Romantic comedies or ‘rom-coms’ could be destroying real life romance and harming marriage, new research claims. According to researchers at Edinburgh's Heriot Watt University, films such as Notting Hill and When Harry Met Sally are responsible for creating unrealistic expectations of relationships, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph.

Social decline and increased levels of crime are forcing Dutch authorities into reconsidering their noted commitment to liberal policies on legalised brothels, prostitution and soft drugs, such as ‘magic mushrooms’ and cannabis.

A church advert in Northern Ireland quoting Bible texts on homosexuality should not have been banned, according to a leading homosexual rights activist.

A new Vatican document dealing with Assisted Human Reproduction (AHR) has been welcomed by The Iona Institute for emphasizing the right of a child conceived via AHR to be raised by their own biological mother and father.

The EU's Commissioner for Justice, Jacques Barrot, has told EU member states that they should recognise the same-sex unions contracted in other member states for residency purposes.

A draft plan to run a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty will take account of social and ethical issues, according to a report in today's Irish Times. The report says that EU leaders are set to agree a deal which will include "necessary legal guarantees" to Ireland on "taxation policy, family, social and ethical issues” among other items, according to the report.

The biggest family and social problem in Western society is the increasing absence of fathers, according to the Archbishop of Perth, Barry Hickey.

Concerns over social and ethical issues must be addressed before any second referendum on Lisbon can be held, according to the Minister for European Affairs Dick Roche. Minister Roche told The Irish Independent that a series of “legally robust mechanisms” needed to be put in place to reassure Irish voters.

A leading children’s dictionary has ditched words relating to Christianity to make space for new terms like “MP3 player” and “Euro”.

Faith in Britain is increasingly being treated by society as a “private eccentricity”, according to the head of the Catholic Church in Britain, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor.

Both sides of the same-sex marriage debate need to treat their opposition with respect, the Archbishop of San Francisco has urged. In his diocesan newspaper, Dr George Hugh Niederauer responded to opponents of the successful campaign to ban same-sex marriage in California, reminding them that tolerance is always a "two-way street" and criticized those presuming evil motives in the opposition.

Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin has said that the ban on Catholic bookseller Veritas advertising on radio is “bizarre”.

The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has suggested amendments to legislation dealing with religious advertising it has emerged.

The Iona Institute has described as “farcical” the latest ban to be placed on a religious advertisement in Ireland. Their statement came as it emerged that the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has banned from radio yet another ad from religious book-seller, Veritas. The ad was for the sale of Christmas gifts.

Speaking on behalf of The Iona Institute, Mr John Murray said: “The situation facing religious advertisers in Ireland has been proven once again to be entirely farcical. This is the third Veritas ad banned.” A year ago, Veritas had an ad banned because it mentioned the word crib.

Another Veritas ad was banned earlier this week “because it advertised the sale of First Holy Communion gifts and described them as ‘spiritual’”.

This ad, he continued, “referred listeners to the Veritas website which in turn points out that Veritas is owned by the Catholic bishops. Ludicrously, this is taken to amount to the ‘promotion of religion’.”

Mr Murray added: “This latest ad has been banned because it contained the following sentences: ‘Christmas, aren’t we forgetting something?’; ‘Why not a gift that means more?’; So to give a gift that means more’. All of these, apparently, promote religion. This stretches the concept of promoting religion to the utmost and unfairly treats even the most innocuous ‘promotion’ of religion as somehow suspect.”

Mr Murray, who also lectures in moral theology at Mater Dei Institute, the Catholic teacher training college, added: “The Catholic bishops asked in a recent statement that the Broadcasting Bill currently before the Oireachtas be amended so as to ease the restrictions on religious advertising.

“They say that only religious ads that are harmful to the common good should be banned. No reasonable person could argue that the various Veritas ads banned to date are harmful to the common good.”

Other religious organisations to have ads banned under broadcasting legislation include The Irish Catholic and the Power to Change Campaign. The Irish Catholic had a radio ad banned in 2002 because it contained wording about a feature series dealing with ‘the good the Church does’. The series dealt with the work of organisations such as the Society of St Vincent de Paul.

In 2003, The Power to Change organisation wanted to run an ad on TV dealing with the ‘power of Jesus to change lives.’ This was banned from Irish stations but was allowed to air on UTV.

Meanwhile, Veritas has expressed its “bitter disappointment” at the decision. In a statement, it said that it had tried to gain approval from the BCI for an advert since early November, but have had three ads blocked. RTÉ had indicated to Veritas and to the BCI that they were willing to broadcast a version of the advert as presented, the statement said.

The statement accused the BCI of taking “an extremely narrow view of current legislation” and unfairly applying different standards to Veritas than to other bodies.

Maura Hyland of Veritas said that Veritas were “simply trying to inform people of our presence and sell products in our shops and on our website”.

A myriad of adverts were being broadcast for alcohol, and these were not creating difficulties for the BCI, she added. The decision of the BCI was placing the commercial future of the company in danger, and Veritas might be forced to “take further action”.

The text of the ad reads as follows: “Cake and crackers, Santa and stockings, turkey and tinsel Mistletoe and mince pies, and presents and puddings.

Christmas: aren’t we forgetting something?

This Christmas, why not give a gift that means more? Veritas has a range of different and thoughtful gifts, for children and adults alike. From books and music to candles and artwork, there is something for everyone to enjoy and treasure.”

Weakened ties of family, work and community life are leading to more and more people living isolated lives, according to new UK research. The data shows that far more people today are living alone, are single and are fearful within their neighbourhoods compared with three decades ago.

The Vatican is refusing to sign up to a draft UN declaration which would create a right to gay marriage in international law. The declaration, proposed by France, would recognise “sexual orientation or gender identity” as a protected human rights category on par with race and sex.

The intention to be a parent rather than biological fact, ought to determine parentage where artificial reproduction is used, a leading family lawyer has said, according to a report in the Irish Times.

Cohabitees are far more likely to experience domestic violence than married people, according to a new report. The study, Families in Ireland, reveals that, although cohabiting couples comprise only 14 per cent of all couples, 31 per cent of all domestic violence orders are issued to cohabiting partners.