Pro-life rallies took place all over the country on Saturday urging the public and TDs to #RethinkAbortion.

Because of Covid-19 restrictions, 55 local rallies took place in lieu of a national pro-life march, but organisers said that the events were vitally important as a review of the 2018 legislation will take place this year.

“We were promised, voters were promised, that abortion would be ‘rare’ post-repeal, but for the second year in a row, we have seen a huge rise in the number of abortions carried out in contrast to when abortion was illegal in Ireland,” said Niamh Uí Bhriain of the Rally for Life Committee.

The rallies also highlighted that late-term abortions are taking place in Ireland, despite assurances that this would never happen.  Ms Uí Bhriain said that a recent study of abortion providers in Ireland showed that the procedure was so disturbing that one doctor described it as “stabbing the baby in the heart”.

Activists also pointed to the recent case in the National Maternity Hospital where a baby was aborted after a misdiagnosis as evidence that steps needed to be taken to ensure parents were not pressured into having an abortion.

Some 200 medical professionals in Scotland have expressed “great concern” over a proposed bill to provide assisted suicide to the terminally ill.

Signatories to the letter to Health Secretary Humza Yousaf, include a former president of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, David Galloway, and a palliative medicine expert Professor Marie Fallon.

The letter says the shift from preserving life to taking life is enormous and should not be minimised. “The prohibition of killing is present in almost all civilised societies due the immeasurable worth of every human life.

“Everyone has a right to life under Article 1 of the Human Rights Act 1998 such that no one should be deprived of that life intentionally. Some patients may never consider assisted suicide unless it was suggested to them. The cruel irony of this path is that legislation introduced with the good intention of enhancing patient choice will diminish the choices of the most vulnerable”.

The health care professionals add that they have a legal duty of care for the safety and wellbeing of their patients and they state that “will not take patients’ lives – even if they ask us to”.

For the second year in a row the national novena at Knock Shrine, Co Mayo, is being postponed due to the pandemic.

Parish Priest and Knock rector Fr Richard Gibbons made the announcement on Monday that the novena, scheduled to take place from August 14th to 22nd, will be postponed until later this year.

“We have taken this decision in the interest of the health and safety of our pilgrims and staff here at the shrine. Given the recent concern from both Government and health agencies regarding the Delta variant of the virus, the responsible course of action is to postpone the national novena at this time,” he said.

“It is vital that we allow the national vaccination programme to proceed across all age groups. Once we can safely gather again at Knock Shrine, a full programme will be announced for the novena later in the year,” he said.

Knock remains open, however, with restricted attendance at daily Masses in the Basilica and confessions available daily also, while the Mass enrolment office, Knock Museum and Knock Counselling Centre are open.

A constitutional referendum on whether the State should take ownership of the land on which the new national maternity hospital will be constructed could be held after the facility is built, the Seanad has heard.

Fine Gael Senator Martin Conway said the project needs to go ahead as quickly as possible but he suggested that, in the future a referendum could be considered about State ownership of the site “so that in 50 or 100 years’ time no future representatives from a future St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group can try to create a scenario where there is undue influence”.

He was speaking during a debate on the controversy surrounding the ownership and governance of the facility.

The National Maternity Hospital is due to relocate from Holles Street to the campus of St Vincent’s Hospital in South Dublin. The Government has said it wants to own the land on which the hospital will be built, rather than having a 99-year lease, which had been envisaged.

However, Labour Senator Ivana Bacik said “we certainly do not need a constitutional amendment. We have a compulsory purchase order procedure and that should be used.”

Britain’s Methodist Church announced last week that same-sex couples will be allowed to get married on its premises.

After debates on the topic at the Methodist Conference, the proposals to allow same-sex marriages were passed with 254 votes in favor and 46 against.

The Methodist Church said ministers who oppose the changes will not be forced to carry out same-sex marriages.

The church has a membership of 164,000 in the United Kingdom.

Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin has described the Government’s stance on First Holy Communions and Confirmations as a “complete reversal” of an earlier decision made on the issue. The Government has said such ceremonies cannot take place because they may lead to parties afterwards.

Dr Martin also criticised the way that the communication of this new position was handled by the Government and said that it was “very disrespectful how this was done”. It was announced at the end of a press conference in response to a question rather than formally communicated to the Churches beforehand.

Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One, Archbishop Martin said: “There is indeed a lot of confusion here and a lot of frustration and deep disappointment and indeed anger.

“We’ve been deluged with calls from parishes and I know that priests and others have been extremely disappointed by this reversal of the position that was written to us from the Taoiseach’s office from the very beginning of June that said that in line with the gradual reopening of society from 5 July these ceremonies could take place.

“And so, there’s been a huge amount of preparation with the children in their schools with their families.”

The Supreme Court has turned down a petition from a Christian florist who refused to create flower arrangements for a same-sex couple’s wedding, thereby declining the opportunity to further explore when anti-discrimination laws must give way to religious convictions.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch indicated they would have accepted the case ‘Arlene’s Flowers v. Washington’. But it requires four justices for a grant, and that means none of the court’s other six justices were willing to go along.

In 2013, Stutzman told a friend, Robert Ingersoll, that she would not create arrangements for his wedding to his long-time companion, Curt Freed. Stutzman said she held Ingersoll’s hand and said she had to decline his request because of her “relationship with Jesus Christ.”

She was fined for violating the state’s law that prohibits businesses from discriminating because of sexual orientation.

There are numerous lawsuits across the country concerning wedding vendors — photographers, videographers, calligraphers among them — who don’t want to participate in a same-sex wedding ceremonies.

Alliance Defending Freedom General Counsel Kristen Waggoner said it was “tragic” the court had passed up Stutzman’s case.

“No one should be forced to express a message or celebrate an event they disagree with,” Waggoner said in a statement. “A government that can crush someone like Barronelle, who kindly served her gay customer for nearly a decade but simply declined to create art celebrating one sacred ceremony, can use its power to crush any of us regardless of our political ideology or views on important issues like marriage.”

A referendum aimed at removing public funding from denominational and other non-State schools should be held, according to a leading educationalist.

Writing in the Irish Times yesterday, Professor of Education at DCU, Gerry McNamara said in the early 1990s the Newfoundland and Labrador government in Canada “put a referendum to the people effectively proposing to abolish denominational schools and limit the role of the churches in publicly-funded institutions”. After a hard-fought campaign the proposal was carried (by 55 per cent), but the resulting legislation was struck down in the State supreme court.

The government then introduced a tougher referendum “effectively removing all church power and influence from publicly-funded schools”. This was carried – (by 73 per cent) – and appeals against the enabling legislation were rejected in both the Newfoundland and Canadian supreme courts.

Applying this history to Ireland, Professor MacNamara mused: “Could something similar happen here? After the referendums of recent years and the remarkable changes in Irish society it is probable or certainly possible that such a proposal could pass. If it were to do so it seems unlikely that the Supreme Court would or could oppose the democratic wishes of the people.”

Many Western countries permit public funding of schools including Britain and the Netherlands.

The Chief Medical Officer did not make any specific recommendation in relation to Communions and Confirmations to the Government.

Dr Tony Holohan made the revelation to Opposition TDs yesterday.

His comment follows Tánaiste Leo Varadkar’s announcement at a press conference on Tuesday outlining the latest Covid measures that the ceremonies would not be going ahead because of a fear that there might be infection outbreaks at celebrations afterwards.

When asked if parishes could proceed with the sacraments after July 5, Mr Varadkar replied: “They’re off, unfortunately.”

One priest in Co Tipperary, Fr Michael Toomey, expressed unhappiness that this directive appeared to be a decision entirely of the Government and not based on Nphet’s advice.

Another priest, Fr Aquinas Duffy, told the Irish Independent: “If it turns out that Nphet and the CMO did not specifically advise the postponing of Communions and Confirmations, I would like to know why the Government is singling out these sacraments?

“The heartbreak this has caused so many families.”

A spokesperson for the Department of the Taoiseach told the Irish Independent the Government was also advising that baptisms be deferred.

Fr Duffy said one parish in Dublin already faced a backlog of 150 baptisms.

France’s lower house of parliament has definitively adopted a law that will allow single women and lesbians avail of donor assisted human reproduction.

Previously, it was reserved for infertile heterosexual couples, thus ensuring that a child would be born to and raised by a mother and a father.

The wide-ranging bioethics bill presented by French President Emmanuel Macron’s government, was approved at the National Assembly with 326 votes for and 115 against.

The measure has been long sought by LGBT groups, who had pushed it since France legalised same-sex marriage in 2013.

The vote marks the end of a protracted, two-year debate in parliament. The conservative majority in the Senate repeatedly rejected the measure, but the lower house of parliament, where Mr Macron’s centrist party has a majority, has the final say.

The new law does not address France’s ban on surrogacy arrangements in which one woman carries and delivers a baby for someone else.