Spain’s parliament has advanced a euthanasia and assisted suicide bill that Catholic leaders had decried as “a defeat for all” which abandons those who suffer.

The Congress of Deputies, the lower house of Spain’s legislative body, passed the bill by a Dec. 17 vote of 198 to 138, with the backing of the country’s left-wing coalition and several other parties. The conservative Popular Party and the right-wing Vox party voted against the bill.

The legislation is expected to be passed by the Senate, though amendments may be suggested, then returned to the deputies for a final vote. It could become law as soon as spring of next year, making Spain the largest EU country to legalize euthanasia.

The law would allow public and private health professionals to help people kill themselves if they suffer “a serious and incurable disease” or a “debilitating and chronic condition” that is “unbearable.”

Protesters had rallied against the bill outside of the parliament building in Madrid. They held a banner that said “Government of death.”

“The euthanasia law is a defeat for civilization and a victory for the culture of death, for those who believe that some lives are more worthy than others,” said Santiago Abascal, leader of Vox.

Nigeria has been designated as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for engaging or tolerating “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom,” by the United States Department of State.

This comes after years of terrorism carried out by violent Islamic extremist groups, such as Boko Haram, that has targeted Christians in the Northern part of the country.

Responding to the move Kelsey Zorzi, who serves as Director of Global Religious Freedom for ADF International, said persecution against religious believers around the world must end.

“For too long, Nigeria has violated the fundamental rights of people of faith by allowing impunity for egregious crimes committed against religious minorities, and in particular against Christians. The United States’ designation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern sends a message that atrocities committed based on religious motives or identity will not be tolerated. This designation is a wake-up call to Nigeria to protect everyone’s inalienable right to religious freedom”.

The U.S. government with 34 other countries has officially filed a pro-life declaration with the UN Secretary General.

“The United States strongly supports the dignity of all human beings and protecting life from the moment of conception throughout the lifespan,” Ambassador Kelly Craft wrote to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres transmitting the Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family.

“The United States, along with our like-minded partners, believes strongly that there is no international right to abortion and that the United Nations must respect national laws and policies on the matter, absent external pressure,” Ambassador Craft added.

Craft instructed the Secretary General to share the declaration with member states more broadly and to include it on official record of the General Assembly, inviting all Member States to sign it.

The Government’s planned laws against ‘hate speech’ will target people who “intentionally or recklessly” incite hatred against individuals or groups,  Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said. Such laws are often attacked by critics for undermining free speech.

Speaking Thursday at the launch of a report recommending stronger hate speech and hate crime legislation, the Minister said the test for criminal hate speech will be the perpetrator’s intentions, not how the speech was perceived by the victim.

The Bill, which is due to be drafted over the coming months, will list trans people and people with disabilities, alongside already protected groups such as other members of the LGBT community people, refugees and immigrants, Travellers and ethnic and religious groups.

Asked if it will be an offence to misgender a trans person or use their former name, Mr McEntee said: “We’re not trying to catch people out, this is not something you can stumble into by accident. This is not about somebody causing offence to somebody else or misspeaking.

The Vatican has decreed that priests may celebrate up to four Masses on several important feast days, including Christmas, to accommodate the participation of more of the faithful.

Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, said the decision was made “in view of the situation brought about by the worldwide spread of the pandemic.”

According to the Code of Canon Law, while a priest “may not celebrate (Mass) more than once a day,” a bishop may “for a good reason allow priests to celebrate twice in one day or even, if pastoral need requires it, three times on Sundays or holy days of obligation.”

By allowing priests hold more masses, more lay Catholics could attend especially in churches with limited seating due to social distancing measures.

Two of the country’s senior Catholic bishops have warned parents their children’s first communions and confirmations may have to be postponed next year due to the continuing uncertainty caused by Covid-19.

It comes as many children who were due to take the sacraments this year have still been unable to do so.

In a letter to parishes, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin revealed that due to the ongoing threat of the virus, “all sacraments might have to be postponed until it is safe to proceed”.

He warned it may not be possible to complete the full 2021 schedule of sacraments until 2022.

Meanwhile, Bishop Denis Nulty of Kildare and Leighlin has also written to parents and schools advising them not to set dates for sacramental ceremonies in 2021 in order to avoid “uncertainty and rescheduling”.

People should not start trying to have a baby or begin fertility treatments if they are planning to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, the head of Ireland’s medicine regulator has said.

Dr Lorraine Nolan said that there was no data available at present on the effect of the coronavirus vaccines on pregnant women and that people should wait until after they have had the jab to start trying for a baby.

Speaking at the launch of the government’s national Covid-19 vaccination strategy yesterday, Dr Nolan said: “For the moment, the advice is the vaccine just shouldn’t be used in pregnant women, until we know more.”

Ms Nolan said that some data would become available in the new year that might allow the vaccine to be administered to pregnant women, and that people should put off having a baby until that information becomes available.

The US Supreme Court sided with a rural Colorado church Tuesday that challenged the state Democrat governor’s COVID rules restricting attendance capacity in some parts of the state.

The 6-3 decision overturned lower court rulings that had upheld Gov. Jared Polis’s church gathering limits to a maximum of 25 percent or 50 people, whichever is fewer, and ordered lower courts to re-examine the case.

This follows a ruling last week by the same court against religious worship in New York.

The cases upholding religious liberty come on the heels of rare public remarks by Justice Samuel Alito criticizing coronavirus lockdowns this year as placing “previously unimaginable” restrictions on American freedom.

In Europe, similar judgements have been made in cases in Geneva and Belgium in the past week.

The UK’s two-child limit on tax credits and other benefits for children should be ended, according to a Scottish MP.

The limit, which dates to 2017, means that for each child after their second-born, parents lose £2,900 each year in a universal credit and in tax credits.

The cap on benefits exempts women who formally disclose that their child was a result of rape. However, if their first- or second-born child was conceived in rape, the exemption does not apply to a child born later.

Alison Thewliss, a member of parliament for Glasgow Central, recently wrote to Thérèse Coffey, the UK Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, urging an end to the “wicked policy.”

“It is beyond belief that the UK Government remains so obstinately devoted to such a pernicious policy, one that— in light of this most recent evidence— is unarguably playing a real and significant part in women’s decisions to terminate pregnancies,” Thewliss wrote.

In a Feb. 24 letter, written before the coronavirus pandemic had grasped the region, Catholic leaders said that abolishing the two-child limit for universal credit and the universal tax credit would help more than half a million of the poorest children of England and Wales.

Italy’s national statistics institute, Istat, is predicting that the country will see a significant decline in births in the years immediately following the coronavirus pandemic.

In a report, Istat said that the climate of uncertainty and fear caused by the coronavirus may result in 10,000 fewer births in Italy in 2020 and 2021. It also predicted that if unemployment rises as expected, the birth rate could drop even further.

In 2019, births in Italy already hit a historic low since Italian unification in 1861. Across Europe, countries are facing what has been dubbed a “demographic winter.”

Pope Francis has described this as the dramatic result of a “disregard for families.” Europe’s devastatingly low birth rate “is a sign of societies that struggle to face the challenges of the present, and thus become ever more fearful of the future, with the result that they close in on themselves,” the pope said in 2018.

That year, Italy’s birth rate was 1.29 children per woman — just ahead of Malta and Spain’s rates of 1.23 and 1.26 respectively for the lowest rate in Europe.