A Spanish case, involving the separation of twin babies in 1973, has hit the news as the women at the centre of the case are taking the hospital concerned to court. Two of the women are identical twins, but when staff at the hospital handed over one wrong baby to the twins' parents, they were separated.

As you are probably aware by now, the House of Commons voted last week in favour of deleting the current legal requirement that fertility clinics in the UK consider a child’s need for a father. This has been replaced with a requirement to instead consider a child’s need for ‘supportive parenting’.

The votes in the House of Commons on Monday and Tuesday on proposed amendments to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Bill marked a new low point in British parliamentary history.

At the beginning of this month the Association of Management of Catholic Secondary Schools held its annual conference. In a wide-ranging address Association President, Noel Merrick, drew attention to the role of Catholic schools today which he thinks is vital as ever.

I noted with interest the article written by David Quinn in today's Irish Independent (May 2) on 'Claims of Segregation against Catholic Schools'. In particular where it is remarked, 'some schools do have a policy that favours family members of past and present pupils over others. Maybe this should be reviewed, but with an open mind that doesn't automatically dismiss it as an option.'

The Iona Institute has received something of a backhanded compliment from Senator David Norris. Speaking in the Seanad yesterday he (dis)credited The Iona Institute with helping to defeat an attempt by the European Commission to narrow the exemption religious organisations, including schools, enjoy from aspects of equality legislation. What is certainly true is that we were the first organisation to draw this to public attention, chiefly via our education conference of April 8.

The legal quest of the Burden sisters to be recognised as having equal tax status with cohabitating same sex and heterosexual couples has finally been quashed by the European Court of Human Rights. But the reasoning of the court in dismissing the sisters' appeal was odd, to say the least.

Yesterday's court ruling in the UK which held that a man who had split up with his long time, cohabiting partner raises a question: if the law treats cohabiting couples the same as it treats married couples, what is the meaning of cohabitation?

In February the University of Uppsala released a report, based on thousands of pieces of data, showing that fathers play a very important role in the emotional development of their children.

The comments concerning the current government's family taxation policy by Lucinda Creighton T.D., a prominent F.G. Dail Representative, are to be welcomed. It is refreshing to hear a newly-elected Dail Deputy defend the family, and marriage. She is not alone in that endeavour, with others, in both the Dail and the Seanad making significant contributions to this debate in the past 12 months. Ms. Creighton remarks that 'it is Fine Gael's policy to reverse tax individualisation and to promote marriage and the family long into the future.'

Thanks to the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy in the US, which is run by the redoubtable Maggie Gallagher, we now know that Benedict XVI has spoken about marriage no fewer than 111 occasions since becoming Pope three years ago. He has gone so far as to describe anything which undermines marriage and the family as a threat to world peace. Is that true, or an exaggeration?

With regard to the debate on denominational education, those who argue against it on secular grounds generally fail to realise that this kind of secularism really is a particular belief and value system. Rather than seeing this radical- or aggressive- secularism as a certain way of viewing and interpreting reality, secularists tend to unconsciously associate it with reality itself.

‘Is denominational education suitable for 21st century Ireland?’ was the question posed in The Irish Times Head2Head debate on Monday. It featured John Murray of Mater Dei in the Yes corner (he was one of the speakers at our education conference on Friday last), and in the No corner was John Carr of the INTO.

Is it a sign of prejudice to assume, without further investigation, that someone you disagree with is motivated in their attitude to something purely by prejudice? This question arises in the context of a very revealing line in an editorial in The Irish Times yesterday.

Last week, we reported that teachers in the UK were noticing that the decline in traditional marriage was having an adverse impact on education. According to these teachers, from the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, children who come from non-traditional families do worse in class and are often a disruptive influence.

A new survey in The Irish Examiner reveals that levels of frequent Mass attendance are now around the 50pc mark. This includes people who go weekly or more and the result is very similar to that of a Prime Time poll conducted two years ago. So there has been no further slippage in Mass attendance. The Church should take some solace from this fact.

As some of you may be aware, The Irish Times has been running a series of letters recently on the subject of same-sex marriage. The letters have been running at least two-to-one in favour of same-sex marriage meaning it is very hard for those with a different view to be heard properly.

Readers might be interested to read this pastoral letter from the Archbishop of Glasgow, Mario Conti. More than 60,000 of them were distributed to 500 parishes in Scotland in January 2006 to protest against efforts in Scotland to introduce civil partnerships.