coming days, the Irish Times reported on Thursday. Read more...
Catholic training college ‘teaching too much religion’
~Inspectors from the Teaching Council have accused Mary Immaculate teacher training college of spending too much time on religion. The report by the Council said that the time allocated for religion in the college was four times that for science. It also found that the time allocated for visual arts and Irish was four times that for science. Read more...
Divorced people over-represented in psychiatric hospitals
~Divorced people had the highest rate of hospitalisation in psychiatric units last year, according to new figures from the Health Research Board (HRB). The figures show that the rate of hospitalisation for divorced people was 115.9 per 100,000, nearly twice the national average of 66.3 per 100,000. Read more...
Pope in strongest defence of religious freedom to date
~The Pope has delivered his most robust defence of religious freedom to date once again accusing some Western countries of attempting to marginalise religion, remove religious symbols from public view and of overriding the conscience rights of religious believers. Read more...
Faith-based schools unfairly attacked says bishop
~The head of the Catholic Education Service (CES) in England and Wales, Bishop Malcolm McMahon, has said that Catholic schools feel under constant attack from critics of faith-based education. Bishop McMahon, said that the secularists, teachers’ leaders and their “friends in parliament” who call for the abolition of faith schools received more publicity than they deserve. Read more...
US passports replace ‘mother’ and father’ with ‘parent one’ and ‘parent two’
~US passports will no longer contain the words “mother” and “father”, the State Department has said. They are to be replaced with gender neutral terminology. “The words in the old form were ‘mother’ and ‘father,’” said Brenda Sprague, deputy assistant Secretary of State for Passport Services. "They are now ‘parent one’ and ‘parent two.’" Read more...
Quebec bans religion teaching in nurseries run by faith groups
~Quebec's publicly funded nurseries run by faith groups have been instructed not to teach children anything about the religion they profess by the province's Family Minister, Yolande James. The nurseries, known as day-care centres, have been told to eliminate all activities that involve the “transmission of faith” by June. Read more...
Two-thirds of women with young children would rather stay at home
~More than two-thirds of women say if they had young children they would prefer to stay at home with them rather than go out to work according to a new opinion poll. Read more...
Cardinal Pell challenges Catholic politicians
~Cardinal George Pell of Sydney has criticised politicians who claim a Catholic identity, yet consistently defy Church teachings on major issues. His statement came as Australia faces into a number of contentious debates this year over same-sex “marriage” and euthanasia. Read more...
Expert warns we are losing our “anchor points”
~A leading Scottish expert has warned of a “fundamental loss of respect” for parents, teachers and the values “previously instilled by the Church”. Professor Tommy MacKay of Strathclyde University, whose opinions have helped shape some of Scotland's approaches to education said that UK society was “losing its old anchor points” and that Britain was sitting “on an unexploded time bomb of disturbed behaviour”. Read more...
Apple confirms ban on pro-life, marriage statement
~Apple has confirmed a ban on The Manhattan Declaration, which affirms the right to life, religious freedom and traditional marriage. Apple has branded the statement, signed by numerous Christian leaders including Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, as “ objectionable and potentially harmful to others”. Read more...
Parental choice in education a fundamental right says Archbishop Martin
~The right of parents to choose the type of education they wish for children “is a fundamental right”, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin (pictured) has said. Speaking at the launch of “Share the Good News”, the new National Directory for Catechesis in Ireland, Dr Martin said that this right was “not an invention of the Catholic Church in Ireland or of an out-of-date Irish Constitution”. Read more...
Wording for children's rights referendum agreed between AG and Minister for Children
~The Cabinet are set to consider the wording of a children's rights amendment agreed between the office of the Minister of State for Children, Barry Andrews (pictured), and Attorney General Paul Gallagher. According to a report in the Irish Times, Mr Andrews said yesterday the wording was agreed in the run-up to Christmas. Read more...
Cardinal Pell sets condition for meeting with gay marriage campaigners
~Cardinal George Pell has said he is open to a meeting with campaigners for same-sex marriage on condition that the campaigners cease condemning all opposition to same-sex marriage as ‘homophobic’. Read more...
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