Ten per cent of all marriages in Ireland now involve at least one person who has been divorced, according to figures released today by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). In addition, a majority of middle-aged people who marry, are marrying for a second time.

Young children, often from broken homes, are being recruited by Limerick's criminal gangs, according to a major new study.

The Government's Civil Partnerships Bill, published today, reveals “a deeply flawed and poorly thought-out approach to family policy which undermines the special status of marriage,” according to The Iona Institute.

The Government's Civil Partnerships Bill, published today, reveals “a deeply flawed and poorly thought-out approach to family policy which undermines the special status of marriage,” according to The Iona Institute.

A planned code of conduct for UK teachers risks imposing a “test of professional commitment to secularism”, a leading employment lawyer says.

Christians are still giving generously to charity despite the economic downturn, a new poll shows.

The Church of England is set to attack the BBC in report which says that the corporation is treating Christianity like a ‘freak show’.

The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin is set to meet officials from the Department of Education soon to discuss his proposals to divest control of some Catholic schools, according to a report in the Irish Times.

EU leaders have agreed to provide the legal guarantees, including on abortion, the family and education, being sought by the Irish Government ahead of a planned re-run of the Lisbon Treaty referendum later this year.

A culture of broken relationships is scarring children and damaging society, a leading family judge warned on Tuesday.

Parental choice “must be at the heart of education policy”, according to Fine Gael's education spokesperson Brian Hayes. Speaking to the Irish Catholic newspaper, Mr Hayes said that there should be no “one-size-fits-all approach to educational provision”.

Half the children born outside wedlock in the third quarter of last year were to cohabiting couples, new figures show.

The right of parents to send their children to faith schools is recognised in the Constitution and cannot be brushed aside, the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, has said.

Guarantees protecting the Irish Constitution as regards family, abortion and education from aspects of the Lisbon Treaty, plus the accompanying Charter of Fundamental Rights, have been published by the Government ahead of a second referendum in the autumn.

If secularist opponents of faith schools think religion is “a busted flush” they should stop being afraid of its influence, writes the editor of the Times Educational Supplement (TES).

Ninety five per cent of Irish people still believe in God, according to a study launched in Maynooth this week.

Senator Rónán Mullen has challenged Ireland's EU partners to be true to their word and ensure that Ireland receives guarantees on family law and the right to life ahead of a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

Ireland's Catholic bishops have reiterated their commitment to providing “Catholic schools to cater for the needs of parents who wish their children to have a Catholic education”.

Socialist parties across Europe were dealt a serious blow in European Parliament elections at the weekend, as the Socialist group in the parliament, the PSE, lost 20 MEPs throughout the EU.

A Catholic mother in the UK is taking legal advice after Brighton and Hove Council arranged to place her ten-year-old son with a homosexual foster couple.

The little boy was placed in care after his mother had a mental breakdown, the result of an abusive marriage, and was left unable to care for him.

He is to arrive today at his new home, where he will be living with a middle-aged homosexual couple who run a hotel in Brighton.

His mother has not commented on the situation directly, but a Roman Catholic charity, the Thomas More Legal Centre, is providing her with advice.

Neil Addison, the group’s director, said: “We are advising her on her legal options and seeking to resolve the matter with the council by agreement.”

One of the mother’s fellow parishioners added: “Both are Catholic. She is a committed Catholic, he has been baptised a Catholic and brought up by his mother as one.

“She knows she is unwell and cannot cope with looking after him. All she wants is for him to be raised in a regular family atmosphere, by a man and a woman.

“She would prefer a Catholic couple, but if that is not possible, at least a heterosexual one. But social services have given her no choice. She cannot understand how he can be looked after by two men she’s never met.

“Her belief is that they could encourage him into a lifestyle that is against her religious beliefs.

“The other day he asked her, ‘Mummy, are you lesbian or gay?’ She had to tell him she was neither.”

A leading Roman Catholic lawyer, who asked not to be named, told one newspaper: “I have to ask, would a local authority put a ten-year-old atheist child into a devoutly Catholic home? I think not.

“Or would it place a ten-year-old hijab-wearing devout Muslim girl with two gay men? Again, I think not.”

The lawyer added: “This local authority is clearly not taking account of this child’s cultural and religious identity, which it is obliged to do legally.”

Brighton and Hove Council insists that the foster carers are experienced and fully qualified. It has refused to comment on the decision to place the child with a same-sex couple against his mother’s wishes.

The same council was at the centre of a legal row last year when it pulled funding from a care home which refused to ask its elderly Christian residents about their sexual orientation every three months.

It has one of the highest rates of homosexual fostering and adoption in Britain.

This is the latest in a series of cases where local authorities have placed children with same-sex couples as adoptive or foster parents against the wishes of the children’s families.

It was reported in April that a family in Somerset were attempting to block the adoption of their two young boys by a homosexual couple, a plan which they said went against the family’s “Christian values”.

The placement had gone ahead despite offers from the mother’s married brother and her parents to give a home to the children.

In Edinburgh two grandparents were told that at 46 and 59 they were too old to adopt their four and five-year-old grandchildren.

When they objected to Edinburgh County Council’s decision to give the children to a gay couple, they were told to drop their opposition or be cut off from the children completely.

09/06/09