The Government is to consider whether or not to issue guidelines to schools regarding whether or the wearing of a ‘hijab’, or headscarf, by Muslim school-girls can be permitted.

The Secretary-General of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon, has affirmed the importance of fathers in the lives of children. He made the comment as the UN celebrated its International Day of Families yesterday.

Students' freedom to wear religious symbols such as crucifixes in Northern Ireland could be curtailed after Sinn Féin Education Minister Caitriona Ruane revealed that she was considering following English policy which bans displays of such symbols from schools.

Almost one in five, 17 per cent, of US fathers aged 16-45 have had children with more than one woman, according to a newly published study from Child Trends, an American think tank. The study identifies factors associated with men who have children with multiple women, referred to as "multiple-partner fertility".

Minister for Education Mary Hanafin has said she might ban school admission policies that give preference to past pupils and siblings could be banned. Speaking at last week's conference of Catholic secondary school managers, she suggested that such policies might be being used to exclude special needs and newcomer pupils.

The Primate of All-Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, has warned the Government that granting marriage like rights to other family forms undermines marriage, which he called a “fundamental building block of our society”.

The remarks come as the Government prepares to legislate for civil unions which will give same sex partners most of the same tax and inheritance rights currently enjoyed by married couples. In his strongest remarks yet on the issue, Cardinal Brady added that such a move would further erodes “the values which hold societies together”.

The Cardinal, speaking on his return from Israel, where he was accompanied by the leaders of other Churches, said he noted on his trip the importance which all “attached to the bond of family based on marriage”.

He continued: “Something which unites the three great faiths of Christianity, Judaism and Islam is their common belief in the family as the fundamental building block of a strong, cohesive and successful society.”

All of these great faiths believe that God has revealed the family, based on the marriage of man and woman, as the most important relationship in society, worthy of special respect, support and promotion.

The Cardinal went on to warn that the family was “under increasing threat” in the Western world. Echoing the call of Pope Benedict, he called on the media to remember its responsibility “to act in support of and to reveal to the world the beauty of the family”.

The media had “immense influence”, he added. This influence could be used “to build up things that are good and which support and develop our society or things that are evil and which undermine the virtues and values on which society is built”, Cardinal Brady said.

Too often, he added, the values of parents and families were being “undermined and challenged by those who write and broadcast so many of these programmes on our televisions”. He asked why the “values of family and marriage, values which the great religions of the world share” were so under-represented in the entertainment offered by the media. The image of the family reflected in soap operas seldom reflected the beauty and joy of family life, he said.

Governments also had a duty to legislate in favour of families, built on marriage between a man and a woman. “Nothing can replace marriage and family as the fundamental unit of society,” he added.

Referring to the Pope’s message, the Cardinal said “that the peace of the world depends on the defence, promotion and support of the family based on marriage”.

The decline in marriage among women aged between 25-34 is set to continue between now and 2021, according to projections from the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The figures, contained in the CSO's Population and Labour Force Projections, 2011-2041, suggest that the marriage rate among women aged between 25 and 29 is likely to decline from just over 23 per cent in 2006 to 20 per cent in 2021.

Protecting parental choice needs to be a key part of school policy going forward, according to the head of the body representing Catholic secondary schools. Ferdia Kelly, the general secretary of the Association of Management of Catholic Secondary Schools (AMCSS), made the comments before the start of the association's annual conference this week.

Abstinence education is "crucial to the physical and psycho-emotional well-being of the nation's youth," according to a recent report by US think tank the Heritage Foundation.

Two elderly sisters battling to avoid huge tax liabilities in the event of either one dying described a European court ruling denying their appeal as amounting to “persecution”. Joyce and Sybil Burden, aged 90 and 82 respectively, have lived together in Wiltshire all their lives and have been seeking to avoid inheritance tax when one of them dies.

A majority of Italians do not know basic facts about the Bible, according to a new survey. The poll, conducted by Eurisko for the Catholic Biblical Federation, showed that only 14 per cent of Italians could answer a series of questions about the Bible correctly. The survey, which mirrors similar polls carried out in Ireland by the Iona Institute, shows that levels of religious knowledge are similarly low in the country which is the home of the Catholic Church.

Catholic primary schools top the table for social inclusion, according to new Government figures published yesterday. The figures, contained in an audit of schools' enrolment policies, showed that Catholic primary schools were more likely to enrol children from the traveller community, from non-Irish backgrounds and children with special needs than other denominational and multidenominational schools.

Cohabiting couples in the UK who share a home face the prospect of having to divide the proceeds equally in the event of a split, just as a married couple would, according to a ruling yesterday in the Court of Appeals. The judgment sets out new rules for the four million unmarried couples who invest their savings in property.

The Supreme Court's role could be eclipsed by the Charter of Fundamental Rights, according to leading constitutional lawyer, Gerard Hogan SC. And this could extend to laws relating to marriage and family. The Charter of Fundamental Rights will become enforceable under the proposed Lisbon Treaty.

Outgoing Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has spoken of his frustration at a growing hesitation to refer to issues of faith and belief in public debate. At a reception on Tuesday evening for churches and faith communities involved in the Structured Dialogue between them and the State, which Mr Ahern launched last February, he said this hesitation "upsets me and irritates me".

A High Court challenge to the statutory rape law is to be made by a teenage boy on the grounds it discriminates against him because he is male. The 17-year-old from Donegal has been charged with the statutory rape of a 14-year-old girl on August 5, 2006, when he was aged 15.

The annual grocery bill for families in the UK has grown by almost £800 as food inflation hit its highest level in a generation driving up supermarket prices, according to research published on Tuesday. A basket of 24 basic items such as tea bags, milk, cornflakes and pasta sauce at the three biggest stores has seen an increase in price of 15 per cent in the past year.

Rising consumption of alcohol is linked to 46 per cent of murders, 36.5 per cent of fatal crashes, 28 per cent of A&E cases and 25 per cent of domestic abuse cases, according to a report published yesterday by the HSE.

A leading Fine Gael TD has said she would be “very concerned” if proposed legislation to allow for same sex civil unions gave such couples rights similar to those enjoyed by married couples. Dublin South East deputy Lucinda Creighton told the Irish Catholic that she would not support “the conferral of equivalent rights to civil partnerships as currently pertain to marriage”, although she does support the conferring of such rights as next-of-kin and maintenance.