Chapter 21 of the Report deals with the Regina Coeli hostel founded by the Legion of Mary. Before the 1970s, it says, “Regina Coeli was the only institution that assisted unmarried mothers to keep their infant”.

“Although the mothers who kept their babies were a minority until the 1970s, the proportion was undoubtedly much higher than for any other institution catering for unmarried mothers”.

It notes that children came to Regina Coeli with their mother, and remained with their mother; and “in a small number of cases a child might remain in Regina Coeli, while their mother was in hospital, prison or otherwise temporarily absent”.

It quotes a lengthy memorandum written in 1950 and submitted to the Department of Health by the founder of the Legion, Frank Duff. The document lays out the philosophy of the group, which was that mothers should be encouraged to keep their children permanently, a course that was “not hitherto possible to girls in their circumstances”.

While other institutions sought to separate mother and child, finding a job for one, and a foster home or industrial school for the other, in the case of the Regina Coeli, the mother was afforded every chance to grow in affection for the child, and become responsible for the child.

The Report notes that Duff “claimed that ‘As a result of the interaction of proper natural affection and the encouragement and facilities provided….a great proportion of the girls are not only prepared but determined to keep their child’.”

The Report also notes that Frank Duff was opposed to children being committed to industrial schools.

The publication of the report by the Commission of Inquiry into Mother and Baby and County Homes has been welcomed by the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, Eamon Martin.

In a statement released yesterday he said he accepted that the Church was clearly part of that culture in which people were frequently stigmatized, judged and rejected.

“For that, and for the long-lasting hurt and emotional distress that has resulted, I unreservedly apologise to the survivors and to all those who are personally impacted by the realities it uncovers”, he said.

“I believe the Church must continue to acknowledge before the Lord and before others its part in sustaining what the Report describes as a ‘harsh … cold and uncaring atmosphere’”.

The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, said what happened in the mother and baby homes was “only one chapter in a shocking narrative that has gone on for some time”.

He said everybody involved in what had happened “has to stand up” and admit their responsibility.

University College London (UCL) has expressed “deep regret” for its role in the propagation of eugenics, alongside a promise to improve conditions for disabled staff and students and a pledge to give “greater prominence” to teaching the malign legacy of the discredited movement.

The formal apology for legitimising eugenics – the advocacy of selective breeding of the population often to further racist or discriminatory aims – is UCL’s latest effort to address its links to early eugenicists such as Francis Galton, who funded a professorship in eugenics at the university.

“UCL acknowledges with deep regret that it played a fundamental role in the development, propagation and legitimisation of eugenics,” the university said as part of its apology.

“This dangerous ideology cemented the spurious idea that varieties of human life could be assigned different value. It provided justification for some of the most appalling crimes in human history: genocide, forced euthanasia, colonialism and other forms of mass murder and oppression based on racial and ableist hierarchy.

“The legacies and consequences of eugenics still cause direct harm through the racism, antisemitism, ableism and other harmful stereotyping that they feed. These continue to impact on people’s lives directly, driving discrimination and denying opportunity, access and representation.”

A Department of Health ethical framework for operating during a pandemic makes clear doctors may have to make decisions on which patients should be prioritised for treatment.

Drawn up last March and updated in September, it says that under normal circumstances, all individuals have an equal claim to healthcare. However during a pandemic, healthcare resources, particularly critical care resources, are likely to become limited over time.

“Decisions should be principally based on the health-related benefits of allocation mechanisms. Thus, the starting point for any rationing decision is to consider which patients are most likely to benefit from the intervention.”

It says that “categorical exclusion, e.g. on the basis of age, should be avoided as this can imply that some groups are worth saving more than others and creates a perception of unfairness”.

“It is not appropriate to prioritise based on social status or other social value considerations, eg income, ethnicity, [or] gender. However, it may be ethical to prioritise certain at-risk groups and those essential to managing a pandemic for treatment.”

Northern Ireland’s Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) has launched a legal action against the UK government for not having commissioned a regime of abortion-on-request more than a year after the procedure was made legal in the region.

Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, is accused of unlawfully denying the rights of women, who experts warn are being forced to use “unregulated services” and to travel to high-risk areas during the pandemic, the Guardian reports. The NIHRC is also taking action against the Northern Ireland Executive and the region’s Department of Health.

Les Allamby, the head of the NIHRC, said the body was taking legal action after the secretary of state, the Northern Ireland Executive and the Department of Health had not taken responsibility for creating the regime.

In the absence of a Government run regime, the region’s five health trusts have established unfunded services led by a group of fewer than a dozen committed medics. Nonetheless, between April and the end of November 2020 they facilitated 719 terminations according to DoH figures.

The HSE has paused a pilot scheme to send out free home sexual health test kits after receiving almost 5,000 orders in less than a day.

Tests for chlamydia, gonorrhoea, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, syphilis and HIV were being offered to people in Dublin, Cork and Kerry in a partnership between the HSE and the UK-based SH:24, a free online sexual health service.

A spokeswoman for the HSE said 4,923 tests had been ordered between the service going live at 5pm on Tuesday and the temporary suspension the following day. SH:24 said that similar-sized areas elsewhere had received around 700 orders in the first month, whereas the Irish scheme’s uptake had been “unprecedented”.

Meanwhile, new research from Johns Hopkins University suggests oral sex with more than 10 partners raises a person’s risk of developing throat cancer by over four times.

The scientists also found having oral sex for the first time at under 18 was linked to an 80% higher risk of a later diagnosis, compared to those who became intimate when aged over 20.

In a new interview, Pope Francis included abortion in a condemnation of a culture of waste in which “people who are not useful are discarded.”

Speaking to Italian television channel Tg5 in an interview that aired Sunday night, Francis said even children “are discarded if they have some disease or if they are unwanted, as are the elderly, the sick and migrants”.

Speaking of abortion, he said it is a problem of human ethics, where religion enters later, and one “that even the atheist must resolve in their conscience.”

Whenever the issue of abortion comes up, the pope said a question comes to mind: “Do I have the right to do this?” the scientific answer to which, he said, is that “in the third week, almost the fourth, there are all the organs of the new human being in the womb of the mother, it’s a human life.”

“Is it right to eliminate a human life to solve a problem, any problem? No, it’s not right. Is it okay to hire a hitman solve a problem? Someone who kills human life? This is the problem of abortion. Scientifically and humanly,” he said.

The main churches in Northern Ireland have voluntarily closed their doors to public worship in view of the worsening public health crisis.

In a statement on Thursday, the North’s Catholic bishops said that for a limited period (7 January to 6 February), the celebration of the Eucharist should take place without the physical presence of the faithful – with the exception of marriages, funerals, and baptisms.

Drive-in services will however continue.

The Catholic Church was joined by the Church of Ireland, Presbyterian Church, and Methodist Church in making the move.

Meanwhile, the Diocese of Westminster insists Catholic churches are safe in the British capital after the Mayor of London called for the closure of places of worship in the city.

Bishop John Sherrington, an auxiliary in Westminster, issued a letter on Friday explaining why churches in England should remain open.

“This decision is based on two factors: The recognition that our churches are safe, and that the service they offer is essential. The safety of our churches has been affirmed by Public Health England (PHE) in its current advice to the Government,” the bishop wrote.

A post by China’s US embassy that described measures against Uigher women in progressive political terms has been removed by Twitter.

The post linked to an article by state mouthpiece China Daily denying allegations of forced sterilisation in Xinjiang. It said: “Study shows that in the process of eradicating extremism, the minds of Uygur women in Xinjiang were emancipated and gender equality and reproductive health were promoted, making them no longer baby-making machines. They are more confident and independent.”

Twitter said the post had “violated the Twitter rules” but did not provide further details.

In recent years, China has escalated its crackdown on ethnic Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region, including the mass internment of an estimated one million people, intense human and digital surveillance, re-education programs, suppression of religious activity and destruction of religious sites, forced labour, and enforced sterilisation of women. Experts have said the policies amount to cultural genocide. China rejects the accusations, and says the camps are vocational training centres necessary to combat religious extremism and terrorism.

The positive contributions of religious sisters and priests in helping women in unplanned pregnancies has been “largely forgotten”, according to a retired teacher who specialised in Relationships and Sexuality Education.

Stephanie Walsh and her husband gave refuge to many pregnant girls and women in the 1970s at the request of Limerick Diocesan social services.

Writing in the Irish Times, she said it was her experience that “church women and men provided more assistance to women in need in the ’70s than did the secular community. Most of the social workers who contacted our family were religious Sisters; many of the women in trouble were referred by priests”.

“Is it counter cultural to feel sympathy for those who provided a service in an area of life that then was unpopular only to find their work so little appreciated and frequently reviled now?,” she concluded.