The Catholic bishops’ conference of England and Wales recorded 5,432 baptisms of catechumens aged over seven years in 2024, the highest number in over a decade, as Mass attendance continued to show a gradual increase. The Anglican data shows a similar pattern.
This is a 21 per cent rise from 4,494 in 2023, the sharpest increase since 2013, when 4,702 baptisms in this age group were recorded. The 2023 data already showed an increase above prepandemic levels, compared to 2019 when only 4,059 were recorded. More people aged over seven were baptised in 2024 than in any other year in the 11-year period for which data is available, by quite a considerable margin. The number of people baptised in other denominations being received into full communion with Rome also shows an unprecedented 30 per cent increase from 2023 to 2024. The number of adults receiving their First Holy Communion after the age of 18 rose, from 1,850 to 2,659.
Slovenians voted in a national plebiscite on Sunday against a new law that had legalised ‘assisted dying’.
Around 53 percent of voters rejected the law, while 47 percent voted in favour, meaning its implementation will now be suspended and a replacement bill cannot be considered for at least one year.
The law had decreed that some terminally ill people would be accorded a right to ‘assisted dying’. This meant that patients would administer the lethal medication themselves after approval from two doctors and a period of consultation.
Slovenia’s parliament had approved the law in July after a 2024 referendum supported it.
But the new vote was called after a civil group, backed by the Catholic Church and the conservative parliamentary opposition, gathered 46,000 signatures in favour of a repeat, exceeding the 40,000 required.
“Compassion has won,” declared Ales Primc, a conservative activist who led the campaign against the law. “Slovenia has rejected the government’s health, pension and social reform based on death by poisoning.”
Human rights concerns about surrogacy were aired at a special meeting at the European Parliament last week.
Speakers included the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, a former EU Commissioner, an Italian government minister and representatives of civil society organisations.
The event follows a recent EU resolution condemning surrogacy and comes on the heels of a landmark United Nations report, calling for the global abolition of the practice.
Human Rights’ lawyer, Carmen Correas of ADF International, said: “Surrogacy treats women and children as commodities. The European Union has taken an important step in acknowledging its inherent harms. We urge policymakers to move swiftly toward a clear, coordinated legal prohibition that protects the dignity and rights of all involved.”
Italian MEP, Paolo Inselvini, said: “Today it became clear that a determined European front exists, committed to stopping reproductive exploitation across the globe. We will therefore continue to fight so that Europe abandons all ambiguity and assumes a clear responsibility: surrogacy must be a universal crime.”
Religious education and collective worship in Northern Ireland’s State schools does not comply with ‘fundamental human rights standards’, the UK Supreme Court has ruled.
The court handed down its unanimous judgment on Tuesday in an appeal brought by a young girl, anonymised as JR87, and her father, G.
It found that the syllabus set by the Department of Education is not being delivered in a way that is “objective, critical and pluralistic”, which it said “amounts to pursuing the aim of indoctrination”.
The fact that the young girl in the case could be withdrawn from religious education was not sufficient, the court said, to avoid a finding that the current practice is in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which the UK is still a party to.
The ruling does not appear to impact the teaching of religion in Catholic schools.
U.S. high schoolers are less likely to say they want to get married someday, and less inclined to have children if they do. The drop has been sharper among teenage girls than teenage boys.
That’s according to a Pew Research Center analysis of survey data from the University of Michigan.
As of 2023, 67% of the nation’s 12th graders (17-18 yr olds) say they’ll likely choose to get married someday, down from 80% in 1993. Another 24% say they don’t know if they’ll get married, up from 16%. The share saying they don’t plan on getting married someday is largely unchanged.
The share who say they’re very likely to want to have kids in this situation has also decreased over this time span (48% in 2023 vs. 64% in 1993).
The drop in those who say they want to get married reflects shifting views among girls. Boys are more likely than girls to say they want to get married someday (74% vs. 61%), but this wasn’t always the case. In 1993, a larger share of girls (83%) than boys (76%) said they wanted to get married.
The share of boys saying this is virtually unchanged over the 30-year period. But the share among girls dropped by 22 percentage points.
Dublin City Council (DCC) is coming under sustained criticism for calling its end-of-year special lighting display “Winter Lights” instead of “Christmas Lights”.
“Dublin Winter Lights is back this December, bigger and better,” DCC posted on social media. “Experience the magic in Dublin City Centre with 25 locations featuring spectacular light installations and interactive activities for all ages.”
In the more than 1,000 replies on social media, the comment most frequently made was that the installations should be called “Christmas Lights” – with many echoing the comment from activist Aisling Considine that “Christmas is part of our culture. People of all faiths and none are welcome to celebrate”.
However, Dublin City Council defended the decision, telling Gript that there is a misconception that the festival, which begun in 2018, had been renamed “from Christmas lights to Winter lights, but this is not the case”.
“The festival has always been called ‘Winter Lights’, and the festival has included elements of the Christmas/festive period in its programming and in its marketing.”
Six out of 10 couples seeking fertility treatment are trying to conceive a second child, a leading fertility doctor has said. This is a symptom of the fact that many couples are now having their first children in their late 30s.
The number of births to women in their late 40s is increasing, with figures from the Central Statistics Office showing a record high of 408 babies born to mothers aged 45 or over in 2023.
Dr Ahmed Omar, medical director at Beacon Care Fertility, said the surge in births among women over 45 is likely due to two main factors: IVF treatment using donor eggs, which typically come from younger women; and, the growing use of egg freezing.
He estimates that donor eggs account for most of the increase in older births.
At his clinic, nearly two-thirds of patients are now seeking treatment for secondary infertility.
He sees people who had their first child in their later 30s without fertility help.
But, by the time they are trying for their second baby, they are in their 40s, and then it becomes difficult.
“That’s why we could argue six out of 10 of the couples that we see are not having problems with the first pregnancy, it’s the second pregnancy.”
Archbishop Eamon Martin has urged parents to make their voices heard on a national survey of school choice or risk that choice being taken away from them.
“Parents, who value their current school ethos, should be sure to fill-in this short survey. Otherwise, the choice of future school provision will be made for them”, the Archbishop said.
“The Catholic Church does not wish to have a monopoly on education, and we encourage all those eligible to participate in the survey to do so. At the same time, a faith-based education can be highly valuable for young people today.”
Dr Marie Griffin, the Chairperson of the Catholic Education Partnership (CEP), also urged parents to fill out the survey, saying it is vital that those who value Catholic schools to participate. “If Catholic parents and guardians want Catholic schools for their children, then they need to respond to the survey to that effect. Parents must vote now to secure patronage choice for the future.”
Catholic primary schools currently educate 88.3% of pupils, but 109 have closed in the past decade while 59 multi-denominational schools have opened. With enrolments expected to fall almost nationwide due to a declining birth rates, more closures and amalgamations are expected.
A biological man who identifies as a woman has been granted leave by the High Court to challenge the State’s refusal to recognise him as the ‘mother’ of his child.
The British-born, Irish citizen, who is legally a woman under UK law, used his frozen sperm to have a baby with his British wife after his transition.
He is seeking Irish citizenship for the child with the claim that he is the child’s biological ‘mother’.
The State refused allegedly on the basis that the woman who gave birth to the child is its mother.
He said if he has to claim to be the “father” of the child as part of the application, it would be an “offensive, discriminatory and unjust attack” on his person, gender identity and legal status.
He added it would also be an unjust attack “on the State’s obligation to protect the family as the natural and fundamental unit group of society”.
Ms Justice Sara Phelan granted the petitioner leave for judicial review of the matter and adjourned the case to January.
Each year there is on average one complaint for every thousand schools involving non-Catholic children who feel excluded in Catholic primary schools.
This comes despite a rampant belief that such exclusion is widespread.
In response to a press enquiry, the Catholic Primary School Management Association (CPSMA) said they received “less than five” such complaints in the last two years.
The CPSMA oversees more than 2,800 primary schools.
They field up to 17,000 inquiries every year from parents, teachers and management on a broad range of issues from staff relations, behaviours of concern, admissions and opt-outs.
David Quinn quoted the figures in his Sunday Independent column at the weekend.
