A Catholic bishop in England is warning that the legalisation of assisted suicide and euthanasia “undermines the sanctity and dignity of human life.”

Britain’s Parliament will this week consider a Private Member’s Bill called the “Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill” – which seeks to legalise assisted suicide for those terminally ill with six months to live.

Bishop John Sherrington, however, is encouraging Catholics to unite in prayer and compassionate action in opposition to it.

“I wish to reaffirm that the Catholic Church has always been opposed to assisted suicide in every circumstance. The legalization of assisted suicide undermines the sanctity and dignity of human life. There is also now ample evidence across the world that the legalisation of assisted suicide puts the most vulnerable members of society at risk,” he said.

Hundreds of parents and children at schools run by the Hungarian Evangelical Fellowship [MET] have protested the government’s decision to withdraw the operating licenses of the church’s last remaining charitable institutions.

Three schools were closed by order of the Government at the end of August while a fourth was relinquished to the State to keep it operational.

Government authorities cite financial instability, but church members have characterised the decision as retribution for the church’s failure to “toe-the-line” politically and is part of a long-running campaign against the small independent-Methodist denomination, which has 19,000 registered members and operates a network of schools, care homes and homeless shelters located in the country’s poorest communities.

Speaking at a press conference in Budapest last week, MET’s president, Pastor Gabor Ivanyi Snr, said: “What is behind this measure does not serve the interests of Hungary, it does not serve the interests of Hungarian education, and it does not serve the interests of the children in the least.”

Recent events, Ivanyi added, reflected “quite disgusting political game-playing and evil politicking.”

Fergus Finlay has called for the religious orders which ran schools in which children were sexually abused to be stripped of all assets to pay compensation to abuse victims and to reduce its members to a state of poverty. He has previously called for the orders to be suppressed.

Speaking on RTE’s Liveline in response to the scoping inquiry report into sexual abuse at schools run by religious orders, the former Labour Party and Government Advisor said: “I want to see orders like this bankrupted. The Holy Ghost fathers own hundreds of millions in assets, they can employ every legal firm in the country to protect themselves. I want to see them lose those assets and go back to the vow of poverty that they’re supposed to all have taken and I want those assets to be distributed among survivors”.

He repeated the claim on Newstalk Breakfast.

Citing, as an example, the financial worth of schools and other assets of the Spiritan (‘Holy Ghost’) congregation, he said:

“I don’t know what an order that lives by a vow of poverty needs with 157 million euro, but whatever they need, they shouldn’t have it. The land, the holdings, the assets, they should be all devoted, every penny of it should be devoted towards making restitution to the people that they tortured and degraded and humiliated and abused over years and years.”

Their assets include schools such as Blackrock College which would need to be sold to meet Fergus Finlay’s demand.

Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik wants to take faith formation out of schools entirely. She did not allude to the wishes of parents in this regard.

Speaking at the party’s political think-in with a general election looming Ms Bacik criticised the religious orders after the latest report sex abuse in Catholic schools and said that the pace of divestment of Catholic schools had been glacial. When a particular schools is put up for divestment, parents normally vote for the status quo.

“We need to ensure there’s divestment, that we see that the process initiated by [former Labour leader and Education Minister] Ruairí Quinn is now speeded up and continued, so that religious orders, complicit in such awful horrors in the past, no longer have authority over our schoolchildren in our education system.”

She was non-committal on legislation to speed up divestment, but said the party’s policy was to strip “faith formation” from the curriculum, while allowing broad consideration of all religion in class.

Regarding financial redress for victims of abuse in religious-run schools, she said she wants the religious orders to be “made to pay their share.”

On a visit to the country, Pope Francis has praised Indonesia’s birth rate, which is just above replacement level, calling public attention to the global demographics crisis.

Addressing Indonesian President Joko Widodo and civil leaders, the 87-year-old pontiff said: “Your nation has a high birth rate and please continue in this; you offer an example of this to other countries,” he said candidly, deviating from his prepared speech.

“This might make one laugh, but there are some families that seem to prefer to have a cat or dog, but this, this doesn’t work,” he added.

In May, Pope Francis repeated his particular concern for the “demographic winter” affecting Europe and other industrialized nations at the General State of the Birth Rate conference in Italy, warning politicians and business leaders that declining fertility rates will have dire consequences for the future.

While World Bank statistics show Indonesia’s birth rates have also steadily declined from 5.5 births per woman in 1960 to 2.2 births in 2022, the Asian nation is still above the 2.1 replacement level rate of fertility required for a country to maintain its population.

The Scottish Government has scrapped plans to ban so-called ‘conversion therapy’ amid fears of it leading to a draconian crackdown on parents and medical professionals.

A consultation earlier this year made clear that parents could have been prosecuted under the ban.

Concerns were also raised that therapists who seek to investigate underlying reasons for a child’s gender dysphoria could be accused of “conversion” practices.

The Scottish plans had proposed those found guilty of the offence would face up to seven years in jail. While it was stated that “harm” would have to be caused to a victim, “distress” would be enough to meet the threshold.

A fire which has gutted parts of a Co Antrim church is being treated as arson.

On Sunday evening, 49 firefighters attended the blaze which caused significant damage to the Church of Ireland building and hall in Greenisland.

In a statement, police confirmed they are treating the blaze as arson and are appealing for information.

“The Church was celebrating its 70th anniversary this week, and last night was busy in particular. Thankfully no one was injured, however a significant amount of damage was caused to both buildings,” a PSNI representative said.

Speaking about the fire, Reverend Issy Hawthorne-Steele said: “It’s absolutely devastating, it’s a shock. Most of the people are all in shock.

“Unbelievable that we have had such a weekend of celebration and then to hear that the church is on fire has been unspeakably awful, hard to take in.”

The historic Church of the Immaculate Conception in Saint-Omer, in the Pas-de-Calais department of northern France, was ravaged by arson earlier this week. It is the latest of numerous attacks of various kinds on French churches in recent years.

The suspect, a multiple offender who has attempted to set fire to numerous places of worship in the past, was apprehended a few hours after the blaze was brought under control.

According to local authorities, the fire started around 4 a.m. It then spread to the side and central aisles, then to the roof and bell tower, which rapidly collapsed. The fire was contained by 7:15 a.m. thanks to the efforts of 120 firefighters.

No injuries were reported.

The initial investigation revealed that a 39-year-old individual allegedly broke into the premises, smashing a stained-glass window. Arrested and taken into police custody on the evening of Sept. 2, the suspect is said to have been convicted on numerous occasions of similar acts of destruction by fire in recent years.

No teacher should be obliged to deliver Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) classes at second level unless they feel confident teaching “sensitive” material, a trade union has said.

The warning comes after Minister for Education Norma Foley confirmed that Social Personal and Health Education classes, which incorporate RSE. will be mandatory for senior-cycle students, although parents can still opt their children out of such classes.

Senior-Cycle RSE will cover topics such as sexual consent, the influence of pornography, and gender ideology which teaches that a person’s biological sex and the ‘gender’ they identify as are unrelated.
SPHE (social, personal and health education) or RSE (relationships and sexual education) will not be examined as a Leaving Cert subject, but the curriculum will provide scope for students to be assessed in class.

Kieran Christie of the ASTI said in no circumstances should teachers be assigned to deliver the courses unless they “feel they are comfortable and competent,” to teach them and that may require extra training and expertise to address particularly “sensitive” issues.

Islamic militants killed 26 people in a church in a terrorist attack in Burkina Faso, according to the Papal charity, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

The incident took place in the village of Sanaba, in the Diocese of Nouna, in the west of the country, on 25 August.

A large group of insurgents surrounded the community and bound all men over the age of 12 who were Christian, followers of traditional religions, or were considered opponents of the Jihadis. The terrorists then led them to a nearby Protestant church and slit the throats of 26 men.

The attack took place only one day after the massacre in the village of Barsalogho, in the Dioceses of Kaya where at least 150 people were killed, although the actual number may be as high as 250, according to local sources, with another 150 seriously injured.

The same sources spoke of attacks on three parishes near the border with Mali with the result that around 5,000 women and children sought refuge in a local city. A source said there is not a single man among them.

“The whereabouts of the male population is still uncertain, we don’t know if they escaped, if they are hiding, or if they were murdered,” says the source.