A bishop has expressed alarm that the chapel in Mountjoy prison in Dublin is to be repurposed, rendering it out-of-action for 8 weeks.

The chapel will be closed for remodelling to create space for “video link capacity”.

Bishop Martin Hayes released a strong statement condemning the lack of consultation and timing of the move.

He said there has not been appropriate consultation with prisoners or with prison chaplains regarding the project and the unilateral approach “runs counter to maintaining harmonious and respectful relations in our prison community”.

“I can only conclude that, arising from the approach taken and speed of action, that prisoners’ rights in Mountjoy – in terms of their freedom of religious expression – have been suppressed by authorities. As the holy season of Advent leading up to Christmas begins this Sunday, the timing of this decision is particularly poignant”.

A Franciscan College in Aleppo, Syria, was heavily damaged by a Russian attack on Sunday.

Russia supports Syrian Leader Bashar al Assad and the bombings were in response to Jihadist rebels overrunning the city.

The college is located in an inner section of a Franciscan monastery near the church where Mass was scheduled to be celebrated later that evening.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani instructed Italy’s Ambassador to Moscow, Cecilia Piccioni, to meet with Russian officials to request a stop to new military strikes on religious institutions or civilian structures.

On Monday, Bishop Hanna Jallouf, OFM, apostolic vicar of Aleppo since July 2023, said that the situation is now “a little calmer”.

“Yesterday, they bombed Terra Santa College, inflicting serious material damage but without casualties. Now the picture is quieter, even if people continue to be afraid of Russian missiles falling on our heads,” said Bishop Jallouf.

To some extent, the bishop knows the rebel groups who have seized the city since he spent years in Idlib. “They treated us with respect and so far they have not harmed any Christian. On the contrary, the order is to respect our rites, our churches, even our clothes,” he said.

There’s been a call for the new European Commission to work collaboratively to alleviate the continent’s demographic crisis with fertility rates across Europe far below replacement level.

Speaking on the challenges ahead, President Ursula von der Leyen highlighted the urgent need for solutions to demographic shifts, stating: “We must work to tackle the issues facing our regions, from demographic changes to climate change to the need for modern infrastructure. This is the essence of the freedom I speak about today.”

In response, the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe (FAFCE) commended this focus and called on the European Commission “to adopt policies that place families at the centre of social cohesion and sustainable development”.

“As Europe continues to face the realities of a demographic winter, FAFCE urges the Commission to prioritise intergenerational solidarity, family-friendly workplaces, and support for parents and caregivers”, they added.

The UK’s Catholic bishops expressed dismay after the British parliament gave preliminary approval of a Bill to legalise assisted suicide, while those opposing the measure promised to redouble their efforts to stop it from becoming law.

On Friday, Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was approved by Parliament by a vote of 330 in favour to 275 against at the second stage of the Bill with members of all the major parties split on the issue.

Bishop Patrick McKinney of Nottingham said it would be a “devastating law” and added: “This marks a very bleak day in our country’s history”.

Meanwhile, Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “This is just the first stage of a long journey through the Commons and then the Lords for this dangerous assisted suicide Bill. We are now going to redouble our efforts to ensure we fight this Bill at every stage and ensure that it is defeated to protect the most vulnerable”.

The number of teenage girls having babies has dropped sharply from 3,135 in 1999 to 705 last year, but the complex social issues they face have increased, it has emerged.

National manager of the Teen Parents Support Programme (TPSP), Samantha Dunne said more young parents today have a social care background, increased mental health issues, exposure to domestic abuses, high incidences of homelessness and substance misuse problems.

“So although births to young parents have decreased, challenges, adversity and many other systemic issues can impact young parents significantly,” she said. “This has led to the need to expand the age-range criteria, and support parents for a longer period of time,” she said.

Data published on Tuesday by the UK’s fertility regulator revealed that the number of single women undergoing IVF or artificial insemination has tripled over the past decade, from 1,400 in 2012 to 4,800 in 2022.

Experts said this reflected improved NHS access to fertility treatment for single women, as well as changing social norms, and difficulties finding a partner during the Covid pandemic.

The report by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) found that 6 per cent of all IVF cycles are now in women without a partner, who use a sperm donor instead.

On average, single women are 36 when undergoing IVF, which is slightly older than the average age of 35 for couples undergoing fertility treatment. However, the HFEA said single women were increasingly opting to have treatment at a younger age, down from an average of 38 in 2008, which reflects “a reduction in social stigma” around having babies alone.

The inventor of the ‘Sarco’ gas-chamber, assisted-suicide pod, Dr Philip Nitschke has announced he will make the pods available for use in the UK if an ‘assisted dying’ Bill becomes law.

With Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill being voted on on Friday, The Telegraph reports that Nitschke is “absolutely” keen on bringing his machine to the UK.

Professor of law and constitutional government at St John’s College, Oxford, Richard Ekins KC said, “If Kim Leadbeater’s Bill passes, and if the Secretary of State approves liquid nitrogen as an approved substance, then the Sarco death pod would be a lawful means to assist suicide in Britain”.

A person ends their own life inside the 3D-printed Sarco pod by pushing a button which injects nitrogen gas into the sealed gas chamber. The nitrogen causes them to suffocate to death.

The UK Supreme Court has been told it would be capitulating to an “insidious and omnipresent” patriarchy if it allows gender recognition certificates to trump biological sex.

The long-running case about how “men” and “women” are defined in discrimination law is likely to have wide-ranging implications for single-sex spaces, including women’s refuges, prisons, changing rooms and hospitals.

For Women Scotland (FWS), argues that sex is a “biological fact”, which should trump recognition certificates that allow trans people to change their gender, as otherwise “nonsensical outcomes” arise.

Aidan O’Neill KC, representing FWS, urged the judges to “save the day for biological reality” rather than succumbing to “fantasies of legal fiction” that tilt rights against women and express a kind of patriarchy.

Referring to ‘menstruators’ instead of women, ‘birthing people’ instead of pregnant women and ‘bodyfeeding’ instead of breastfeeding were examples of that patriarchy, he said.

“Yet [trans woman] cannot menstruate, cannot get pregnant, cannot give birth, cannot breastfeed.”

People with a disability are facing euthanasia by stealth should the practice be legalised in Ireland, according to a leading campaigner.

Dr Margaret Kennedy who is a wheelchair user said services are so dire, people with disabilities might give up and accede to assisted suicide rather than chose to fight for a better life.

In a scathing op-ed in the Irish Independent she said: “We are to be ‘culled’ by the back door, ‘encouraged’ to shift off this planet as life becomes unbearable. It is euthanasia by stealth”.

She said that many TDs do not appear to understand ‘assisted dying’ legislation has the potential to erode services, reduce palliative care investment and create a major damaging, psychological impact on vulnerable groups.

She notes that many doctors, and groups representing disabled people and older people, oppose such legislation because of what happened in Belgium, the Netherlands and Canada.

When it’s increasingly hard to lead an active, meaningful life, she said, many who are “not able to hang on will make a choice to die rather than fight”.

Gordon Brown said he opposes ‘assisted dying’ because the loss of his baby daughter convinced him of the value of improving end-of-life care.

It comes ahead of a landmark vote on proposals to change the law next week, which have split MPs across the political spectrum.

The former prime minister, who lost his newborn, Jennifer, at just 11 days old in 2002, said Britain should “do better at assisted living”.

Reflecting on the final days of her life in an article for The Guardian, Mr Brown expressed sympathy for those who were terminally ill and feared the suffering that lay ahead.

But he said that, in his view, assisted suicide was “not the only option available, nor even a good option when set against the palliative support that could be available in ensuring a good death”.