Taoiseach Micheál Martin has confirmed that the draconian restrictions on public worship will be eased from May 10th. Ireland is currently the only country in Europe banning public worship.
In an address to the nation last night, Mr Martin confirmed that the current ban will continue for almost another two weeks.
Some confusion reigned as to what the new restrictions would be. Mr Martin indicated that there would be a maximum limit of just 50 worshippers irrespective of whether people have been vaccinated or not and despite the size of the church.
However, the official Government publication simply said there would be a “recommencement of in-person religious services,” on 10 May without listing any limit.
It did however state that up to 50 people will also be able to gather for funerals and wedding ceremonies.
It also “advised that other religious ceremonies such as Communions and Confirmations should not take place at this time”.
The Irish Government has had the longest and most sever restrictions on religious services in all of Europe and currently remains the only jurisdiction in Europe with a blanket ban on public worship.
A new Catholic RSE program, and the pace of divestment of faith-based schools, came in for attack in the Dáil yesterday.
Flourish, which is new RSE material for Catholic primary schools, describes sex and puberty as a “gift from God”, and says marriage is between a man and a woman has been developed by the Irish Bishops’ Conference for junior infants to sixth class.
An accompanying document says that there is no such thing as an “ethos free” approach to RSE since it must be rooted in some particular value system.
It says the Catholic school must consider these topics within “a moral framework that reflects the teachings of the Church”.
It adds that the biological aspects of the Flourish programme are entirely in line with the NCCA curriculum, and the programme will be amended, if necessary, when the council’s review of relationships and sexuality education is completed.
Criticising the program, the Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall asked the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar: “Teaching children that relationships can be placed in a hierarchy depending on sexual orientation should be an anathema in any modern republic. Do we really want LGBTQ+ children, who may be struggling with their sexual orientation, to be taught in schools that their relationships are in any way less worthy, meaningful, loving or deserving of respect than their heterosexual peers? That is the inference of this programme.”.
“Sex education needs to be fact based, and facts do not have an ethos.”
Lawmakers on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed legislation which largely exempts the income of Hungarians under the age of 25 from personal income tax (PIT).
In addition, newlyweds will be eligible for new family tax benefits after they turn 25.
The country already offers a lifetime tax exemption for mothers of four children.
According to the law adopted with 166 votes in favour and one against, people under 25 will receive a new general income tax exemption on employment income up to a figure equal to the average national salary.
According to a model by GKI, so-called public earners can take home 12,200 forints (EUR 34) more per month, those earning a minimum wage, 24,200 forints (EUR 67) more per month, those earning the guaranteed minimum wage, 31,600 forints (EUR 88) per month, and those employed on average wages, 58,600 forints (EUR 163) more due to the exemption.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced the plan in January. It is similar to one approved in Poland in 2019. Croatia followed last year with a personal income tax exemption for those under 25, ostensibly to cut so-called “brain drain” tied to young people emigrating abroad.
Welcoming the vote, Minister for Families, Katalin Novák said it will help young people in their transition to adulthood.
Christian advocates praised President Joe Biden for officially recognizing the Armenian genocide over the weekend.
“Each year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring,” Biden stated on Saturday, April 24, Armenian Remembrance Day.
Biden’s historic statement marked the first official recognition of the genocide by a U.S. president, and the first time since Reagan that a sitting president referred to the genocide by name.
Turkey, which has long denied that a genocide took place, criticized the statement. A spokesman for Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sunday called the statement “simply outrageous,” Reuters reported.
However, Toufic Baaklini, president of the group In Defense of Christians (IDC), stated on Saturday that “IDC sends its deepest thanks and congratulations to President Biden on becoming the first president in U.S. history to recognize the Armenian Christian Genocide.”
A Canadian judge has ordered that all three adults in a polyamorous relationship should be registered as the parents of the child they are raising.
Justice Sandra Wilkinson of the British Columbia Supreme Court said that there was a “gap” in the law and sided with the family’s wish to have Olivia, Eliza and Bill recognised as the parents of their two-year-old son.
Olivia has been in a committed relationship with Bill and Eliza since 2016, two years before Eliza gave birth to Bill’s baby, Clarke.
Because the child was conceived through sexual intercourse, however, existing legislation permitted only two parents to be named on his birth certificate. If Clarke had been conceived through a donor or surrogate, the trio — whose full names have been withheld — would have been able to draw up an agreement to be joint parents.
“The legislature did not foresee the possibility a child might be conceived through sexual intercourse and have more than two parents,” Wilkinson wrote. “The legislature did not contemplate polyamorous families.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has again ruled in favour of a Pentecostal church that was suing California over its covid-related worship restrictions, this time lifting a congregational ban on singing.
In an order Monday, the high court overturned a lower court ruling that had denied South Bay United Pentecostal Church injunctive relief from the pandemic restrictions on in-person worship instituted by Gov. Gavin Newsom—rules which have since been rescinded.
Earlier this month, California’s Department of Public Health changed the language on official capacity limits for worship services from “mandatory” to “strongly recommended.”
Last Friday, the Newsom administration lifted all restrictions on singing and chanting in church in anticipation of this ruling.
Thomas More Society Special Counsel Paul Jonna, partner at LiMandri & Jonna LLP, called the high court order the “final nail in the coffin” burying the Governor Newsom’s unconstitutional chokehold on California churches.
The April 26 order was the latest in a series of triumphs that the San Diego Church has been handed by the United States Supreme Court. On February 5, 2021, the court struck down California’s indoor worship ban. Following that decision and the ruling in Tandon v. Newsom (which forbid the state from enforcing COVID–19 restrictions on small group Bible studies and prayer meetings), on April 12, 2021, California announced that it abandoned all capacity limits on churches. On April 23, 2021, Newsom’s administration announced a lifting of all restrictions on congregational singing and chanting in church.
The criminalisation of public worship has been described as outrageous and indefensible and has been condemned totally by Aid to the Church in Need (Ireland).
“Ultimately there is no epidemiological, let alone moral, justification for this act, especially given that people can meet outdoors for other reasons. For example, Dublin zoo reopened on the 26th of April. The Taoiseach, Micheál Martin TD, visited the zoo on the day of the reopening”.
The spokesperson continued: “The right to practice one’s religion is upheld in the Irish Constitution and the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which the Irish Government has ratified. The government is in clear violation of this right. ACN calls on our supporters to pray that public worship in Ireland be reinstated. The right to practice one’s religion is a non-negotiable human right that must be immediately reinstated in Ireland”.
There is no way that abortion and other reproductive health procedures which the Government wants at the planned new national maternity hospital could be stopped or watered down due to any religious ethos, the Minister for Health has said.
Stephen Donnelly said no religious ethos could be imposed at the planned new hospital that would impact on services under any circumstances.
“That is an absolute red line,” he said.
His comments came after the company in charge of the hospital insisted it will be subject to a new constitution to reflect what is describes as ‘international best practice’ on medical ethics in all areas including abortion.
They were reacting after former Master of the NMH, Dr Peter Boylan, told the Irish Independent there were concerns the company would “have the same core values” as the Sisters of Charity which have transferred ownership of the new hospital to a new company.
Dr Boylan said if the company was to have “the same Catholic values” as the sisters he would be concerned there would be “no guarantee at all that they will do all the procedures forbidden by Catholicism”.
The most authoritative Catholic voice in Iraq has argued that the survival of Christianity there depends on the creation of a secular state where all forms of sectarianism are eradicated.
Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans said his concern “is for peace, stability, and especially citizenship for all … to end this mentality of sectarianism, and this bad mentality of a lack of respect for non-Muslims”.
Sako, who leads Iraq’s largest Catholic community, said gestures promoting brotherhood among Christians and Muslims are important, but more needs to be done in the trenches.
“I think the only future for countries in the Middle East is to set up a secular regime, and to respect religion,” he said, insisting that “a secular regime doesn’t mean the opposite of religion,” but it would give equal standing to all Iraqis, regardless of their ethnic or religious affiliation.
Businessman Declan Ganley has called on the Irish Bishops to “open their churches” in defiance of lockdown after his constitutional case against the State in relation to the right to worship was delayed yet again.
His legal challenge to the ban on public worship was originally taken in November of last year. Over the last seven months, it has been repeatedly put back by the Courts, and has yet to receive a full hearing of the evidence. At a preliminary hearing this morning, the case was again put back for mention until May 18th.
Though not directly referencing the delay, Ganley took to twitter to express his frustration, seeming to imply that legal methods of resisting the ban were not bearing fruit. “This will not be resolved through the courts in a reasonable timeframe”.
Instead, he said the Irish Catholic Bishops should “order their parishes to reopen from this Saturday forward for the holding of Covid mitigated public worship, with priests & stewards as well as the congregants all aware we face possible arrest & prosecution”.
