News Roundup

New group offers help to schools to be fully Catholic

Catholic schools in Ireland can live their ethos fully while remaining inclusive, according to Dr Áine Moran, co-founder of Folláine, a new Catholic education leadership service which is independent of the Bishops’ conference.

“Catholic schools can be Catholic. It’s perfectly doable to express the faith fully and be radically hospitable. But too often leaders, without formation, feel they must ‘dial down’ the Catholic elements — the prayers, the symbols, even the Gospel story behind their founding charisms.”

Folláine was launched this week in response to the 2018 GRACE report, which identified a lack of formation for Catholic school leaders. The service offers resources, retreats and mentoring to help principals “take on the mission” by becoming theologically literate, confident in their schools’ ethos, and clear about their vocation.

Their focus is on principals, deputy principals and boards of management, rather than teacher formation for teaching specific syllabi such as RSE or SPHE.

A key principle of Folláine’s work is ‘radical hospitality’ — Aíocht — inspired by Pope Francis and Catherine McAuley’s call to “let hospitality be your special charge.”

“We want to rebuild with honesty, integrity and clarity as Catholics,” Dr Moran said. “In The Irish Catholic Breda O’Brien spoke of a ‘thin Catholicism’ in our schools. We hope to thicken it up.”

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Maria Steen saw ‘anti-Catholic bias’ in opposition to candidacy

There was an anti-Catholic bias in the drive by some to prevent Maria Steen from getting on the Presidential ballot paper, according to Ms Steen herself.

Writing in the Irish Catholic, Ms Steen described a cartel-like opposition from the main parties, left and right, and even among some ‘independents’ to someone from outside the establishment running for President.

“I think it is important that I note the anti-Catholic bias that exists within the establishment”, she said.

“I have never hidden my views or the fact that I am a practising Catholic. I go to Mass, say my prayers and try to raise my children to be good citizens. I don’t think that makes me extreme. I am pro-life; as a general rule, I think that we should not kill other human beings. I don’t think that makes me extreme. I think marriage is a good thing for individuals, for children, and for society and that children have a right – as far as possible – to be brought up by their own parents. I don’t think that makes me extreme”.

“And yet people like me are regarded with suspicion and treated by the establishment not merely as unfit for office, but as unfit even to be permitted to run for office”.

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Leading liberal says children fare best with two parents

Children are best raised by two parents in a stable home for as long as possible, according to columnist, Fintan O’Toole, who has campaigned for many of the liberal changes in Ireland over the past few decades.

Speaking on the Irish Times podcast, Conversations with Parents with Jen Hogan, Mr O’Toole said he was actually “very conservative” in his views on relationships.

“Ideally, every kid should have a stable upbringing as much as possible, emotionally. We have just been talking how hard it is, and I have enormous admiration for people who’ve raised kids on their own. I just think how do you begin to do that?”, he said.

“Of course, there are children who have been raised by lone parents who have had fantastic experiences, but it’s easier if there are two people and it is easier for kids if those two people are the same two people for as long as possible”.

He added that if people do get married, “they should be faithful within marriage”.

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Grandmother arrested for offering dialogue in abortion ‘buffer zone’

A 75-year-old grandmother has been arrested and criminally charged for holding a sign near a Glasgow hospital that carries out abortions which read “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.”

In Scotland, “buffer zones” are enforced within 200m of every hospital, forbidding harassment, intimidation, and “influencing” of anyone seeking to access abortion. A similar law exists in Ireland.

The women, Rose Docherty, has been charged with breaching the “buffer zone” around Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.

Reacting to her arrest, Mrs Docherty said: “Everybody has the right to engage in consensual conversation. I held my sign with love and compassion, inviting anyone who wants to chat, to do so – and stood peacefully, not approaching anyone.

“I should not be treated as a criminal for inviting people to chat with me – lending a listening ear. Conversation is not forbidden on the streets of Glasgow. And yet, this is the second time I have been arrested for doing just that.”

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Slovakia bans surrogacy in constitutional amendment

A prohibition on surrogacy has been added to the Slovakian constitution after a proposal was passed by a super-majority of the Parliament.

The amendment, which was drafted by populist Prime Minister Robert Fico’s government, required a three-fifths majority. It went through with exactly 90 votes of the 150-seat National Council, that is, three-fifths of the total. Twelve conservative opposition lawmakers helped the ruling coalition win the vote.

The move also authorised adoption for married couples only, with rare exceptions, enshrined the existence of only two genders – male and female, in recognition of biological reality – and established a constitutional guarantee of equal pay for men and women for equal work.

The constitution had already defined marriage as “a unique union between a man and a woman.”

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Prepare for ‘realities of ageing population’, says Alone chief

Ireland needs to be prepared for “the realities and challenges of an ageing population”, Alone’s chief executive has said.

Ireland is enduring a fall in fertility and marriage rates which means more people will have no adult children or spouse and will be more vulnerable to isolation as they age.

The charity founded by Dublin Fireman, Willie Bermingham, was set-up to help older people living alone. He acted after eight elderly people were found dead in their homes during a very cold spell that spanned a number of weeks in 1976.

As the charity released its annual report on Wednesday, CEO Seán Moynihan said “the UN estimates that by 2050, 2.1 billion of us will be over 60 years old. We need a serious and rational approach to what that means for housing, healthcare and the way we live.”

In Ireland, the number of people aged 65 or over will double by roughly mid-century.

In 2024, almost 44,000 older people were supported by the organisation, the highest number in its history.

Mr Moynihan said it “is a testament to both the efforts of our Volunteers and staff, but also to an immense level of need that exists throughout Irish society. With an ageing population, that need is going to grow significantly in years to come.”

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Defeated referendums ‘needed more groundwork’, claims Humphreys

Fine Gael presidential candidate Heather Humphreys has said the Government should have done more work informing the public about the two referendums which were overwhelmingly rejected last year. She ran Fine Gael’s campaign for a ‘Yes Yes’ vote. One referendum would have inserted “durable relationships” alongside marriage into the Constitution and the other would have deleted mention of mothers-in-the-home from it.

“When I look back now, I think perhaps there should have been more groundwork done,” Ms Humphreys told RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne.

“People didn’t understand what a ­‘durable relationship’ was.”

“There was a very strong recommendation from a Citizens’ Assembly that the words ‘woman in the home’ should be taken out of the Constitution, and of course that we should recognise other partnerships other than marriage,” she said.

“The Government tried to bring ­forward a form of wording that would try to do that, and as I said, we probably didn’t put in enough work.”

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Babies could be created without genetic mothers

Babies could be brought into existence without a genetic mother after scientists created functional human eggs from skin.

American researchers demonstrated it was possible to replace the DNA from an egg with the genetic material from another person’s skin, male or female, turning the hybrid compound into a female sex cell ready for fertilisation.

The team then successfully fertilised the new ‘egg’ with sperm and began growing it into an embryo. The experiment was halted at six days – the point at which an embryo would usually be transferred to the womb in IVF.

The team has produced 82 functional eggs, which were fertilised in the lab, although only 9 per cent went on to develop into early embryos and all suffered from chromosomal abnormalities.

Nonetheless, the breakthrough opens the possibility of skin DNA from a man being placed inside a donor egg and fertilised by another man, leading to a baby with two genetic fathers and no DNA from a woman.

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Four dead after attack on Mormon church in US

At least four people are dead and several others were injured after a man crashed a vehicle into a Michigan church, opened fire with a rifle, and set the building ablaze during a Sunday service, authorities said.

The suspect died after exchanging gunfire with responding officers in the church’s parking lot.

Though officials have not given a motive, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that the perpetrator was “an individual who hated people of the Mormon faith”.

Hundreds of people were attending the service at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormons, in a suburb of Flint, Michigan, when the incident occurred.

Ten people suffered gunshot wounds, including two who were pronounced dead at the scene. Seven of the hospitalised victims were stable, and one was in critical condition.

Two more bodies were discovered in the church as authorities searched through the burned out rubble.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation are investigating the incident “as an act of targeted violence,” said Reuben Coleman, the acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office.

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Wife who died by assisted suicide was ‘controlled by her husband’

A friend of a British couple who died at a Swiss clinic for ‘assisted dying’ has raised concerns that the wife was coerced by her husband into ending her life.

Ruth Posner, 96, and her husband, Michael, 97, sent an email to friends on Tuesday announcing that by the time the message was read they would both be dead.

Julia Pascal, 75, a close friend of the couple, said that although they both openly discussed planning to take their own lives for two years, she felt that Mrs Posner, an actress, was emotionally controlled by her husband.

“Ruth was disempowered,” Pascal said. “He was very dominant. I spoke to them and sent emails, saying ‘please don’t kill yourselves’. I tried to talk Ruth out of it, but I felt it was too far gone, that she was totally under his control.”

Mrs Posner’s email account was used to send the message to friends and family stating: “The decision was mutual and without any outside pressure.”

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