The French government is facing legal action at the European Court of Human Rights after censoring a publicity campaign featuring eighteen people with Down Syndrome.
The group behind the ad, Fondation Jérôme Lejeune had created a short infomercial about the joys and challenges of life with their condition, in order to tackle societal stigma, the organisation which has, for years, set the standard in research and care for people with Down Syndrome, supported the initiative and broadcast the message on several platforms in France. Yet, after a French public authority deemed the video to not be a “message of general interest”, and was “likely to disturb women’ who had abortions the foundation were prevented from sharing their message on state television.
Fighting the ban, ADF International said it was “proud to support Fondation Jérôme Lejeune in calling out discrimination against people with Down Syndrome. Freedom of speech is the foundation of a democratic society, protected by international human rights law. Why censor somebody for speaking out about their life with a disability? We hope that the court will recognise that these voices are of immensely high value, and make a stand for the rights of persons with disabilities across Europe,” said Jean-Paul Van De Walle, legal counsel for ADF International.
One Diocese received emergency aid of €53,500 for priests and religious.
Writing in response, Bishop Yosafat Hovera of Lutsk said under the conditions of war, Ukrainian society has been facing challenges with danger related to life, property, and basic means of existence.
“However, seeing the support of the international community, we do not feel left alone with our difficulties. Priests and consecrated people, enduring all the problems caused by the war, keep supporting parishioners, refugees, and soldiers who protect our country and everyone searching spiritual and material help.
Another recipient of aid, Nil Yuriy Lushchak, O.F.M., Auxiliary Bishop of Mukáchevo, said they “have been helping refugees for more than a week, supporting people at the borders, and collecting food for Kiev and other cities where it is difficult.”
Fr. Mateusz Adamski of the Kyiv-Zhytomyr Diocese, wrote to say: “We as the Church of Christ are with our people who are in danger, in need, vulnerable, frightened, wounded and weak. We are trying to get those who are in severe humanitarian crisis and serve them by delivering water, food, medication, evacuating IDPs to the safe place.”
An Oxford College has been warned it could be unlawfully discriminating against Christians after it had previously cancelled a conference booking amid “ill-founded complaints” from students.
Worcester College, led by David Isaac, the former head of the equalities watchdog, apologised for hosting a Christian Concern training camp and cancelled a second booking after students complained they were “distressed” by the event.
But an independent review has found that no evidence for allegations including “aggressive leafleting” by attendees, who were alleged to have approached students to discuss LGBT ‘conversion therapy’.
The inquiry, by lawyer Michael Stewart, found that the college staff were not even able to find a copy of the leaflet.
The Free Speech Union has now written to Mr Isaac calling for him to apologise and to reinstate the booking for the next Wilberforce Academy conference in September.
The number of births recovered significantly in the third quarter of last year, and were higher even than 2019 levels, according to the latest Vital Statistics Report from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Commenting on the release, Gerard Doolan, Statistician, said: “The number of births has increased by 2,270 (or 15.7%) from the same quarter in the previous year, up from 14,477 in Q3 2020 to 16,747 in 2021”.
The 2019, 3rd quarter figure was 15,379, which itself was a decrease from 15,428 in 2018.
In addition, the average age of mothers was 33.2 in Q3 2021, which is an increase of 0.2 years from that reported in the same quarter in 2020, while 10 years ago it was 32.0 years for the same period.
More than two in five (42.6%) of all births were outside of marriage, compared to the same quarter a year earlier when 39.3% of births were to mothers outside of marriage. Ten years ago, in Q3 2011, this proportion was one in three (34.0%) of all births.
The Catholic and Anglican Archbishops of Armagh have said they will write jointly to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow to reinforce their call for all Christians of Europe, including the Russian Orthodox leader, to unite in spiritual and practical efforts in support of an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.
Speaking in Armagh on the eve of St Patrick’s Day, Archbishop Eamon Martin and Archbishop John McDowell called for an end to the “relentless bombardment which has trapped countless civilians in a nightmare of destruction and displaced millions of others from their homes and families”.
They expressed their fear that the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine may yet accelerate before it dissipates.
“Although we are many miles away from the horrific bombardment and loss of life, the sacrifice of the Ukrainian people shockingly comes home to us this St Patrick’s Day,” they said.
Organisers of the National St. Patrick’s Day Parade said they were “committed to a secular, inclusive, non-political approach” to this year’s Festival and Parade in their response to a Christian group who had requested permission to participate.
The Evangelical Catholic Initiative (ECI) sought to include an inter-church float at the Parade with the theme ‘the authentic Patrick – hope after Covid’, and claim they were refused on the grounds that the parade is a ‘secular’ celebration.
This is disputed by the parade organisers themselves, who told Gript that the ECI could not take part because the event is a “uniquely commissioned artistic Parade made up of marching bands and productions by professional pageant companies”. They said that “unfortunately, the Parade is not able to accommodate individual groups and does not accept applications for participation.”
In its email to the ECI, the St. Patrick’s Festival team added: “This year we chose Connections as we have spent so long apart, and we are all so delighted to be coming back together. We celebrate community, inclusion, diversity, and we bring the nation together in a global celebration of Irish arts, culture, and heritage.”
They also affirmed their commitment to a secular celebration, stating: “We are committed to a secular, inclusive, non-political approach to the Parade and St. Patrick’s Festival. I hope this clears things up for you”.
Almost 1,000 Catholic convents in Poland are helping refugees from war-torn Ukraine.
An agency of women religious in Poland said on March 15 that sisters in 924 convents in Poland and 98 in Ukraine were offering “spiritual, psychological, medical, and material help.”
All of the nearly 150 religious congregations operating in Poland and Ukraine are believed to have helped people in need. Some have offered help to a few people, while others have offered assistance to as many as 18,000.
The Council of Major Superiors of Congregations of Women Religious said that 498 convents in Poland and 76 in Ukraine have organized housing.
So far 3,060 children, 2,420 families, and roughly 2,950 adults have received shelter.
In 64 institutions, there are 600 places for orphans, and in 420 institutions there are almost 3,000 places for mothers with children.
Sisters have helped to prepare and distribute hot meals, food, sanitary products, clothing, and blankets. They have also helped to transport people from areas affected by war and assist newcomers in finding work in Poland.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250669/ukraine-war-almost-1000-polish-catholic-convents-are-helping-refugees
Boys from working-class families who grow up religious are defying the trends that see their non-religious male counterparts fall behind in society.
That’s according to Dr. Ilana M. Horwitz, an assistant professor of Jewish studies and sociology at Tulane University and the author of “God, Grades, and Graduation.”
Writing in the New York Times, she reveals the results of her research on the relationship between teenagers’ religious upbringing and its influence on their education: their school grades, which colleges they attend and how much higher education they complete.
Interestingly, she found that what religion offers teenagers varies by social class because of religion’s pro-natal beliefs.
“Those raised by professional-class parents, for example, do not experience much in the way of an educational advantage from being religious. In some ways, religion even constrains teenagers’ educational opportunities (especially girls’) by shaping their academic ambitions after graduation; they are less likely to consider a selective college as they prioritize life goals such as parenthood, altruism and service to God rather than a prestigious career”.
“However, teenage boys from working-class families, regardless of race, who were regularly involved in their church and strongly believed in God were twice as likely to earn bachelor’s degrees as moderately religious or nonreligious boys”, she writes.
An abortion lobby group has called for further expanding the already radical abortion regime in Ireland.
The Abortion Working Group – an umbrella of 20 healthcare and civil organisations, led by the National Women’s Council – is calling for key changes, including the removal of the mandatory three-day waiting period between seeking a medical abortion before 12 weeks’ and getting one; removal of the 12-week time limit for abortion on request, and, removal of the stipulation that two doctors certify a baby will die within 28 days of birth in cases of a grave foetal abnormality.
The website of the Central Statistics Office says the CSO “recognises the importance of accounting for gender identity as distinct from sex”, and that work is actively under way to introduce a question on ‘gender identity’ for the next census.
As part of this work the CSO is testing questions on gender identity in its Labour Force and Pulse surveys in order to devise a way of asking the appropriate question and providing for the “appropriate range of answers”.
There will be a public consultation later this year on what questions should go into the census after the one scheduled for April, the spokeswoman said.
The Govt agency also said that people who choose not to declare themselves as male or female in this year’s census will have a biological sex assigned to them on a random basis.
A spokeswoman said said that the random allocation in such cases would not have a statistical impact.
