Reports vary on the number killed with some putting the total at more than 50, with the local hospital starting to run short of supplies needed to treat survivors.

Assailants attacked the congregation with guns and explosives during a mass to celebrate the feast of Pentecost.

In a statement, President Higgins said that such an attack was made in a place of worship “is a source of particular condemnation”. He also condemned “any attempt to scapegoat pastoral peoples who are among the foremost victims of the consequences of climate change”.

Authorities have given no information about the identity or motive of the attackers. Many attacks on Nigerian Christians are carried out by Islamists.

Some Owo residents and one Catholic bishop have suggested that the attack may be linked to conflict between nomadic ethnic Fulani herdsmen and local farmers over land use.

Fulani terrorists are regarded as responsible for tens of thousands of deaths in Nigeria since 2009, most of them Christians, but also Muslims from farming communities in Nigeria’s northwest.

The violence has moved further south in recent years, with the Pentecost attack – if it was perpetrated by Fulani terrorists – being one of the southern-most acts of Fulani terrorism.

In recent months, other Nigerian churches have been attacked by Fulani terrorists, with parishioners either being kidnapped or shot by terrorists.

Making the word “women” less prominent in NHS health advice risks harming patients, an expert has warned.

The main NHS web pages on ovarian, womb and cervical cancers no longer refer to women. They have instead been “desexed”, using gender-neutral language that includes people who have female body parts but do not identify as women, such as transgender men.

England’s NHS website used to introduce ovarian cancer as “one of the most common types of cancer in women”. Now it says: “Anyone with ovaries can get ovarian cancer, but it mostly affects those over 50.”

Campaigners said they worried that less literate people, including those without English as a first language, may not realise the health messages applied to them.

Dr Karleen Gribble of Western Sydney University, lead author of a recent review on the importance of sexed language in birth and childcare, said: “I think that the changes to desex language are well intentioned, but we are seeing that they are making communications less clear and when it comes to critical health issues that has great potential to place the health and wellbeing of individuals at risk.”

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bdfde88a-e5b6-11ec-aa87-2eea7c6e5b01

Stephen Donnelly has been accused of going on an “ill-informed” solo run, causing “untold” hurt to families with children born through international commercial surrogacy, a practice banned or not recognised by almost every European country.

The Health Minister had suggested that international surrogacy might not be included in a new Assisted Human Reproduction (AHR) bill, and attempting to do so was delaying a long-awaited push to publicly fund IVF.

Speaking in the Seanad last week, Mr Donnelly said “We need to regulate this sector [AHR] domestically. It’s at committee, and it has been paused. I was asked to stop it for several months, I’ve stopped it for several months. But I’m very keen that we get going with the AHR bill quickly.”

TDs and senators sitting on a special committee on international surrogacy reacted with dismay.

Mary Seery Kearney, a Fine Gael senator who had her own daughter via surrogacy, said Mr Donnelly’s remarks “caused absolutely untold hurt and upset amongst families with children via surrogacy.”

Kathleen Funchion of Sinn Féin said she “literally couldn’t believe” Mr Donnelly’s remarks. She said she was “sick” of the committee being accused of delaying a bill, which has been in pre-legislative scrutiny for the last five years.

Jennifer Whitmore, the chair of the committee, said that she believed Mr Donnelly was “moving the goalposts” at a late stage.

The dead have been taken to the morgue while about 50 wounded people are still being treated in hospital following the attack at the St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo town in Ondo state, said Kadiri Olanrewaju, head of Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Services in Ondo.

The Ondo Police Command has not made any arrests yet nor have they confirmed the identities of the attackers. Islamist radicals have been attacking Christians in many parts of Nigeria.

“We can only confirm that explosives were used and we found three undetonated IEDs (improvised explosive devices) at the scene,” police spokeswoman Odunlami Funmilayo told the AP.

The attackers “sneaked into” the church premises, said the police. Some of them were “disguised as congregants while other armed men who had positioned themselves around the church premises from different directions, fired into the church,” the police added.

The attackers opened fire on the worshippers just as the Pentecost Mass was ending, survivors said.

“There was no warning, no threat, this place has been peaceful,” said Sunday Adewale, who works in the palace of the local chief. “They just looked for people’s soft spot when people are relaxed.”

Anonymous, unidentifiable sperm and eggs may no longer be used for creating embryos in the US state of Colorado.

Gov. Jared Polis last week signed a landmark bill to make the state the first in the nation to give donor-conceived individuals the right to learn their donor’s identity when they turn 18, and access that person’s medical history before that.

The “Donor-Conceived Persons and Families of Donor-Conceived Persons Protection Act,” which takes effect Jan. 1, 2025, also caps the number of families that can use a specific donor and will require sperm and gamete banks to permanently maintain a donor’s records and regularly update their medical history. The minimum age to donate will be raised to 21.

“This is groundbreaking,” said Jody Madeira, an Indiana University law professor and expert on fertility law. “We’re really not sure what these bills should look like ideally, but we have one now.”

An Irish nun working on the missions has criticised the “frightening” lack of attention paid to Nigeria by the global community.

Sr Kathleen McGarvey’s comments come as the European Parliament rejected a motion on Christian persecution, prompted by the murder of teenager Deborah Yabuku in the Sokoto, Nigeria.

Ms Yabuku was accused by classmates of blaspheming against Muhammad and was stoned to death.

Sr McGarvey tsaid that most Muslims do not approve of such actions, but expressed her disappointment that “some Muslim candidates were afraid to criticise the lynching for fear they’ll lose support in an upcoming election”.

She added that Nigeria is “in a very bad situation, it’s worse than ever”, saying that violence is on the rise throughout the West African country.

“There is banditry, kidnapping has become commonplace – it’s causing huge insecurity,” Sr McGarvey told The Irish Catholic. “It’s against Christians, against Muslims. Everyone there feels the insecurity.”

She added that it’s “frightening that it doesn’t get attention worldwide. It’s an awful lot to do with the fact… our attention is on conflicts of more economic interest”.

A Louth-based, pro-life pharmacist has been censured over comments she posted on Facebook about abortion.

Aileen D’Arcy, a hospital pharmacist, was criticised by the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland [PSI] after an inquiry by the regulatory body’s professional conduct committee.

D’Arcy had said that, if passed, the 2018 abortion referendum would mean that “people like me, a pharmacist, will be forced to be complicit in the taking of a child’s life in the womb”.

In her post D’Arcy also said: “People should take the bloody abortion pills themselves and if they kill themselves in the process, it is their own fault, nobody else”.

D’Arcy observed that many UK pharmacists could not practise because they would not supply abortion pills. She also claimed that taxpayers would have to pay “for reckless behaviour”, while responsibility and accountability seemed to be “out of the picture.”

The inquiry was told that D’Arcy accepted that she had made an intemperate comment and expressed regret over it, although she did not accept it constituted professional misconduct. Her counsel argued that all she was highlighting was how pharmacists with her views on abortion might be required to prescribe pills in contradiction of their beliefs.

Remy Farrell SC, counsel for the PSI, said that the PSI did not take issue with the substance of D’Arcy’s views as they were a legitimate political opinion but rather with the inflammatory and inappropriate nature of the language she had used.

Marches to raise awareness about “Ireland’s spiraling abortion rate” took place across the country, May 20-22.

The Marches for Life, organised by the Pro-Life Campaign, attracted hundreds of pro-lifers in Galway, Cork and Donegal.

Speakers at the events warned that pressures are being placed on doctors and nurses to assist in abortions, forcing them to act against their conscience and opposition to abortion.

They called on the Government to introduce proper resources to support and inform women about positive alternatives to abortion.

The speakers included TDs Michael Collins and Seán Canney, along with local Councillors, doctors and activists.

A claim by a Fine Gael TD that a pro-life protest outside a GP’s practice subjected patients to “obstruction and intimidation” appears to be without foundation as the gathering in question occurred on the day the practice was closed, according to Gript Media.

Speaking in the Dail, Neale Richmond said that “patients of the GP practice in my village of Stepaside became the latest to be subjected to an act of sheer obstruction and intimidation by so-called protesters, simply because that medical practice offers full maternal and reproductive care, as per the laws of this land.”

He claimed that the protest was held on Monday. However, Gript have confirmed that the protest he was referring to was actually held on Saturday, the 28th of May. Stepaside Medical does not open on weekends and there were, therefore, no patients attending the practice during the protest.

Richmond did not respond to questions asking if he, having been informed by Gript of his error, still stood over his description of the protest, and, if so, who exactly he believes the protesters had obstructed or intimidated.