Two Mexican cardinals, a bishop, and three priests have been convicted of constitutional violations for warning the public against the ruling party’s opposition to the values of human life and family, their advocacy of the LGBT agenda, and their promotion of socialism.

The decision was handed down on November 18 by Mexico’s national Electoral Tribunal in response to a lawsuit filed by Mexico’s ruling socialist party.

One of the tribunal judges, Villafuerte Coello, denounced the accused clerics for encouraging Catholics “to pray and ask God to illuminate them when they vote,” in a video transmission of her statements during the proceedings.

“Of course that mustn’t be permitted,” said Cuello. “Votes aren’t celestial or spiritual things. This is about deciding votes with knowledge, with information, apart from pondering other things and this is just what must be respected, because celestial inspiration is not going to cause the best people to be in popularly elected positions. It’s logical.”

Mexican cardinals and bishops convicted for denouncing pro-abortion, socialist government

The Chinese Communist Party’s national conference on religious affairs headed by President Xi Jinping has stressed the strict implementation of Marxist policies, increased online surveillance and tightening control of religion to ensure national security.

During the conference in Beijing on Dec. 3-4, Xi emphasised the importance of “upholding the principle of developing religions in the Chinese context and providing active guidance for the adaptation of religions to socialist society,” according to a statement from the CCP.

Xi said China would further promote the Sinicization of religion, with a focus on strengthening control of online religious affairs, and insisted that all religious activities must be conducted within the boundary of the law, reports Xinhua news agency.

A bill to ensure unborn babies about to undergo late-term abortions receive pain relief is due to be debated this coming week. It comes as Leo Varadkar suggested to the Dail on Thursday that the possibility of extending abortion to cover non-fatal foetal abnormalities could be considered in the future, along with bans on pro-life vigils outside medical centres, and a reduction in the three-day waiting time before receiving an abortion.

The Foetal Pain Relief Bill 2021, introduced by Carol Nolan TD and co-sponsored by ten other deputies, is progressing next Wednesday to Second Stage in the Dáil, where it will be debated and voted on during Private Members time.

Scientific evidence clearly shows that unborn babies feel pain, with the most recent research suggesting it occurs much earlier than 20 weeks. Under Ireland’s current abortion law, there is no requirement on those performing abortions to give precautionary pain relief to an unborn baby, despite the fact that the law permits late-term abortions in certain circumstances.

The news was welcomed by the Pro-Life Campaign who said the Bill is a modest measure that simply seeks to ensure that no baby is forced to endure unnecessary pain as his or her life is being ended. “It’s important to recall that the Dáil passed legislation in 2013 obligating vets to administer pain relief to animals before any procedure takes place that may cause an animal suffering or distress. It is an affront to human decency that babies about to be aborted are treated less humanely than animals,” he said.

A senator has criticised the Chinese government’s regulations on religion which he says are leading to “churches being raided and closed”.

Speaking in the Seanad, Independent Senator Victor Boyhan called on the Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney to publicly express concern regarding the “mistreatment” of Christians. His comments came after a motion was put forward last week by Senator Michael McDowell calling on the Government to act against human rights abuses in the country.

“I would like him to publicly express concern about the way Christians are being mistreated under the Chinese authorities’ new regulations for religious affairs, including crosses being removed, churches being raided and closed and pastors and spiritual leaders being arrested.

“I ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs to raise the matter with the Chinese ambassador to Ireland.”

Scotland’s largest grant-awarding charity has been forced to apologise for discriminating against two Christian groups.

The Robertson Trust, which distributes £20 million a year, was due to contest a case of religious discrimination in court this month.

Instead, it has apologised and agreed a settlement with the Stirling Free Church and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

The decision, recorded in a joint minute at Glasgow sheriff court, follows a two-year battle with the charity, which had cancelled bookings by both groups because they were for religious events.

In November 2019 Shonaig Macpherson, the former chairwoman of the trust, was “incandescent” with anger after she discovered that one of its venues had been booked by Stirling Free Church, where Kenneth Ferguson, the charity’s chief executive, was a senior lay figure.

An employment hearing heard that Macpherson repeatedly highlighted the church’s opposition to same-sex marriage. She heckled Ferguson and turned her back on him at a trust meeting the following January, and two months later he was sacked.

In a blow for the right to freedom of expression, a court in Slovenia has ruled that an NGO, whose pro-life bus ads had been removed in 2018, had not been discriminated against.

The state-owned bus company, contracted by the NGO, Zavod ŽIV!M, had agreed to display their ads for a couple of months. The municipal authorities, however, had deemed the messages “We love Life!”, “You are not alone”, and “I mourn my child”, accompanied by pictures of a happy family, a grieving mother and a woman holding a pregnancy test to be “intolerant”. They instructed the bus company to remove the ads after just over a week. The national equality body found that Zavod ŽIV!M had indeed been discriminated against, but the court now criticised that initial ruling, and asked the equality body to reexamine it.

The director of the NGO, Darja Pečnik, said they want to stand by women in crisis, especially those facing unplanned pregnancies or the loss of a child. “Our bus ads were meant to show them that they are not alone. We are disappointed that the court agreed with the bus company that removed the ads. Our message, which celebrates life, should be celebrated, and instead we have faced discrimination for it.”

A mandated Review of the operation of the 2018 Abortion Act has been commenced today by the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly. Pro-abortion groups are pressing to make the law even more liberal.

Speaking of the launch of the public consultation part of the Review, Minister Donnelly said they are now specifically seeking people’s views on the operation of the legislation.

“Separate in-depth qualitative research will consider the operation of the Act specifically from the service user and from the service provider perspectives, but service users and service providers are also most welcome to contribute their views through this public consultation process.”

Minister Donnelly added that when the Chair’s work is completed in 2022, “a final report will be submitted to me with any necessary recommendations. I look forward to hearing people’s views and to the outcome of this review process.”

The Pro-Life Campaign rejected the approach of the Minister saying his statement makes clear that the process is a ‘closed shop’ to different perspectives, and unless a truly independent chair is appointed, the Minister cannot expect there to be any faith in the process.

A coffin-shaped capsule that allows occupants to kill themselves has passed legal review in Switzerland, according to its creators.

The creator is Philip Nitschke of Exit International which believes that anyone who makes a ‘rational’ choice to die, ought to be able to avail of assisted suicide, whether they are ill or not.

The Sarco machine can be operated from the inside –conceivably just by blinking if the person suffers from locked-in syndrome – and works by reducing the oxygen level in the pod to below a critical level.

Some 1,300 people died by assisted suicide in Switzerland in 2020 using the services of the country’s two largest assisted suicide organisations.

Pope Francis pushed back against the European Commission’s internal guidelines, which have drawn fire for trying to “cancel Christmas,” likening these efforts to dictatorships as he warned against “ideological colonisation.”

Internal communications of the European Commission were leaked last week whereby a 30-page document, titled “Union of Equality,” advised members of the Commission avoid using the word “Christmas” in favour of “holidays.”

The document is “anachronistic,” Pope Francis said yesterday during a press conference aboard the papal flight returning from his four-day apostolic visit to Cyprus and Greece. “Throughout history many, many dictatorships tried to do it,” he added.

“Think of Napoleon: from there… Think of the Nazi dictatorship, the communist one… it is a fashion of a watered-down secularism, distilled water… But this is something that throughout [history] hasn’t worked”.

Francis also said the European Union must take on the ideals of its founding fathers and be careful of not “paving the road for ideological colonisation”.

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has apologised after referring to mothers as “postnatal people” in a set of recently-released ‘safer sleeping’ guidelines.

The guidance, published on Wednesday of last week, made no reference to women, instead referring to mothers as “postnatal people”.

RCM removed the guidance from its website on Thursday morning after it had received backlash on social media soon after it was published.

The apology tweeted by RCM read: “We would like to apologise that women are not mentioned in our recent safer sleeping guidance. This was a huge oversight on our part, especially as we are committed as an organisation to ensure that women are never erased from the narrative around pregnancy and birth.

“We have taken it down from our website while we revise and correct this omission.”

It’s not the first time a medical organisation has changed its terminology around biological sex. In September, the Lancet medical journal was accused of sexism after describing women as “bodies with vaginas” on its cover.