The Pro Life Campaign has called for Government plans for the regulation of independent crisis pregnancy support agencies to be consistently applied. Health Minister Simon Harris has backed a draft law issued by Labour leader Brendan Howlin intended to prevent pregnancy advisers from giving false information to distressed women. If passed, this would be the…

Clare priest celebrates president elect’s ‘pro-life’ values

Catholics should remember their duty to visit prisoners, Bishop Denis Nulty of Kildare and Leighlin has said.   Speaking to The Irish Catholic following the Jubilee for Prisoners, during which Pope Francis celebrated Mass in St Peter’s Basilica with over 1,000 prisoners from 12 countries, while he himself had celebrated Mass in Portlaoise and Midlands…

UCD students who believe their student union should cease calling for the repeal of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution have hailed as a moral victory a referendum defeat in the college.   UCD Students for Fair Representation (UCDSFFR) said they are “truly heartened and energised” by the campaign that ended with a 36% vote…

A High Court case to determine the legal status of a child born through surrogacy who was later discovered to have no genetic link to the commissioning parents highlights the “contested, ambivalent and undecided character of contemporary kinship arrangements”, a specialist in bioethics has said.   Describing the surrogacy case as “tragic”, David Mullins told…

The Church should have women priests, regardless of Pope Francis’ views on the matter, the leader of Ireland’s Green Party has said. Speaking in the Dáil about whether Ireland should have an annual public holiday to commemorate the Easter Rising, Eamon Ryan TD countered that such a holiday would be poorly timed, Easter Monday already…

Ireland should act immediately to help child refugees in Calais by taking in 200 unaccompanied children, Sr Stanislas Kennedy has said. The founder of the Immigrant Council of Ireland called on the Taoiseach to respond to admissions by French President Francois Hollande that 1,500 unaccompanied children are at risk and housed in containers outside the…

“Uncertainty reigns in Ireland,” in the aftermath of the UK’s vote to quit the European Union, Down and Connor’s Bishop Noel Treanor has said.  Speaking in Brussels at the plenary session of COMECE, the European bishops’ conference, Dr Treanor drew attention to how Britain’s June 23 ‘Brexit’ vote might impact on Ireland, observing that among…