A Catholic Bishop has contrasted the secular character of An Post’s Christmas stamps with the more religiously inspired stamps of the UK’s Royal Mail.

Writing on social media, Bishop Denis Nulty of Kildare and Leighlin said, “As a stamp collector for years, I’m always intrigued by the design of Christmas stamps around the world, just look at what our neighbours up North and across the Irish Sea will be sending compared to what will be on our envelopes”.

He posted an Irish stamp featuring two people with party hats under a mistletoe with the word “Love”, and also one UK stamp featuring the shepherds in the hills near Bethlehem, and another, of St Joseph leading the pregnant virgin on a donkey.

Out of six designs offered by An Post, only one has a religious theme and it is the one used for international postage. It is also the only one where the word ‘Nollaig’ appears. The rest are all secular in content.

By contrast, the Royal Mail Christmas stamps are all religious.

The boy’s genetic father is British, and the Irish plaintiff was also granted a parental order under British law in 2015. The couple have a second child who has an Irish passport as his genetic father is the Irish man in the couple.

In a two-day hearing last week in the High Court, lawyers for the State said the only legitimate interpretation of the 1956 Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act is for “parent” to be defined as a child’s birth mother or genetic father.

However, the plaintiffs argued that the definition has evolved since 1956 due to developments such as the introduction of same-sex marriage in 2015. The couple said they could both be regarded as the boy’s parents. Campaigners against same-sex marriage in 2015 said demands to recognise same-sex couples as the legal parents of children would inevitably follow changing the definition of marriage.

An attempt to hijack the UK Government’s flagship Health and Care Bill with an extreme abortion proposal has failed, marking a significant victory for pro-life forces.

The lack of support for the change meant it did not even go to a vote.

There was also strong support for the three pro-life amendments to abortion legislation that were tabled to the Bill.

As these amendments were probing amendments, they were also not taken to a vote, but a large number of MPs across different parties showed their support for these amendments by signing them.

The amendments proposed a reduction to the abortion time limit, a ban on sex-selective abortion, and an end to abortion up to birth for disabilities including Down’s syndrome, cleft lip and club foot.

A 43-year-old quadriplegic man in Italy has won the approval of regional health authorities in his his bid to to avail of assisted suicide.

The man, identified only as Mario, was paralyzed in a traffic accident 10 years ago. He had initially decided to go to Switzerland, which has euthanasia laws in place, but then decided to take his case forward in Italy.

A 2019 decision by the country’s Constitutional Court found that assisted suicide was permissible when patients are able to make decisions and are in ‘overwhelming pain’, effectively legalising it. Opponents are concerned it will pave the way for vulnerable people to be put under pressure and the grounds for assisted suicide will expand, as in other countries.

In practice, however, the country’s health system lacks any kind of established pathway to request assisted suicide. Mario’s case is the first of its kind since the Constitutional Court decision, and thus stands to set an important precedent.

The latest decision by the ethical board of the health authority in the region of Marche should clear the way for the patient to go through with the assisted suicide, although the method by which it can be carried out remains to be decided.

Christian groups, a U.S. government panel and former senior U.S. diplomats are furious over US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s decision to take Nigeria off a list of countries accused of engaging in or tolerating religious persecution.

State Department officials gave no reason for the move other than saying Blinken, upon the advice of various department sections, decided Nigeria didn’t meet the legal threshold to be named as a “country of particular concern” in an annual religious freedom list released by the US Govt.

Critics, however, are calling Blinken’s move political, designed to appease an important African partner. One former diplomat called it the “revenge of the bureaucracy” at the State Department. Others questioned how it fits with the Biden administration’s claim that human rights lies at the centre of its foreign policy.

The decision is likely to enhance worries among conservatives, including many evangelical Christians, that the Biden administration — unlike the Trump administration — will de-emphasise the plight of Christians persecuted overseas.

“It’s a victory for the terrorists — it’s a defeat for anyone concerned with human rights and religious freedom,” Frank Wolf, a former GOP congressman, said about Blinken’s decision. Wolf spearheaded some of the key legislation requiring administrations to name religious freedom violators; one of the laws is named after him.

A new report into the kidnapping, forced conversion and sexual victimisation of Christian women and girls was released yesterday to mark ‘Red Wednesday’.

Catholic Bishop, Michael Nazir-Ali, called the practice an ‘endemic evil’.

The research suggested that in the countries under examination, not only are women from minority faith groups particularly susceptible to attack, but often Christian women are targeted most by militants. In Nigeria, Christians make up 95 percent of women and girls being held by Islamist extremists, and in Pakistan, it is suggested that Christians could comprise up 70 percent of minority faith girls and young women forcibly converted and married every year. Hindu girls are also a major target of kidnappings in parts of Pakistan.

Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need’s (ACN) ‘Hear Her Cries’ report is the first of its kind to focus on the phenomenon of young women who are seized, because both their sex and religion makes them vulnerable to abduction and assault. The research, looking at the situation for religious groups in 196 countries, found that the number of incidents involving girls and women being taken from their families, raped and forced to change their faith has grown over the last few years.

There’s been a call for an open acknowledgement of the ‘devastating impact’ of the new abortion law, and the spiraling abortion rate that has resulted in a huge increase in the number of Irish women having abortions in just two years. More than 13,000 took place in Ireland in 2019 and 2020.

At an event outside the Dáil yesterday attended by several members of the Oireachtas, the Pro Life Campaign launched its new document “Ireland’s Abortion Law: End the Silence”.

The PLC also published the findings of an opinion poll it commissioned that shows overwhelming public support for women being offered information about alternatives before proceeding with an abortion.

A second poll finding shows a massive 77% of people support the abortion law being amended to ensure that babies who survive the abortion procedure are given medical care.

Speaking at the event outside Leinster House, Eilís Mulroy, spokesperson for the PLC, said, “the silence surrounding the devastating impact of the new abortion law must end.

“Right now, women are being kept in the dark about abortion alternatives. They simply aren’t being informed about other options. This appalling situation cannot continue.

She added: “The silence surrounding the reality of babies surviving the abortion procedure and being left to die alone must end. Ensuring that no baby is ever abandoned and left alone to die struggling to catch his or her breath is a humanitarian issue not a political one”.

A Social Democrats bill dealing with relationships and sexuality education in schools, which they say should be ‘fact-based and free from religious influence’, has been described as ‘an attack on pluralism and diversity’.

Speaking in the Dail in opposition to the Bill, Aontú Leader and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín said he believes all parents should be able to send their children to a school that reflects their ethos.

“This by definition is the pluralist education model that a republic should have. I believe that the Social Democrat members here today should be able to send their children to any school that reflects their ethos. But I oppose strongly the Soc Dems denying parents with a different ethos doing the same. I oppose the Soc Dems forcing their ethos on other families who don’t want it”.

He continued: “The Soc Dem bill is an attack on pluralism. It is an attack of diversity. The Soc Dem bill is a one size fits all bill.  It states that parents can forget about their ethos, that the Minister of the day will determine the ethos of the education system and parents and students can like it or lump it”.

He also criticised the idea of a ‘science-based’ RSE programme with no ethos.

“You need a value system to make sense of science. Science has given us the power to split the atom. Our value system determines whether we use it for a nuclear bomb or a nuclear energy. The Soc Dems will say that they are a party of science, are they saying that they don’t have a value system? Of course not”.

The US city of Philadelphia will pay Catholic Social Services a $2 million settlement and reinstate their foster care contract after the Supreme Court unanimously found in June that the city had discriminated against the group due to their religious beliefs for not certifying same-sex couples as foster parents.

Most of the money will be used to pay Catholic Social Services’ [CSS] legal fees, and CSS will receive $56,000.

As part of the settlement, CSS will be exempt from Philadelphia’s nondiscrimination ordinance, and will receive a contract for $350,000 for foster care. Additionally, CSS will have to state on its website that, while it does not work with same-sex couples, it will refer them to an organization that will.

Ken Gavin, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, said the archdiocese was “grateful that our ministries can continue serving those who count on us, especially foster children in need of a loving home.”

Four Mayo siblings have lost a legal action they took against the National University of Ireland, Galway, claiming they were victims of discrimination, because of their religious beliefs.

Isaac and Enoch Burke, along with their sisters Kezia and Ammi, claimed the university had discriminated against them, when they were banned from being members of all college student societies in 2014.

All four are members of the Christian Union Society. The society held meetings and events at the college and had 127 members in 2014.

Mr Justice Raymond Groarke delivered his judgment in the case at the Circuit Court in Galway yesterday, following a three-day hearing last month.

Acknowledging that the sanction imposed by the university authorities was severe, Mr Justice Groarke said they were entitled to take such action.

He pointed out that there were many procedural flaws in the process undertaken by NUI Galway, but added, while there were absences of fair and proper procedures, these were not motivated by religious antipathy.

In addition, he said the rules “deficient and all as they were, applied equally to all members of the student body”.