This stance is at odds with a statement to the Dáil by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly in October dismissing concerns around the criminalising of clergy who hold public worship and those who attend under the Covid-19 regulations.

The Irish Catholic reported that as part of a response to Declan Ganley’s High Court challenging the ban on public worship, the Government stated that the restrictions are, indeed, penal.

In the Seanad Monday, Independent Senator Rónán Mullen asked Minister for Health about the issue but failed to get an answer.

A terrorist attack was carried out on a church in Indonesia on Palm Sunday.

Two suicide bombers targeted Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Cathedral in Makassar, the capital of Indonesia’s South Sulawesi Province shortly after Mass was over.

Both attackers were killed and around twenty congregation members were injured by the explosion. Security guards were providing protection to the cathedral and they prevented the bombers from entering the building.

A spokesperson for Aid to the Church in Need said many people would have certainly lost their lives if the bombers had of been able to detonate inside the cathedral building.

He added that it is part a disturbing trend in recent years of Christians being attacked during holy week.

The Indonesian national police chief said that the two bombers were connected with an Islamist terrorist group affiliated with ISIS and previously carried out terrorist attacks in the Philippines. They have also carried out attacks in Indonesia in the past, including other attacks on churches.

 The Indonesian President condemned the attack, stating “Terrorism is a crime against humanity.”

A US Court has struck down Washington DC’s COVID-19 pandemic limits on attendance at houses of worship which had been set at the lesser of 25% capacity or 250 worshippers.

One church alone in the District can seat 6,000.

The ruling by Judge Trevor N. McFadden was effective immediately.

The Archdiocese of Washington welcomed the ruling saying it enables the diocese “to make the sacraments more fully available to our faithful in time for Holy Week, Easter and beyond”.

“In our Catholic churches, we will continue to abide by our own safety protocols of social distancing, masking, cleaning and other safety precautions to ensure safe access to worship while we also continue to broadcast our worship services online.”

In his ruling, McFadden wrote that the District’s capacity restrictions “discriminate against houses of worship” and that “the District’s restrictions substantially burden the archdiocese’s religious exercise.”

He said the court “finds the 250-person cap particularly troubling” a limit that does not apply to big box stores, supermarkets, and other essential businesses.

“It does not appear that this restriction was narrowly tailored to stem the tide of the virus. As the District’s order shows, it was designed simply to ensure ‘parity’ between houses of worship and restaurants,” McFadden said.

The District also admitted during oral arguments that “there have been no reported outbreaks from attendance at the archdiocese’s Masses,” the judge said.

Garda checkpoints were erected close to Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Mullahoran, Co Cavan, on Sunday as parish priest Fr PJ Hughes said Mass in defiance of the Covid-19 regulations. Ireland is the only country in Western Europe with a ban on public worship.

The 10am mass was delayed for about 20 minutes with many locals detained at the three Garda checkpoints erected on the roads into the church, which is in a rural part of the parish.

Twenty people turned up for the Palm Sunday liturgy and they were well spaced out in the church where every second pew was roped off.

Fr Hughes wore a mask while distributing Communion. Some of the congregation wore masks too.

The priest has already been fined €500 for allegedly hosting an illegal gathering, but he said he will not pay it. He faces the prospect of prison.

Later, he accused gardaí of harassing him and churchgoers.

Speaking to The Irish Times he said: “they intimidated me going in to Mass. They intimidated me, and they intimidated the people.

He explained: “I went down to a house of have a cup of tea with a family before Mass and on my way back up, they blocked the three roads leading into the church. They stopped at the top of each road.

“They had four cars; three squad cars and a big white van. There were eight gardaí in all and one car in the car park at the church”.

Archbishop Dermot Farrell has welcomed the conclusion of negotiations regarding the transfer of a primary school from the Archdiocese of Dublin to An Foras Pátrúnachta while continuing to offer sacramental preparation to Catholic pupils.

The Archbishop said the transfer marks a new chapter in Ireland’s education system: “Scoil Chaitlín Maude will provide education through the medium of Irish to Catholic children and to children of other faiths and none.”

“During the school day provision will be made for the faith formation, religious education and sacramental preparation of Catholic children in accordance with the Grow in Love primary Catholic education programme. Other children will follow a moral and ethics programme.  This is truly a multi-denominational school to cater for the needs of the Irish speaking community in Tallaght. This is a good model for the future to accommodate parents’ requests.”

The Chilean Supreme Court unanimously ruled that COVID-19 restrictions have been applied in a discriminatory manner against believers.

The landmark ruling from last Thursday recognizes that freedom of religion cannot simply be suspended. The Court is expected to order the government to change its regulations within days.

Tomás Henríquez, a Chilean lawyer for ADF International said people of faith now have the assurance that their right to exercise their faith freely will be protected.

“The Court has clarified that the freedom to worship in person is a fundamental right, worthy of the highest protection, and cannot simply be withheld. The church has so much to offer society at a time of grief and suffering, and the Chilean people should not be denied access to church services. We are encouraged that this is a unanimous decision of the Supreme Court, which will help protect this fundamental right in Chile for years to come,” he said.

Catholic churches across Northern Ireland reopened for public worship on Friday.

The Church of Ireland, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches in Northern Ireland will resume in-person services this coming Good Friday, 2 April.

The four Churches voluntarily suspended in-person gatherings in January of this year due to the latest Covid-19 lockdown and a surge in cases. In the South, the ban is imposed and public worship is illegal.

The Bishop of Derry Donal McKeown commented that the “Churches in the North have been trusted by government to make decisions about closing and opening, which I think is a mature way of running a society, and I think we have to be very sensible and sensitive to ensure that we do not contribute to any possible super-spreader events.”

Derry priest Rev Michael Canny told BBC NI’s Good Morning Ulster that he was “delighted” to be reopening in time for Holy Week and Easter, but stressed that a lot of care was needed.

“When people come at 9:15 and again at 10:00, there will still be social distancing, they will still have to sanitise hands, we will encourage them to go home afterwards, rather than to be standing outside chatting.”

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has imposed sanctions on a leading British Catholic human rights campaigner who highlighted widespread abuses of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province.

The Chinese authorities announced the measures against Lord David Alton and eight other U.K. citizens, as well as four institutions critical of the country’s human rights record.

Alton, an independent member of the House of Lords, noted that the step followed the U.K. government’s introduction of sanctions against four senior Chinese officials last week over China’s treatment of its Uighur minority, and similar sanctions by the EU.

Writing on his website, Alton said: “The imposition of tit-for-tat sanctions is a crude attempt to silence criticism. But the CCP needs to learn that you can’t silence the whole world and that the first duty of a parliamentarian is to use their voice on behalf of those whose voices have been silenced.”

Two women from Bishopstown in Cork have become the first same-sex couple in the country to be legally identified as the parents of babies from birth.

Geraldine Rea and Niamh O’Sullivan were both registered as the parents of twin girls Réidín and Aoibhín O’Sullivan Rea on the babies’ birth certs, without having to go through a court process. Geraldine had given birth to the twins at Cork University Maternity Hospital on February 4th following donor sperm treatment at the Waterstone Clinic.

The new process of direct registration follows the enactment last May of the final sections of the 2015 Child and Family Relationships Act.

Prior to the signing of the legislation into law, female same-sex couples had to go through a court process to re-register the birth of their children, in order for both of them to be legally recognised as the children’s parents.

However, since last May, the birth mother and the intending co-parent, be they spouse, civil partner or cohabitant, can now register directly with the registrar for the births, deaths and marriages as the parents of a child born as a result of a donor-assisted human reproduction procedure.

Four Independent TDs have called for places of worship to be reopened for limited numbers of people for Easter.

Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath claimed “this Cabinet will go down in history as the most anti-Christian Government of all time since we got our freedom back . . . to think that people will be persecuted for going to Mass or having public worship”.

Mr McGrath pointed to a Scottish supreme court ruling on Wednesday that it was in breach to the European Convention on Human Rights to completely stop public worship. He said: “if it’s against Scotland’s European rights it’s against ours. I’m appealing especially for Holy Week” for religious services to be allowed.

He said a parish priest had contacted him about a note he saw on a window “where nine people can go into a chipper or takeaway and nobody allowed inside a church”.

Regarding to 10 person limit on funerals, Limerick TD Richard O’Donoghue said “140 people or more were in this room (Convention Centre) today voting on legislation. There’s churches in this country bigger than this and yet you only allow 10 people in.”

Minister of State for Health Anne Rabbitte was unable to point to any direct evidence justifying the ban on public worship.