We are accustomed to hearing complaints about how the Church interferes with the State in ways that are democratically unacceptable. Mind you, when the Church even so much as comments on some political development that strays over into morality it is still accused on occasion of violating Church/State separation. This is how extreme some secularists are.

The Irish Times today reports on a conference that took place at the weekend of the Women Lawyers Association. The issue under examination was child protection.

The EU may have no competence in relation to the family but CARE's David Fieldsend at an Iona meeting on 11th Nov alerted us to how its unity may be threatened by 'the re-invention and intolerant application' of a new concept of 'human rights' in the field of non discrimination.

Ruairi Quinn is a politician of substance, whether you agree or disagree with his views. This is why a suggestion he has just made with regard to Church-run primary schools is so out-of-character in its barminess.

Two cases in England have starkly revealed the sort of pressure ordinary Christian believers now find themselves under in their daily lives. One involves a district nurse who asked a patient if she wanted her to pray for her. The nurse was suspended for not showing sufficient respect for the modern religion of ‘equality and diversity’. She was reinstated only after a mighty row broke out.

A terrible case of injustice against a family has come to light in the UK. It highlights how the State can act in a totalitarian fashion once it, rather than parents, gets to decide what is in a child’s best interests.

Two Canadian cases currently in the news show how very complicated things get when the State – backed by ideological radicals – decides that the family is whether it wants it to be.

The Children’s Rights Alliance has issued its 2009 Report Card. It’s entitled ‘Is the Government keeping its promises to children?’ It is divided into four sections: education; material wellbeing; health and safeguarding childhood.