Christians and people of other religions should not "leave their faith at the door" in politics, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said.

The vast majority, 93 per cent, of US mothers believe that there is a “father absence” crisis in America, but single mothers are far less likely to have a positive view of a father's role in the family than married mothers, according to a survey carried out by a leading family research institute.

The Archdiocese of Washington DC has pledged to continue fighting to provide services without compromising the Church's stand on same-sex marriage. It has also rejected the so-called ‘San Francisco option’ as a way out of the dispute.

Last month, the district’s City Council legalised same-sex “marriage”, but the bill contained only a narrow religious exemption for church-run institutions.

Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl warned that passage of the law could make Catholic Charities ineligible for city contracts.

The archbishop has refused to provide employee benefits to same-sex partners, or facilitate adoptions for homosexual couples. He has said he still hoped the current impasse could be resolved without reducing services.

“Religious organizations have long been eligible to provide social services in our nation’s capital and have not been excluded simply because of their religious character. This is because the choice of provider has focused on the ability to deliver services effectively and efficiently,” declared a statement issued by the archdiocese.

“We are committed to serving the needs of the poor and look forward to working in partnership with the District of Columbia consistent with the mission of the Catholic Church,” the statement continued.

Congress must still approve the city-council vote, and opponents of the proposed law have vowed to take their fight to Capitol Hill, or the courts.

In the district, Georgetown University now provides benefits to one other member of an employee’s household, an attempt to avoid explicit approval of same-sex unions. That policy — dubbed the “San Francisco option” — has already been quietly adopted by at least one Catholic health-care provider in the district.

Archbishop Wuerl has opted to reject the “San Francisco option”, which refers to a 1997 decision by Archbishop William Levada of San Francisco, in response to the city’s domestic-partnership law, which required agencies with city contracts to offer benefits to same-sex partners and included no religious exemption.

Archbishop Levada, now head of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, decided to provides benefits to one other member of an employee’s household, an attempt to avoid explicit approval of same-sex unions. The diocese of San Francisco also allowed its adoption services to facilitate same-sex adoptions.

The initiative fueled considerable criticism.

However, a 2006 Vatican directive banning adoptions for same-sex couples forced the San Francisco Archdiocese to close its adoption services, even as it publicly acknowledged that its adoption program had previously placed some children with homosexual couples.

The directive led to the Archdiocese of Boston closing its adoption program, with Cardinal Sean O’Malley unable to identify any other acceptable solution.

In Massachusetts, the 2004 Goodridge v. Department of Public Health decision cleared the way for same-sex ‘marriage’; a subsequent archdiocesan-led effort to put the issue on the ballot was stymied by the state’s powerful Democratic leadership.

However, some states, such as New Hampshire and Vermont, gave the Churches a wide berth to maintain their distinctive institutional practices.

“A religious exemption was written into Vermont’s law from the beginning,” reported Father Daniel White, vice chancellor and moderator of the curia at the Burlington Diocese.

“We wouldn’t be coerced into performing ceremonies,” Father White said. “We were free to hire and provide benefits as we saw fit. All things considered, we have as good a situation as we could hope for.”

However, many legal scholars predict that conflicts over homosexual rights and religious freedom are likely to escalate. Some suggest it is past time to establish a formal framework for balancing the concerns of both camps.

“A lot of people of good will understand that some kind of religious exemption should be provided,” argued Robin Wilson, a professor of law at Washington and Lee University who also testified at the D.C. Council hearings on same-sex ‘marriage’.

But Robert Destro, a professor at the Columbus School of Law and founder/co-director of The Catholic University of America’s Interdisciplinary Program in Law and Religion, doubts whether any moderate accommodation would placate homosexual-rights activists. “They seek total affirmation,” Destro asserted, something Catholic Church leaders cannot provide.

The UK Government is proposing lessons in parenting for 14-year-olds.

A Government quango in the UK is questioning whether pharmacists should still be free to decline distributing the Morning-After-Pill.

Barriers preventing lone parents from working need to be removed, according to OPEN, an organistation representing 80 lone parent groups.

Lone parent benefits may come to an end once a child reaches the age of 13 under a new scheme being suggested by the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Hanafin. One billion euro is paid out in lone parent allowances each year.

A senior Labour minister in the UK has signalled a major U-turn by the Government on the issue of marriage.

A Swedish court has upheld the right of Swedish authorities to seize a child from a homeschooling Christian couple who were about to leave the country to become missionaries in India. There was no evidence of abuse. One of the complaints against the couple is that the child was not properly vaccinated.

Churches should be “lining up” lawyers to defend themselves against secular legal challenges under the Equality Bill, a Government equalities minister has admitted.

Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews has said he personally supports lowering of the legal age of consent to 16.

Lawyers for a small photography company in New Mexico charged with violating anti-discrimination laws for refusing to photograph a same-sex “commitment ceremony” are planning to appeal a court decision to uphold the New Mexico Civil Rights Commission’s ruling against them.

Doctors and parents groups have added their voices to a growing chorus of opposition to a proposal by the Law Reform Commission (LRC) for children aged as young as 14 to be allowed access to contraception without parental knowledge. The age of consent in Ireland for sex is 17.

Minister of Education Batt O’Keeffe has defended the existence of religious schools, saying that schools with a Christian tradition had played "an outstanding part" in Irish education.

Christmas parties pushing up demand for the morning-after-pill, it is being reported.

The group which represents the principals of Irish primary schools has called for bishops named in the Murphy report to step aside as patrons of schools.

Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe has offered to review funding for Protestant schools after discussions yesterday.

A Jewish school has been found guilty of race discrimination by the UK's Supreme Court for refusing places to pupils it did not consider to be ethnically Jewish.

The International Committee of Young Fine Gael (YFG) has condemned the recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that crucifixes should not be displayed in Italian public schools.

The Oireachtas Committee on children’s rights has finalised the wording of an amendment that could be put before the people as early as next year, the chairwoman of the committee, Mary O'Rourke, said yesterday.