Covid-19 restrictions on places of worship caused significant negative impacts on well-being with little evidence of any benefit at all on public health outcomes, according to a new study.

Published in the peer-reviewed journal, the European Economic Review, “When houses of worship go empty: The effects of state restrictions on well-being among religious adherents” used data on over 50,000 individuals between March 2020 and May 2021 in the United States.

The paper found there is “no statistically or economically significant association between restrictions on houses of worship & either COVID-19 infections or deaths regardless of how restrictions are measured”

It also found small effects of restrictions on public health outcomes in some sub-sets of US counties, but even these are “statistically insignificant for infections and only significant at the 10% level for deaths.”

According to David Paton, Professor of Industrial Economics at Nottingham University Business School, this means restrictions on places of worship imposed a high cost yet had little if any benefit.

He says the author notes these findings are “consistent with recent public health research” that similarly finds other NPIs had very little benefit on public health outcomes.

Prof Paton adds: “Politicians who forced Churches to shut (& then imposed other restrictions) need to acknowledge that, on reflection, their policies imposed an unprecedented suspension of the freedom to worship that did not come close to being justified even on narrow public health terms.”

He suggests the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, examining the UK’s pandemic response, might review this research “to ensure governments never make such catastrophic policy errors again.”

Religious congregations in Ireland should be dissolved, according to former Government advisor, Fergus Finlay. Writing in the Irish Examiner, he said religious orders are “nothing more than vehicles for corruption and abuse, and they need to be shut down”.

“Religious orders should have no recognition in law. They should not be allowed to incorporate themselves as companies or as charities. They should not be allowed to be heard in the courts. They should never be allowed to present to the Houses of the Oireachtas or to lobby the government. They should under no circumstances be allowed to collect money from the public”, he wrote.

“They should not be allowed to own property in the name of the order, nor to buy and sell property. They should never, under any circumstances, be allowed to run any entity — school, hospital, or any other institution — that is funded in whole or in part by the State”.

New legislation to facilitate the market in international commercial surrogacy should lessen concerns about the potential sale of children and the exploitation of woman, by steering people to countries “at the more ethical end of things”, according to a UCC law lecturer.

Prof Conor O’Mahony who wrote a report on surrogacy for the Government in 2020 as the special rapporteur on child protection said the European Court of Human Rights has made it clear that countries such as Ireland “must provide a pathway to parentage, a pathway to recognition of family relationships where surrogacy takes place, using international surrogacy arrangements, and if we were to leave this out of the legislation we would be risking violation of the Convention”.

Speaking on Radio 1, he said: “When we legislate here to recognise surrogacy abroad we can set down minimum conditions around what types of international surrogacy arrangements we are comfortable to recognise here in Ireland.

“So if there are concerns around potential sale of children, if there are concerns around potential exploitation of surrogate mothers and so on, we can build in safeguards into that law, that essentially if someone coming to Ireland having engaged in international surrogacy, would have to apply to the court and satisfy the court, that certain minimum conditions have been met, so that only arrangements which we can stand over from a legal and ethical perspective would be eligible for recognition here and that would in turn essentially channel people to locations where the practice is at the more ethical end of things, rather than countries where, perhaps, there are more concerns around unethical practices”.

Commercial surrogacy is to be facilitated for Irish people travelling abroad, but banned in Ireland, in legislation likely to come before the Cabinet for approval next week. Almost all European countries either ban or do not recognise the practice because they believe it exploits women and commodifies babies.

Two senior government sources confirmed weekend media reports that forthcoming amendments to the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill would effectively allow foreign surrogacy arrangements, where women in other countries are paid to be surrogate mothers for Irish parents who subsequently bring their children home to Ireland, while such commercial arrangements will remain banned in Ireland.

Officials in the Department of Justice had previously advised that it would be “difficult to justify” the “double standard” of permitting commercial surrogacy arrangements abroad while banning them at home.

But an Oireachtas committee pooh-poohed those concerns after hearing that banning commercial arrangements for surrogacy would effectively end the market that is used by hundreds of Irish couples. Its report called for international surrogacy arrangements to be supported.

Now it is understood the Government will bring forward amendments to the Bill which will allow for a system of pre-approval for international surrogacy agreements, and allow the Irish parents to be registered as the child’s parents in Ireland.

It will also allow for parents of existing children born abroad via surrogacy agreements to be recognised in Irish law as the parents.

Government plans to make ‘at home’ telemedicine abortion a permanent fixture has been strongly criticised at the Pro Life Campaign’s National Conference in Dublin on Saturday

The practice had originally been sanctioned only as a temporary measure during the Covid outbreak.

At the weekend conference in the RDS attended by over 400 supporters, PLC spokesperson Eilís Mulroy said: “In addition to the dangerous and unforeseen consequences for women’s health of allowing telemedicine abortion to continue, it is also linked to coercive abortion practices, something the HSE has acknowledged as a reality. Only two weeks ago, the horrifying report came to light of a minor being locked in a room in this country and coerced to take the abortion pill. For the government to give its approval to ‘at home’ abortions as a permanent fixture so soon after this shocking story emerging shows a cavalier disregard for women’s health and an utter refusal to take steps to end the frightful and degrading practice of coercive abortion.

The Catholic archdiocese of Dublin experienced a drop in income of more than a third in 2021, from €7.4 million in 2020 to €5.2 million in 2021, according to its latest financial report.

In 2021 the pandemic continued to have a detrimental effect on Mass collections due to the prolonged suspension of public worship and restrictions on numbers allowed attend. When churches were permitted to reopen, only 50 people could attend services and passing collection baskets along pews was not permitted.

“It was hoped that 2022 would see a return of the collections to the pre-pandemic levels. However, this has proven to be too optimistic as this has not been the case to date,” the report said.

The financial report also found that the Common Fund collection (first collection at Masses) had dropped 49 per cent when compared to pre-pandemic collections

Most of the costs of running diocesan offices are met by the second weekly Share collection. It dropped by 1 per cent in 2021 compared to 2020 figures but, when compared to pre-pandemic 2019 collections, it was down by 61 per cent.

The proposed ‘Hate Crime’ law is a threat to the democratic functioning of society, according to the leader of Aontu.

Speaking in Dáil Éireann last week, Peader Toibin urged Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, to rethink the bill.

“I like many others want a society where citizens engage respectfully, with empathy and with generosity with views or ideas that they disagree with. I believe that can be achieved culturally in society and by raising our children with respect. But this is a bill that takes away human rights”.

It reduces liberty and freedom for citizens to democratically express themselves. The so-called definitions in the Bill are so ill defined that they are wide open for misinterpretation and abuse. I and many others fear that it will inhibit the ability for honest democratic discourse and as a result weaken societies ability to grapple with real and significant challenges. Your Bill is a threat to the democratic function of our society”, he said.

A legal challenge to the unilateral imposition of abortion on Northern Ireland by the British Government has been unexpectedly adjourned, mid-hearing, and postponed until January.

The case alleges the Secretary of State lacks the authority to advance an abortion agenda without the cooperation of Ministers in the devolved institutions.

The unexpected development last week on what was supposed to be the second day of oral submissions before the Court of Appeal.

On day one of the case, John Larkin, SPUC’s senior counsel, drew the Court’s attention to the wording used in Section 9 of the 2019 law that decriminalised abortion in the Province and showed that the power conferred on the Secretary of State was, in fact, much more limited than the Government believed.

Mr Larkin’s argument appeared to take the Secretary of State’s legal team completely by surprise so, on Wednesday morning, they asked for more time to consider how they might respond to it. The Court granted an adjournment and decided not to move forward with the rest of the case until January.

Established by Revelation Media and Alliance Defending Freedom, the petition, addressed to President Biden, states: “Removing Nigeria from the CPC list has led to the emboldening of Islamic terrorists, radical militants, and other extremists who kill, torture, and abduct Christians, as well as Muslims who reject extremism. Adding Nigeria back to the CPC list will send a powerful message that the religious persecution taking place in Nigeria is unacceptable”. In the coming weeks, the State Department will release its yearly list of CPC designations.

“It is extremely important that the United States maintain pressure on Nigeria for the egregious human rights violations, including religious freedom abuses, occurring in the country. Removing Nigeria from the Country of Particular Concern list signaled an alarming disregard for the state of religious freedom in the country,” said Kelsey Zorzi, Director of Advocacy for Global Religious Freedom for ADF International.

Numerous flaws in a proposal for abortion exclusion zones have been laid out by Gardai at an Oireachtas committee meeting on Wednesday.

Representatives from An Garda Síochána appeared before the Joint Health Committee as part of its pre-legislative scrutiny into a bill that would criminalise pro-life supporters for engaging in peaceful activities within one hundred metres of abortion-providing facilities.

Responding to the appearance, Pro Life Campaign spokesperson Eilís Mulroy said the Gardaí confirmed that there have been zero arrests, prosecutions, or otherwise arising from protests outside abortion facilities under current legislation.

“We can reasonably infer then that there has been no demonstrated cases of harassment or intimidation, which are already crimes under existing law. While there have been small displays opposing abortion, the insinuation that these ‘protests’ constitute a danger towards women is an unjustifiable smear”.

She added: “Issues were pinpointed about the impracticality of setting the hundred metre exclusion zones. Incredibly, it transpired that the first meeting between An Garda Síochána and the Department of Health only occurred last Monday, 31st October. The mounting problems related to enforceability point to the irresponsibility of allowing legislative proposals to be hijacked by ardent campaigners and ideologues”.