Bishop Kevin Doran has been reportedly banned from tweeting after he uploaded a post outlining his opposition to an assisted Suicide Bill going through the Oireachtas.

In one tweet, Bishop Doran wrote: “There is dignity in dying. As a priest, I am privileged to witness it often. Assisted suicide, where it is practiced, is not an expression of freedom or dignity, but of the failure of a society to accompany people ‘on their way of the cross’.”

However, Twitter censored the post for “violating our rules against promoting or encouraging suicide or self-harm”.

Although the intent of the post was the opposite of what twitter claimed, upon appeal, the social media giant doubled down on its stance and said, “Our support team has determined that a violation did take place, and therefore we will not overturn our decision”.

Bishop Doran’s twitter profile remains in place, but the offending tweet has been removed and he has been barred from posting anything new.

Researchers from Trinity College have found that the “wish to die” among older people living in the community is often “transient” and is strongly linked to underlying issues of depression and feelings of loneliness.

A survey of more than 8,100 people aged over 50 found that 4 per cent of people surveyed expressed a wish to die. However, almost three-quarters of those who initially expressed this desire did not feel the same when researchers revisited the issue with them two years later.

60 per cent of those who reported a wish to die had co-existing depressive symptoms while half of those who stated they wanted to die had been diagnosed with depression. This indicates a “high burden of undetected mental health problems” in the group, the authors said.

Almost three-quarters of those with a wish to die were also lonely, the study found. Those who subsequently said two years later that they no longer felt the wish to die reported that their symptoms of loneliness and depression had improved.

The report’s authors noted that their findings are particularly pertinent given the consideration of an assisted suicide Bill by the Oireachtas and have called for an “enhanced focus on improving access to mental health care and addressing social isolation in older people”.

Prof Rose Anne Kenny, head of medical gerontology at Trinity College, said that almost two-thirds of participants who expressed a wish to die in the study had at least one chronic illness which meets the criteria for a terminal illness as proposed in the Bill.

The ban on public worship due to Covid-19 in Scotland has been challenged in Court by a Glasgow priest. Scottish worshippers currently face criminal penalties for going to Mass or religious services, other than weddings or funerals, in contrast to their English neighbours who can attend with safety measures in place.

Father Tom White, a priest of the Archdiocese of Glasgow and the Dean of the City East St Alphonsus Church in Glasgow, is leading this effort as part of the Catholic community in making the case for churches as an essential service during a time of societal crisis.

“As a priest, I have witnessed first-hand the grief and suffering that Covid-19 has caused for my parish members. Therefore I know, as a priest, that we need to open my church to be able to support them best in their hour of need,” said Father White.

“I speak for many in the church when I say that it’s very important to keep people safe and well during this pandemic. But, this can and should be done while also allowing people to fulfil their need to draw close to God and worship in community at the church. With appropriate safety measures, we can accommodate both of these outcomes,” he continued.

More than 50 Irish faith leaders have signed a statement condemning the persecution of the Uighurs and other Muslims by the Chinese Communist Government.

The signatories said: “As religious leaders and leaders of belief-based communities in Ireland, we join with our counterparts in Britain and elsewhere in affirming human dignity for all by highlighting one of the most egregious human tragedies since the Holocaust: the potential genocide of the Uighurs and other Muslims in China.”

The group said they had “seen many persecutions and mass atrocities. These need our attention. But there is one that, if allowed to continue with impunity, calls into question most seriously the willingness of the international community to defend universal human rights for everyone – the plight of the Uighurs.”

A number of pro-life groups have welcomed a new Bill introduced to the Northern Ireland Assembly that would prohibit abortion up to birth in situations where an unborn baby is diagnosed with a non-fatal disability such as Down syndrome.

The Iona Institute NI spokesperson Tracey Harkin said it is “chilling” that currently “babies with disabilities including Down syndrome, cleft palate and club foot can be selected for abortion up to birth”.

“The proposed new Bill . . . is an important first legislative step towards pushing back against the worst extremities of the abortion regime forced upon us by the Westminster government”.

“The United Nations Committee on the rights of people with disabilities (UNCRPD) have on numerous occasions criticized countries like the UK whose abortion laws facilitate disability discrimination.”

Eilís Mulroy of the Pro Life Campaign said, if passed, the bill won’t undo all the damage caused by the new abortion law imposed on Northern Ireland by Westminster but “it will at least end the very obvious discrimination contained in the current law against people with a disability”.

The passage of Paul Givan’s Bill would also “send a strong message that it is never acceptable to single out particular categories of people and try to justify ending their lives based solely on their disability”.

Families in France have united to call for parental rights to be protected in the face of Government moves to ban homeschooling.

The French government announced the intention in a statement delivered in October, citing the fight against “separatism” as the basis for the controversial move. The proposal would also place new restrictions on the independence of private schools. Such action would severely curtail rights that have not only been upheld in French national law since 1882, but also are affirmed in international human rights law.

“International law recognizes the right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children. Children are born to parents, not the state, and it should be parents who make decisions about how to best raise their children,” said Jennifer Lea, legal counsel for ADF International in Strasbourg.

“Every child is unique and a one-size-fits-all approach to learning undermines the investment in the next generation. Homeschooling can bring enormous benefits to children – for example, those with exceptional gifts in music, dance, or athletics, and who need extra time to hone their skill; or children who perhaps struggle to learn at the pace of a busy classroom, and require more one-on-one attention,” she continued.

The US is considering introducing a monthly child benefit for the first time in what would be a seismic political shift for the country. Ireland has paid a monthly child benefit for many years.

Democrats are hoping to include the measure – which could pay up to $300 (€249.08) per month per child – as part of a larger coronavirus spending package.

President Joe Biden’s spokeswoman this week repeated that the current plans are focused on “emergency funding” rather than a more permanent shift.

But anti-poverty advocates, who have pushed for a monthly benefit for years, hope inserting such a programme temporarily will lay the groundwork for more lasting change.

Conservatives thinkers have also put forward their own proposals for a monthly child allowance, such as Senator Mitt Romney, who see the idea as a family-friendly policy – and a defence against America’s falling birth rate, which has hit a record low.

“If we don’t do more to help families … we’re just not going to have that many of them and I think, at least for social conservatives, that’s a cause for concern,” says Brad Wilcox, senior fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, pointing to rapid increases in child-related expenses like education.

The leaders of secular-oriented advocacy organisations in the US are concerned with President Joe Biden’s religious rhetoric even as they celebrate his policies.

“So far, we’re delighted with the actions,” said Rachel Laser, head of of Americans United.

But Biden’s words that have rankled many in the secularist community, particularly his habit of infusing many important decisions and ceremonies with faith. His inaugural address, besides reprising language from his campaign about “the soul of America,” cited the Bible’s 30th psalm, invoked the fifth-century theologian Augustine — whom the president, a Catholic, called “a saint of my church” — and suggested faith is key to American unity.

In addition, Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder and co-president of the FFRF, said her inbox was “flooded with complaints” from her group’s members when, the day before his inauguration, Biden included Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the Catholic archbishop of Washington, in a ceremony commemorating the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have died due to the pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus.

She noted that at the ceremony, held at the Lincoln Memorial, a nurse from Michigan offered the Christian hymn “Amazing Grace.”

“For our membership, for nonreligious and non-Christian individuals, it was utterly spoiled,” Gaylor said of the service.

FFRF, which claims more than 30,000 members, sent a letter to Biden in the run-up to the inauguration asking him not to include a prayer in the proceedings.

Sarah Levin, program director for Secular Democrats of America, said that if prayer or invocation must be part of public celebrations — such as the interfaith prayer service held the day after the inauguration — secular voices should be included. “I worry that this administration’s idea of interfaith outreach may tend to exclude nonbelievers,” she said.

Consultants in palliative medicine have expressed concern about the assisted suicide bill before the Oireachtas.

Dr Sarah McLean of St Vincent’s Private Hospital and Blackrock Clinic says the Bill is “deeply flawed” and lacks adequate safeguards. Without these protections, society’s most vulnerable risk being pressurised into seeking assisted suicide, she says.

The Bill’s definition of what constitutes a terminal illness is too broad, adds Dr McLean, a member of the Irish Palliative Medicine Consultants’ Association (IPMCA). “There’s no proper oversight or scrutiny.”

IPMCA chair Dr Feargal Twomey, a consultant in palliative medicine at Milford Hospice in Limerick, says “every clause” in the proposed legislation has “significant weaknesses” and that the Bill “is poorly constructed and leaves the population open to significant risk”.

“The Bill, as it stands, is very open to significant misuse and abuse and encompasses any person in Ireland who has any chronic condition,” says Dr Twomey, who is also the Royal College of Physicians Ireland (RCPI) spokesperson on physician-assisted dying and euthanasia.

There is “very little consensus” on what should replace the article in the Constitution about a mother’s role in the home, the Citizens’ Assembly has heard.

Gender equality is the theme of a series of meetings and the issue of Article 41.1 on the family was debated for the second time on Saturday.

The Constitutional Convention in 2013 recommended amending Article 41.2 to make it gender-neutral, and recognising the importance of care work and providing for a reasonable level of State support for carers.

Dr Laura Cahillane, a senior lecturer in the School of Law in Limerick, said the original Article 41.2 conferred no benefit and “quite possibly the replacement provision might have the same place”.

She said the original provision has no use in law. The implication that the article might confer some financial obligation towards women was never tested. It was only raised in one case, which was unsuccessful.