The wife and son of an evangelist, the sole Christian convert in his extended family in majority Hindu India, helped neighbors burn him to death because of his faith, Christian Solidarity Worldwide has reported.
Police described the crime as a family matter and refused to investigate the killing of the man identified as Madhavan, CSW reported in urging prosecutions for the crime.
“CSW forcefully condemns the gruesome murder of the evangelist Madhavan. It is deeply disappointing to see that the police officials haven’t even registered a complaint, let alone taken any action in response to this egregious act,” CSW Founder and President Mervyn Thomas said. “We urge the government of West Bengal and the central government of India to ensure that justice is served in this case and that the perpetrators do not enjoy the impunity that often surrounds such crimes in India.”
The Irish Government has decried the “alarming” and “concerning” crackdown on the rights of the Church in Nicaragua under President Daniel Ortega’s regime including the arrest of several priests and a bishop.
In a statement to The Irish Catholic, Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the “deteriorating human rights situation in Nicaragua, including the repression of freedom of expression and freedom of religion and belief, is deeply concerning”.
“The human rights violations, crackdowns on opposition voices, independent media, religious and other leaders, and backsliding on democratic norms that have been observed in Nicaragua since 2018, and which have intensified since the November 2021 elections, are unacceptable and deeply alarming,” the DFA spokesman said.
South Korea has once again shattered its own record for the world’s lowest fertility rate as it faces the prospect of its population of 51 million people more than halving by the end of this century.
Korean women were estimated, based on 2021 data, to have an average of just 0.81 children over their lifetimes, down from 0.84 a year earlier, the statistics office said Wednesday. Replacement fertility is 2.1 children per couple. The number of newborns declined last year to 260,600, which equates to about 0.5% of the population.
In the decades following the 1950-53 Korean War, the population at least doubled and in an effort to curb the baby boom in the early years of economic development, the government encouraged couples to have only one child.
That policy was scrapped around the turn of the century as births started to sharply fall, prompting the government to spend tens of billion of dollars each year to encourage more children, but with little success so far.
Abortion became illegal in three more US states yesterday, two months after the Supreme Court struck down a federal right to abortion as having no basis in the US constitution. This has left it up to individual states to decide their law.
Idaho, Tennessee and Texas joined 10 other Republican-controlled states in implementing near-total bans on abortion.
Another dozen states are expected to follow suit with their own varying levels of restrictions. Many more states, run by Democratic administrations, allow access to abortion beyond even the very permissive Roe v Wade regime, allowing the procedure up to birth on-demand.
The laws in Idaho, Tennessee and Texas were “triggered” after the US Supreme Court on 24 June overturned the landmark 1973 “Roe v. Wade” thereby allowing states to set their own laws.
In Texas, under the new law, doctors could face life in prison and a fine of no less than $100,000 for performing an abortion.
Texas and Tennessee make no exceptions for rape or incest, though Idaho does.
State restrictions range from total bans on elective abortions to bans that kick in upon a foetal heartbeat, usually after six weeks, or as late as 15 weeks into a pregnancy.
Ireland’s birth rate increased by just over 16% to 16,131 in the first quarter of this year when compared with the same period in 2021 when the country was badly affected by Covid. The new total is just below the corresponding figure for 2017. However, it is still below replacement level.
The first quarter births in 2017 were 16,487; in 2018 it declined to 15,659; in 2019, the figure rose slightly to 15,893; in 2020, it declined to 14,371; in 2021, during the covid19 pandemic, it declined even more to 13,895.
Gerard Doolan, Statistician in the Vital Statistics Division, said: “We can see the number of births has increased by 2,236 when compared with the same quarter in the previous year, up from 13,895 in quarter one 2021 to 16,131 in quarter one 2022.
“Births to teenage mothers increased from 179 in quarter one 2021 to 194 in quarter one 2022.
“More than two in five of all births were outside of marriage/civil partnership, compared to the same quarter a year earlier when 40.1% of births were to mothers outside of marriage.
“Ten years ago, in quarter one 2012, this proportion was more than one in three births.”
An Appeals Court today will hear whether authorities can prohibit a silent prayer gathering on a public street in Pforzheim, Germany.
In May 2021, a lower court allowed a ban on groups praying “within sight” of an abortion counselling facility.
40 Days for Life group leader, Pavica Vojnović, however says that the prohibition constitutes an egregious violation of fundamental freedoms. The group hopes the court will lift the ban, recognising their rights to freedom of religion, expression, and assembly.
“What kind of society restricts prayer for vulnerable women and children? By prohibiting even silent prayer near an abortion counselling facility, the Pforzheim authorities have gone beyond what could be considered reasonable or proportionate. Whether or not people agree with the group’s views on the sanctity of life, everyone can support the fundamental rights to freedom of religion, expression, and assembly,” said Lidia Rieder, legal officer for ADF International, who has supported Vojnović’s case.
Marriage benefits women and encourages men to care for their children, a pro-family advocate has told Good Morning Britain.
Harry Benson, Research Director at the Marriage Foundation, told hosts Robert Rinder and Ranvir Singh that a “happy wife, equals happy life,” and that children born to married couples have “odds stacked in their favour.”
He was discussing whether a money incentive would encourage younger couples to get married, at a time where marriage rates are at an all time low.
Benson argued that a married couple provides “the best environment to have children”.
“The reason why societies regulate marriage, and have done throughout history, throughout the world, it to encourage men to invest in their future children,” he said.
“That’s the reason behind marriage. And at the moment, we have a system that actively discriminates against that.”
He added that the low marriage rate is the reason why “50 per cent of babies are born without the dad living in the house.”
He went on to say that the commitment of marriage should be encouraged by the state.
A man in Spain who was paralysed in a police shootout after opening fire on workmates has been euthanised in prison before he could face trial.
Marin Eugen Sabau, 46, shot and injured three former colleagues and a police officer in the north-eastern city of Tarragona in December.
After being shot in the spine and left partially paralysed, he had begged to be euthanised rather than face trial.
A law – passed in Spain last year – states that adults with serious and incurable conditions that cause “unbearable suffering” can choose to end their lives.
But victims of the shooting opposed the request, arguing that Sabau should be brought to justice.
A court in Tarragona, however, ruled that it was Sabau’s fundamental right to request euthanasia considering his circumstances and stated that in line with the law, the judicial system had no right to interfere.
A bench and sculpture celebrating the lives of two of Ireland’s leading humanitarians, brothers Fr Aengus and Fr Jack Finucane, were unveiled in Limerick city on Thursday.
The brothers Finucane, both Spiritan priests, first came to worldwide attention in the late 1960s when they shipped thousands of tons of food to starving Biafrans in west Africa during a war with Nigerian authorities.
Fr Aengus and Fr Jack organised mercy-flights aid effort in Biafra.
The airstrip they used was under constant attack from Nigerian bombers, especially when the aid aircraft were taking off and landing.
The Biafran war was the first involving mass starvation to be reported on television and the Nigerian blockade provoked worldwide outrage. In 1970 Fr Jack was briefly imprisoned by the Nigerian authorities before being expelled.
Their Biafra aid campaign led to the founding of Concern Worldwide in 1968. Subsequently, both men were involved with relief efforts in Bangladesh in the 1970s, Ethiopia in the 1980s, Rwanda in the 1990s, Sudan and the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.
Members of the Church of Ireland have been asked “to give urgent consideration” as to how they can provide accommodation for people fleeing Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Its Church and Society Commission has appealed to “anyone who owns or knows of buildings in good or habitable repair for immediate use which could accommodate groups of Ukrainian refugees” to contact the relevant Government agency.
This follows consultation by the commission with the Department which manages short–term accommodation needs, in light of the current shortage of accommodation for refugees, and the need to “sustain the momentum for the long run on behalf of people who have lost everything at home,” as the Church’s commission has put it.
