Twenty-nine humanitarian aid organizations operating in Iraq signed a joint statement on March 2 welcoming Pope Francis’ visit to Iraq, which will take place on March 5-8.
“As faith-based organizations, we fully embrace this message of fraternity and dialogue that Pope Francis is bringing to Iraq,” the aid organizations’ letter said.
“We firmly believe it represents a necessary way forward to heal past wounds and build a future for the country’s diverse communities. We work in collaboration with the national and local authorities to help communities reconcile, rebuild peace, and reclaim their collective rights to safety, services, and livelihoods.”
Signatories included Islamic Relief Worldwide, Christian Aid, World vision international, Lutheran World Federation, and Catholic Relief Services.
In their joint statement, the 29 aid groups highlighted the significant challenges facing Iraq, including war, insecurity, deeply strained relations between communities and a worsening economic crisis, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, that is pushing many into poverty and depriving the government of resources needed to assist its own people.
The Minister for Health has admitted he does not know what public worship would add to the level of Covid infection. In the EU, only Ireland and Slovenia are currently banning public worship.
In a written answer to a parliamentary question from Carol Nolan TD, he said modelling the specific impact of attendance at religious services and public worship on the R number is not in the scope of the work of the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group(IEMAG), a sub-group of NPHET.
He said it would be possible in theory to model the effect of specific restrictions or policy changes, but IEMAG “is of the view that it is not feasible to provide reliable estimates of the impact on R of very specific interventions”.
Deputy Nolan had asked him if there is specific data available on the contribution that attendance at religious services and public worship has made to the R number with respect to Covid-19; and if so, if he would make that data available.
The Vatican has insisted that rocket attacks on a US base would not deter the Pope from making an historic visit to Iraq on Friday.
A US coalition military base came under rocket fire, five days after President Biden retaliated for a previous strike with air raids on Iranian-backed Shia militias in neighbouring Syria.
A volley of ten missiles Wednesday morning hit the Ain al-Asad base in Anbar, western Iraq. The Iraqi military and the US-led coalition, which share the base, were still assessing the damage early afternoon local time, but said a civilian contractor had died apparently of a heart attack.
“The day after tomorrow, God willing, I will go to Iraq for a three-day pilgrimage,” the Pope said in his weekly address in Rome today. “For a long time I have wanted to meet these people who have suffered so much.”
On Tuesday, Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See’s press office, said Francis may accede to the Iraqi government’s request for him to use an armoured car.
The North’s Humanists are engaging in a public campaign to raise the number of people who declare themselves to be of no religion.
They are encouraging people who are “not in any meaningful sense religious” to tick the “None” box when asked about their beliefs in this year’s census.
As a result of the pandemic, instead of adverts in public spaces, the community is focusing on online advertising, press adverts and distributing posters for members to display in their windows for the campaign.
Boyd Sleator, the Northern Ireland Humanists co-ordinator, believes many people tick a religious box because of their family history or cultural background. “But you should understand that if you do that then you will be counted as fully religious in the eyes of policymakers,” he says.
He offers a political argument for declaring otherwise.
Census results are used by government and local authorities to make policy decisions on the allocation of funding to state services such as education, health, social care and pastoral care, Sleator says.
Continuing religious segregation in state schools is “justified” based on census results, he adds, as is the requirement for Christian worship in state schools “and aspects of our constitutional settlement like, for example, the ongoing presence of 26 bishops voting in parliament”.
“If you don’t want this to happen, then you should tick ‘None’,” he says.
A 43-year-old woman has won the right to implant eggs fertilised with the sperm of her ex-husband against his will in a first for the Italian justice system.
Judges in the town of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, in the southern region of Campania, said that a 2004 law on medically assisted pregnancy allowed people to withdraw their consent up to, but not after, the moment that an egg was fertilised.
The woman said she hoped that her legal victory would help other women and children. “I believe in good conscience that I have done something useful for lots of other women in my situation and for the many individuals conceived in frozen test tubes, to whom until now the law did not offer an alternative,” she said.
About 20 years ago a court in Bologna gave an opposite ruling, upholding the right of the potential father not to have a child.
A lawyer said that this ruling could imply a significant economic burden for the reluctant father, who would be responsible for maintenance until the child was financially independent.
Speaking at their annual conference over the weekend, Co-leader, Catherine Murphy TD said social democracy strives for a Republic of equals, a real Republic which recognises that achieving equality is about more than just providing opportunities—its about ensuring fair outcomes.
“This Republic of equals must be rights based, modern and pluralistic. Civic society must exist separately. For that reason, a modern democracy has to include separating Church and State”.
She continued: “The Social Democrats respect the role of different faiths in the lives of many people, but the blurring of the lines between Church and State that led to so many abuses is still unfortunately part of modern Ireland. We are seeking an agreed approach and we are calling for a Citizens’ Assembly to be established to look at the role of religion in areas like health, and education, and in public life”.
“This would be done in a respectful, deliberative, and evidence-based way, which has been the hallmark of Citizens’ Assemblies to date.”
The Dutch parliament on Thursday became the first European legislature to call the Chinese treatment of its Uighur Muslim minority a “genocide.”
The vote to pass the motion, which is nonbinding, could encourage other European parliaments to advance similar statements. A genocide label can carry legal ramifications in international bodies, in addition to drawing attention to a situation.
Canada’s parliament did so the previous Monday, passing a non-binding motion. The Canadian parliament also wants the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing to be moved if China persists in its behaviour. The U.S. State Department, under previous President Donald Trump, has also stated that China is committing genocide.
Lawmakers in France and the U.K. have also been trying to take a stance against the treatment of Uighur people in China.
Meanwhile, in Ireland, Oireachtas members signed up to an international cross-party alliance of lawmakers who are trying to create a coordinated response to counter China on global trade, security and human rights.
Three senators and one TD have joined the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) in a bid to secure a tougher stance on China from the Irish government.
More than €20 million has been allocated for the rollout of abortion in hospital and community settings throughout the country since January 2019, according to official figures.
The HSE detailed the spending in a written reply to a Parliamentary Question from Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín. They confirm in the reply that €11.5 million was allocated in 2019 and a further €9.5 million in 2020.
Spokesperson for the Pro Life Campaign Eilís Mulroy said the funding was used to cover the costs of abortion provision and advertising, but “not a cent of the vast allocation of funding was spent on promoting positive alternatives to abortion, or on ensuring that women contemplating abortion are informed about these alternatives and the supports that are available”.
She added that in 2019, the first year of the rollout of abortion provision, there was a 60% increase in the number of abortions that took place. The figures for 2020 will be released later this year.
“It is a national scandal that the people who presided over a 60% increase in abortions in a single year are the very same people who are stonewalling women from getting access to information about positive alternatives to abortion. It is also a scandal that taxpayers’ money is being used to fund abortions and facilitate an extreme pro-abortion agenda.”
“We must continue to take every opportunity to challenge and expose what is taking place in the name of ‘choice’ and to find better solutions for women in unplanned pregnancy and their babies”, Ms. Mulroy concluded.
A challenge by entrepreneur Declan Ganley over the Level 5 ban on public worship has been adjourned again. Ireland and Slovenia are currently the only two countries in the EU banning public worship in the fight about Covid-19.
This is the fourth such adjournment.
The High Court has set a date for a new hearing on March 23rd.
The Co Galway based Chairman & CEO of Rivada Networks, a practising Catholic, says that as a result of the restrictions, he cannot leave his home to attend Mass in breach of the State’s guarantee of the free practice of religion in Article 44 of the Constitution.
Last November, he sought leave to bring judicial review proceedings against the Minister for Health, with Ireland and the Attorney General as notice parties. Similar cases have succeeded overseas.
The sides have since agreed the action can be dealt with via a “telescoped” hearing in which the leave application and full case are heard together.
China has reportedly betrayed its deal with the Vatican regarding the appointment of bishops.
That’s according to Nina Shea the director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom.
Writing in National Review, she said Beijing has quietly indicated that it will soon abrogate its “breakthrough” 2018 agreement with the Vatican, which was meant to settle a decades-long dispute over the appointment of bishops in China.
“In November, shortly after exchanging diplomatic notes verbales with Rome to renew the deal for another two years, China thoroughly negated it in a dry public posting by the state bureaucracy. Order No. 15, on new administrative rules for religious affairs, includes an article on establishing a process for the selection of Catholic bishops in China after May 1. The document makes no provision for any papal role in the process, not even a papal right to approve or veto episcopal appointments in China, which was supposed to be the single substantive concession to the Vatican in the agreement”.
She added, “it’s as if the deal never happened”.
