The Director of The Iona Institute was a guest speaker at the annual conference of the Progressive Democrats last Saturday. He urged the PDs to develop closer ties to the Churches, and also to develop a family policy that favoured marriage, while also assisting all families in need.

A final wording for the Government's proposed referendum on children's rights has been decided upon, it emerged yesterday.

A proposal from the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) to abolish the tax credit for spouses who work in the home was dismissed yesterday as “ludicrous” by leading politicians.

Divorce rates in the US continue to rise among those who have a poor educational background, new research from the University of Maryland has found.

The Catholic Church in Scotland has decided to fight new legislation which forces them to consider homosexual couples as potential adoptive parents.

In what could prove to be a significant change of tactics, the Church has decided not to close down its adoption agencies in Scotland. Instead, they plan to carry on until they are brought to court for a breach of the new law, which is due to come into force in April.

The Church believes that it will then be able to challenge the legislation in European Court of Human Rights under Article 9 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which protects freedom of religion.

Already, the controversy over the new law has divided the Cabinet and it is sure to be an issue in May's Scottish elections. Scotland's Catholic hierarchy suggested that it may campaign against Labour in those elections due to the legislation.

There are Catholic adoption agencies in Scotland, which place about 200 children and offer aftercare to 2,000 more.

Church leaders had previously said that the agencies would be forced to close, however, a spokesman for the Church said at the weekend that they would not be shutting down the agencies. "We will carry on working until someone takes us to court for breaking the law." He added: "There would then be a case where one of our agencies would be found guilty of breaking the law and would be put out of business."

He went on: "We believe there is an opportunity for a judicial review on the grounds that compelling people to act against their religious beliefs contravenes Article 9 of the ECHR."

A similar challenge is being brought against the government in Northern Ireland, where the act has already been introduced. Brought by the Christian Institute, the bid will go ahead in March, in an attempt to topple the regulations in the Province.

And other examples exist where Church members and people of faith may find themselves breaking the new legislation, the Church has warned. Once passed, the Equality Act, will ban any discrimination in the provision of services on grounds of sexuality.

The spokesman added: "We will see priests prosecuted for saying they are not renting the hall for a same-sex celebration." He went on: "What about the Christian bookshop which refuses to stock gay literature? They will all be breaking the law."

Members of the Scottish Parliament took the step of allowing gay adoption last year, when they passed the Adoption Act. That legislation contained a compromise which allowed Catholic adoption agencies to pass gay couples on to other agencies, rather than being compelled to take them on. This was the situation in England and Wales before the new legislation.

Two major initiatives, aimed at helping to strengthen marriage, have been launched by the Catholic Church in the UK. The projects have been timed to coincide with National Marriage Week, which runs from the 7th to the 14th of February.

Government plans to hold a referendum enshrining new rights for children were set to undergo significant change yesterday, as reports suggested that it was considering a new wording for the proposed amendment.

The Government's controversial tax individualisation scheme has been branded unfair by the main Opposition parties.

Married couples who stayed together are unsung “heroes” according to the head of the Church of England, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

The number of applications for divorce and judicial separations has more than trebled since the introduction of divorce legislation exactly 10 years ago, according to official figures.

The College of Psychoanalysis debated the causes of social breakdown and crime during a meeting in the Irish Writer's Museum in Dublin on Saturday. A paper was presented by psychoanalyst and lecturer, Rob Weatherill which blamed psychoanalysis itself for many of the pathologies facing modern society, including family breakdown.

The Government plans to insert five new provisions in the Constitution aimed at strengthening children's rights and providing greater protection against child sexual abuse, according to reports.

A French politician has been fined almost $4,000 under a French law against inciting hatred against minorities.

A rise in the number of children living without their fathers has led to a sharp increase in youth suicide in Ecuador, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

The head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, the Archbishop of Westminister, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, has accused the Labour Government of imposing “a new morality”.

UK Cabinet ministers have poured cold water over suggestions that Catholic Church adoption agencies might be exempted from new legislation requiring them to consider homosexual couples as potential adoptive parents.

An overwhelming majority of Irish people oppose a recent proposal to lower the age of consent for sexual activity to 16, according to a new opinion poll. The poll, published in the Sunday Tribune, showed that a massive 68 per cent of people are opposed to the proposal.

Senior Church of England bishops last night added their weight to Catholic opposition to legislation requiring religious adoption agencies in Britain to consider homosexual couples as potential adoptive parents. The head of the Anglican Church, Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams and Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York said that "the rights of conscience cannot be made subject to legislation, however well meaning".

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has cited the recent Iona Institute poll on marriage and the family to back claims that many Europeans, the Irish included still back traditional values.