Gunmen attacked St. Mary’s Catholic Nchang Parish in Mamfe, Cameroon, last week, and set it on fire. They also abducted priests, a nun and some laypersons.

The regional body of Bishops -the Bamenda Provincial Episcopal Conference (BAPEC) have called on those that abducted the five Catholic priests, a religious sister and some lay persons to set them free, “without further delay.”

We learnt “with great shock and utter horror the burning down of the St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Nchang, Mamfe Diocese, and the abduction of five priests, one religious sister and two lay faithful by unknown gunmen, (and that they have been) taken to an unknown destination in the surrounding forests of Nchang village on the evening of 16 September 2022,” said a statement released by the Bishops.

Thousands attended the March for Life in Dublin on Saturday, with a report from RTE pegging the number at 2,000.

Participants walked from St Stephen’s Green to Leinster House to call on the Government to address the big increase in the number of abortions taking place, and to stop keeping women in the dark about positive alternatives to abortion.

Eilís Mulroy of the Pro Life Campaign said: “Today, we are uniting with pro-life Oireachtas members to demand that the Government address Ireland’s spiraling abortion rate and make way for positive alternatives to abortion to be promoted.

“In the first three years since the new abortion law was introduced, 20,718 Irish abortions have taken place. This is a national tragedy that demands urgent action to ensure that women contemplating abortion are fully informed about positive alternatives prior to any abortion happening.”

The keynote speaker at the march was Autumn Lindsey, spokesperson for Students for Life of America. She first came to prominence in 2017 when as a teenager she made a rebuttal video that was watched by millions in response to a Teen Vogue article making light of abortion.  She sent strong words of encouragement to attendees:

“Abortion advocates want you to play defense. So, play offense. They may have been able to pass a law, but they cannot change the culture you have created here in Ireland. Life will triumph over death, and we will see abortion abolished in Ireland.”

Catholic primary schools in the Archdiocese of Dublin will continue to prepare children for Communion and Confirmation even as a new policy places greater emphasis on families and the local parish in sacramental preparation.

Under a “sacraments of initiation policy” published last month, parishes assume primary responsibility for the process. But the policy confirms Catholic primary schools will continue to play a key role by delivering the Grow in Love programme.

Under existing rules, schools are entitled to set aside up to 30 minutes of the school day for religious instruction or faith formation.

“Education for the sacraments in the school setting begins with junior infants and continues through the curriculum to sixth class,” the archdiocese policy states.

It adds that content specific to the first celebration of the sacraments of Confession and Communion is a two-year process beginning in first class, while content specific to the celebration the sacrament of Confirmation is also a two-year process beginning in fifth class.

Pro-life groups have assailed the report on a consultation on assisted suicide in Scotland resulting in calls for the Scottish Government to conduct an urgent independent review of the handling of the consultation process.

Right to Life UK said 3,526 submissions from members of the public opposed to a proposed assisted suicide Bill were removed from the consultation.

The report’s author who is also proposing the legislation in the Scottish Parliament chose to remove all consultation submissions from members of the public who were mobilised by Right To Life UK.

Yet, the author directly encouraged 57 constituents, known to support assisted suicide, to respond to the consultation and he included their views.

Right To Life UK spokesperson, Catherine Robinson, said the report’s author, MSP Liam McArthur, “appears to have rigged the outcome”.

In addition, Kevin Hay of Catholic Arena said McArthur chose to release the report on the same day Queen Elizabeth II died, ensuring it was buried under the news of the Monarch’s passing.

He also noted a lack of “visible neutrality” in the survey by not having the results collated by an independent agency.

The highly controversial proceedings that could end in heavy fines or jail time have been widely criticised as an attack against democracy.

Zen, 90, and five others were arrested in May under a Beijing-imposed national security law for allegedly colluding with foreign forces.

Specifically, they are charged with failing to apply for local society registration for the now defunct 612 Humanitarian Fund between July 16, 2019, and October 31, 2021. The fund, for which they all held leadership positions, provided financial and legal aid to pro-democracy protesters who took to the streets in 2019 to oppose a controversial bill allowing extradition to mainland China.

Queen Elizabeth’s strong Christian faith and prayer life, whose funeral took place today, have been recalled by those close to her.

“I think there have been only two Sundays since I’ve been here – apart from Covid times – that she didn’t come to church,” says Kenneth MacKenzie, who for 15 years was domestic chaplain to the Queen when she was at Balmoral.

In the months each year the late Queen was in Scotland, she would attend the little parish church of Crathie Kirk where she would sit in a pew to one side, upholstered in purple velvet.

While one of her constitutional titles was Supreme Governor of the Church of England, this church she attended so regularly was Presbyterian.

Mr MacKenzie felt that might have allowed the Queen to feel she could go more as a member of the congregation, rather than as a figure of authority.

“The moments I’ll cherish most would be those when the Queen would speak to me as a parish minister about things happening in the world,” he says.

It quickly became clear to him she was not only devout, but that she felt strongly that her role had been divinely assigned.

“I knew she felt a calling in some way from her people, but more than that, she saw her calling as from almighty God,” he says.

A humanitarian convoy in eastern Ukraine led by a Polish Cardinal working directly for Pope Francis, continued on its mission at the weekend despite coming under fire from Russian forces.

Konrad Krajewski, the pope’s top charitable official, is in Ukraine for the fourth time, visiting the frontline of heavy fighting in the eastern part of the country.

He travelled there in a minivan packed with humanitarian assistance from Pope Francis.

On Saturday, while distributing food to the Ukrainian people, Krajewski, along with the local bishops of Zaporizhnia, came under fire by Russian forces.

“While we managed to give the first portion of humanitarian help peacefully, during the second one they started to fire on us,” Krajewski told Crux. “For the first time in my life, I did not know where to run,” he said, explaining that a Ukrainian soldier guided him to shelter and warned that the group had 10 minutes before a second round of attacks would start.

“They say there are a lot of traitors in that terrain,” Krajewski told Crux, referring to people who collaborate with Russian forces. “When they spot humanitarian help being distributed, they give a location through their mobile phone and the gunfire starts.”

“We managed to distribute papal rosaries to the soldiers,” Krajewski said. “Almost all of the Ukrainian soldiers, no matter what their faith was, put the rosary on their neck immediately.”

The annual March for Life is set to take place in Dublin tomorrow starting on St Stephen’s Green at 2.30pm. It is set to be the last large outdoor pro-life gathering of 2022.

At the March, people and groups will be uniting with pro-life Oireachtas members to demand that the Government address Ireland’s rising abortion rate and stop standing in the way of positive alternatives to abortion being being promoted. In the first three years of the law’s operation that have been around 20,000 abortions.

Among the speakers will be Carol Nolan, TD, and the Aontu leader, Peadar Toibin.

It is expected they will address the Government’s ongoing three year review of the 2018 abortion legislation.

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a national debate on end-of-life options that will include exploring the possibility of legalising assisted suicide.

A 2016 French law provides that doctors can keep terminally ill patients sedated before death but stops short of allowing assisted suicide.

Macron said in a written statement that a panel of citizens would work on the issue in coordination with health care workers over the coming months, while local debates are organized in French regions.

The government plans to hold parallel discussions with lawmakers from all political parties to find the broadest consensus, with the aim of implementing changes next year, the president’s statement said.

Assisted suicide, which involves patients self-administering a lethal dose of drugs, is allowed in Switzerland. Euthanasia, a process in which a medical professional directly gives the drugs, is currently legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain under certain conditions. Assisted suicide and euthanasia numbers tend to rise fast and the grounds expand once it is introduced.

Macron’s announcement came the day the family of famous French director Jean-Luc Godard said he died by assisted suicide at his home in the Swiss town of Rolle.

French polls in recent years steadily showed a broad majority of people are in favor of legalising euthanasia.

The current law allows patients to request “deep, continuous sedation altering consciousness until death” but only when their conditions are likely to lead to a quick death.

Doctors are allowed to stop life-sustaining treatments, including artificial hydration and nutrition. Sedation and painkillers are allowed “even if they may shorten the person’s life.”

A Fianna Fáil Minister of State who called for a No vote in the 2018 abortion referendum now wants the current radical law liberalised even further.

Unlike other pro-life voices at the time, Anne Rabbitte did not believe in a prohibition on abortion, or retaining protection for the right to life exactly as it was enshrined in the constitution. However, she did think the proposal before the country was too permissive. Now she says she was out of touch with her electorate.

“People have amazed me. Women that I would meet in my own area, that would be in their 80s would turn to me and say: ‘Yes, I voted yes because I remember the marriage bar, and I remember the mother and baby homes, and I know what happened and yes, I think it’s right that women would have their own say.’”, she told the Examiner.

While Ms Rabbitte wouldn’t comment on the current review of abortion legislation, she said: “Where couples are given news that perhaps the baby won’t survive, and it’s clinically the opinion of the gynecologist, we have to leave the choice of their healthcare to the couples themselves. I do think it’s wrong that they have to leave the State.”

Legislation allows abortion up to nine months where a doctor deems the unborn child would likely die within 28 days of birth. Some campaigners want this restriction on disability abortions abolished meaning children who could survive for months, or even years after birth, could be aborted.

In the 2020 General Election every TD who voted against abortion legislation at the end of 2018 returned to office.