While broadly supporting restrictions, Senator Ronan Mullen suggested a lack of discernment and refinement in the area of public worship.

“It is fair to say that the people who attend churches primarily are a demographic who are highly compliant and mainly, but not exclusively, older people. Most of us have probably been in churches and will have seen the remarkable attention to detail in terms of sanitising before and after services, and the stewarding of people to ensure that traffic is one-way.”

He continued: “If everybody was as good at observing the restrictions as churches across the board and those attending them have been, we would not be facing the challenges we currently face. That ought to be acknowledged. Many of the people who value their ability to go to church are among those facing the most restrictions otherwise.”

He concluded that there must be a rethink in that regard.

The Dutch government is considering allowing euthanasia for terminally-ill children aged one to 12 years old. Campaigners say it is another example of how quickly the grounds for euthanasia expand.

Children in the Netherlands can access euthanasia from the age of 12 and doctors are allowed to provide euthanasia to babies up to one year old in limited circumstances.

The country’s health minister Hugo de Jonge raised the issue of making it possible to help terminally-ill children and spoke about doctors having to give palliative sedation and terminating the children’s lives.

This is based on a report made by experts last year which said doctors are afraid of the consequences if they give lethal drugs to children.

The health minister added that he wants to ensure there would be legal guarantees for doctors and ‘protection of the children’s rights’.

The largest inter-denominational evangelical seminary in the United States will be able to uphold its religious standards for students, a judge in the State of California ruled.

The district court blocked a lawsuit from two LGBT students who were expelled from Fuller Theological Seminary (FTS) in 2018 and in 2017 for being in same-sex marriages. In so doing, they went against the seminary’s sexual standards policy. According to this policy, which all students agree to follow throughout their theological training, Fuller limits the definition of marriage to a heterosexual union and prohibits extramarital sex.

The judge said “the Court is not permitted to scrutinise the interpretation [the seminary] gives to its religious beliefs”.

State secondary schools must phase out a range of Catholic influences such as mandatory graduation masses, the display of exclusively Catholic symbols, and visits from diocesan inspectors. There is no indication that parents have been consulted about this.

The new rules will apply to more than 200 secondary schools run by the State’s Education and Training Boards (ETBs) – formerly vocational schools – which are officially categorised as multidenominational.

The “framework for the recognition of religious belief/identities of all students in ETB schools” outlines steps schools should follow to bring them into line with a multidenominational ethos. They include that any religious symbols on display must reflect the beliefs of the wider school community rather than one particular religion. It also means schools that symbolically represent religious celebrations should ensure balance, such as a school displaying a crib at Christmas but also Islamic symbols for Eid.”

A request by Ireland’s four Catholic Archbishops to ease Covid-19 restrictions on churches to allow public celebrations of the Mass has been described as unrealistic and inappropriate in an Irish Times editorial, even though the Republic is still the only place in Europe stopping public worship.

The paper argued against the request as the Archbishop of Dublin had said last month, when Level 3 restrictions were introduced in Dublin city and county, that the measures were “appropriate at this time.”

They likewise quoted him citing a Vatican document in his September 19 statement which he said “strongly supports the application of restrictive measures and ‘painful decisions even to the point of suspending the participation of the faithful in the celebration of the Eucharist for a long period’, when the need is great.”

The editorial also cited the age profile of congregants, and objected to the Catholic church receiving any special treatment.

South Korea’s National Assembly is considering a proposal to allow abortion up to 14 weeks as the deadline approaches to revise the country’s abortion law.

After the national law prohibiting abortion except in the cases of rape, incest, genetic disease, or risk to the mother’s health was overturned by South Korea’s Constitutional Court in April last year, the court gave Korean legislators until the end of 2020 to change the law.

South Korea’s Ministry of Justice put forward a proposal Oct. 7 to allow abortion up to 14 weeks in all cases and up to 24 weeks in cases of severe birth defects, sex crime, or health risk for the mother, according to Reuters.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea has issued a statement calling on the Justice Ministry to protect the unborn “from the very moment of conception.” Korean Catholics have also advocated for further legislation to address the needs of pregnant mothers.

Males need to be taught from the earliest age possible to do half of housework and caregiving, a men’s charity has claimed.

Sean Cooke, chief executive of the Men’s Development Network, said sharing unpaid work in the home is an “urgent matter of gender justice”.

He maintained there will never be gender justice until men take responsibility for half of the world’s childcare and domestic work.

Work to develop positive attitudes towards fatherhood and managing households should begin at the earliest age for boys, Mr Cooke said.

Speaking at the same event via videolink, the Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People Mary Butler said the goal of achieving “equitable and involved fatherhood cannot be underestimated”.

Ms Butler praised the network for “supporting family units across the country and challenge damaging stereotypes that often prevent people from availing of the support they need.”

The Spanish government has said it wants to change the law to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to seek an abortion without parental permission.

Equality Minister Irene Montero said women should have the right to “decide about their bodies”.

In 2015, the ruling Popular Party (PP) changed Spain’s abortion laws and mandated parental consent for those aged between 16 and 18.

Abortion is legal in Spain upon request in the first 14 weeks of a woman’s pregnancy, up to 22 weeks  in cases of “serious risks to life or health of the mother or fetus”, and after 22 weeks where the child is suffering from a life-limiting condition.

The French bishops’ conference has urged Catholics to join mass protests against a government-backed bioethics bill that would liberalize abortion and embryo research and allow in vitro fertilization for lesbian couples and single mothers.

“Pressure is mounting on the National Assembly to further extend abortion terms under the guise of women’s rights and equality and to reduce filiation to a simple act of will by those wishing to become parents — a child is no longer received, but sought, produced and chosen,” said the conference’s 10-member Permanent Council.

“We invite all citizens, especially Catholics, to inform themselves about these matters and make their reservations and opposition known. Our society must not let itself be surreptitiously drawn along a dangerous path for humanity’s future,” it said.

The four Catholic archbishops of Ireland have requested a meeting with Taoiseach Micheál Martin to address concerns about the closure of public masses due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Under Level 3 all religious services must move online, although places of worship can remain open for private prayer.

However, a letter from the Archbishops points out that communal celebration of Mass and the Sacraments, even with restricted numbers, “is at the very heart of what it means for us to be a Christian community”.

“We wish to engage constructively with the civil authorities to ensure that our people have continued access to the support of Mass and the Sacraments and essential spiritual nourishment for these challenging times,” it says.