Younger staff in Catholic schools are less likely to believe in God, according to new research, but it is still a clear majority at 67pc.

The study found widespread ignorance around key documents which set out the vision and purpose of Catholic schools, with up to 80 per cent of school staff either unsure or not aware of these publications.

While the proportion of school staff who say they believe in God is more than 90 per cent among the over-50s, it falls to 67 per cent among those under the age of 30.

Similarly, the proportion of self-declared Catholics who attend mass once a week is 41 per cent, while among the under 40s it falls to 18 per cent.

At primary level, more than half of teachers in Catholic schools “do not believe in a personal God” and under half, 49 per cent, state that they are “not committed and practising Catholics”.

The report notes that most children in Catholic primary schools are being prepared for the sacraments by staff who describe themselves as being other than practising Catholics.

In Catholic secondary schools, one third of religion teachers are not committed and practising Catholics.

The study was undertaken by a team of academic researchers based at Mary Immaculate College and the Mater Dei Centre for Catholic Education, as part of the Global Researchers Advancing Catholic Education project.

The creation of abortion buffer zones which could potentially criminalise “private thoughts” has advanced in the Scottish Parliament.

The proposed “safe access zones” would extend 200 meters around any facility in which abortions are performed and could be extended even further upon request.

The Scottish Parliament’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee published its “Stage 1” report, expressing broad support for the proposed law.

While the Committee recognizes the “right to protest and private thought as a cornerstone of a free democracy”, it notes that any extension of ‘safe access zones’ or similar prohibition of vigils or protests “would require additional and separate primary legislation and the scrutiny and proportionality assessments that accompany it”.

The report states that the committee had extensive discussion on the issue of silent prayer and “remains unclear how the intent of those silently praying can be interpreted.”

The committee admits that “it could be difficult for the police to reach a clear decision whether the law has been broken by people standing silently praying, in the absence of any other behaviour.”

A debate and vote in the Scottish Parliament scheduled to take place April 30.

The National Women’s Council (NWC) is pushing a European Citizens’ Initiative to gather one million signatures to demand easier access to abortion across the EU.

The aim is to circumvent restrictions on abortion in some states by paying for people to have the procedure done in other, more permissive states.

The ‘My Voice, My Choice’ petition asks the European Commission to “submit a proposal for financial support to Member States that would be able to perform safe termination of pregnancies for anyone in Europe who still lacks access to safe and legal abortion.”

NWC director Orla O’Connor said: “Across Europe, more than 20 million women do not have access to abortion. Here in Ireland, in spite of the success of Repeal, hundreds of women are still forced to travel abroad for care.

“The mandatory three day wait, 12-week limit, and ongoing criminalisation of medics all feed into this situation.

“That’s why we’re joining with sister organisations in Slovenia, France, Spain, Finland, Poland, Austria and Croatia to demand reproductive justice across the continent.”

The European Parliament has broadened the definition of human trafficking beyond labour and sexual exploitation to include the exploitation of surrogacy, forced marriage and illegal adoption.

The EU Council needs to formally approve the agreement. Member states will then have two years to implement its provisions.

MEPs voted on Tuesday with 563 in favour, 7 against, and 17 abstentions to expand the scope of current measures to combat and prevent human trafficking.

The directive says that while some of the newly added practices may already be covered by anti-trafficking laws, they should be recognised as such explicitly.

It continues: “More specifically, as regards trafficking for the exploitation of surrogacy, this Directive targets those who coerce or deceive women into acting as surrogate mothers. The amendments to Directive 2011/36/EU made by this Directive are without prejudice to the definitions of marriage, adoption, forced marriage and illegal adoption, or to those of offences related thereto other than trafficking, where provided for in national or international law. Those rules are also without prejudice to the national rules on surrogacy, including criminal law or family law.”

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has unanimously adopted a Report on “The protection of children against online violence”.

It treats child exposure to pornography as a type of online violence that children are particularly vulnerable to as they watch it massively and suffer serious consequences.

Written by Irish Senator Joseph O’Reilly of Fine Gael, the text says that “Preventing the exposure of children to pornography is particularly important, given the established effects on behaviour and development”.

It notes that “pornography consumption [is] significantly associated with an increase in verbal and physical aggression”. It also highlights the existence of “a link between pornography consumption and compulsive sexual behaviour disorder” and “a correlation between pornography and sexual violence between young people”.

It also states that “Pornography must be understood as a public health issue, for which States are responsible for taking appropriate measures, including education and awareness-raising measures”.

It now goes to Committee of Ministers to act on it.

Landmark US civil rights legislation protecting women from sex discrimination has been redefined to prohibit discrimination based on a person’s “gender identity” instead.

This means rules that used to protect women and girls’ spaces from men might now be used to ensure biological males who identify as women can access those same spaces.

It is unclear how this will be applied to female bathroom and changing areas and to female sports competitions.

The new interpretation of the Title IX protections, issued by the US Department of Education on Friday, April 19, apply to all schools and universities that receive federal funding.

According to the executive, such educational institutions cannot carry out “different treatment or separation on the basis of sex,” which includes a prohibition on any policy or practice that “prevents a person from participating in an education program or activity consistent with their gender identity.”

Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Rachel said, “the Biden administration’s radical redefinition of sex turns back the clock on equal opportunity for women, threatens student safety and privacy, and undermines fairness in women’s sports.”

Facebook has restricted two of The Irish Catholic newspaper’s posts saying they are suspected of breaching ‘hate speech’ and ‘violence and incitement’ community standards respectively even though the two posts did no such thing.

The first post linking an article with the headline ‘Priest will continue blessing planes despite airport ban’, was flagged for potentially going against their standards for ‘violence and incitement’.

The second post, highlighting the Catholic Education Partnership’s (CEP) stance on defending the integrity of faith-based programmes in Catholic schools which ran under the headline ‘Catholic schools staunch on religious cert requirements as INTO put on pressure’ was flagged as potentially contravening their ‘Hate speech’ standards.

Facebook states: “We define hate speech as language that attacks people based on their: Race, ethnicity, national origin or caste; Religious affiliation; Sexual orientation; Sex, gender or gender identity; Serious disabilities or diseases.”

A review has been requested by The Irish Catholic but no response has yet been received. There was also no response from their press office.

There have been more than 400 referrals for State-funded fertility treatment to date, as Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said eligibility for the scheme will be expanded.

Speaking at the unveiling of the Women’s Health Action Plan 2024-2025 on Thursday, Mr Donnelly said the participants had been referred to private clinics for the State-funded treatments.

He added the use of private centres was necessary until a public service could be built up.

Brazil’s bishops welcomed a new resolution of the Federal Medical Council (CFM) determining that doctors must not induce cardiac arrest on an unborn child over 22 weeks gestation.

The abortion method involves an injection of potassium chloride into the unborn child’s heart to stop it, causing the foetus to die. The remains are then removed from the mother’s uterus.

It is used in Ireland in later term abortions, particularly where the unborn child is suffering a from a condition that it likely to mean they will die within 28 days of birth.

The new norm, however, is being challenged by prosecutors and legislators and may not last too long.

On March 21, CFM published the resolution 2378/2024, which states that physicians are “prohibited from carrying out the fetal asystole procedure, a medical act that causes feticide, prior to pregnancy termination procedures in cases of abortion provided for by law, that is, a fetus resulting from rape, when there is a probability of fetal survival at gestational age above 22 weeks”.

Senior Government sources have been reported as saying that further change in abortion law is unlikely before the next general election.

Sources cited by the Irish Times confirmed that Health Minister, Stephen Donnelly, is working on an “options paper” to address the findings of an Oireachtas Health Committee report into a Review of the operation of the abortion law that recommends radical changes.

This will be brought to the Cabinet Committee on Health where Ministers will discuss the proposals.

There is a growing reluctance within the Coalition, however, around making further changes, with one senior source saying it is hard to envisage any major change prior to the general election. Another Government source said they were not sure how much appetite there is for legislative change.

“There’s a clear view in Government that it’s important to respect what people voted for as part of Repealing the Eighth (Amendment), while doing everything possible for women who need to use termination services,” a source said.

There is also a view within the Coalition that people are more worried about access to public services, the cost of living, housing and climate change.