Four Cuban-American bishops issued a statement Tuesday indicating their support for Cubans seeking recognition of their human rights, following protests of the island’s communist government.

“We, Cuban-American bishops, join in solidarity with the Cuban people in their quest for responses to their human rights and needs.  We are deeply troubled by the aggressive reaction of the government to the peaceful manifestations, recognizing that ‘violence engenders violence,’” read the statement.

“Such a reaction seems to negate the basic Cuban principle of having ‘una patria con todos y para el bien de todos’ (a homeland with all and for the good of all).  We stand in solidarity with those detained because they have voiced their opinions.”

A body representing Spain’s medical colleges said on Monday that a government minister’s threat to conscientious objection on abortion is “unacceptable, illegal, and unjust.”

The General Council of Official Medical Colleges (CGCOM) was responding to proposed changes to the country’s abortion law announced by Spain’s Equality Minister Irene Montero.

Montero declared that “the right of physicians to conscientious objection cannot be above women’s right to decide,” ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, reported.

The CGCOM, the governing body representing 52 local medical colleges, defended the right to conscientious objection in a July 12 statement.

“Forcing the conscience of physicians in order to expand the number of physicians available in all communities is, in addition to being unconstitutional, a bad solution, which from the perspective of the medical profession would be considered unacceptable, illegal, and unjust,” it said.

Allowing abortion up to birth if the unborn child has Down syndrome is discriminatory and stigmatises disabled people, the UK high court has heard.

Heidi Crowter, a 26-year-old woman with Down syndrome, and Máire Lea-Wilson, 33, and her son Aidan, who has Down syndrome, are challenging Health Secretary Sajid Javid over the Abortion Act 1967. The act sets a 24-week time limit for abortions unless there is “substantial risk” of the child being “seriously handicapped”, which includes conditions such as Down syndrome, cleft palate and club foot.

The three argue it is discriminatory, interferes with the right to respect for private life in article 8(1) of the European convention on human rights (ECHR), including the decision to become or not to become a parent and “rights to dignity, autonomy and personal development of all three claimants”.

Actress Sally Philips (of Bridget Jones’s Diary fame) was also present outside the court to show her support for the case. Ms Philips, whose son Olly has Down syndrome, presented the remarkable and highly acclaimed documentary on BBC a few years back called “A World Without Down’s Syndrome?”

The leaders of 16 political parties from across Europe have announced an alliance to defend the sovereignty of European nation states, protect the nuclear family and preserve traditional Judeo-Christian values.

The July 2 “Joint Declaration on the Future of the European Union” represents the first significant endeavour by euroskeptic parties to jointly oppose efforts by European federalists to transform the European Union into a multicultural superstate.

The document states that the European Union requires “profound reform” because, “instead of protecting Europe,” it has itself become “a source of problems, anxiety and uncertainty.” The signatories say that the EU has become a tool of “radical forces” that are determined to carry out a civilizational transformation of Europe. Their objective, they say, is to create a European superstate void of European traditions, social institutions or moral principles.

The signatories say that conservative establishment parties in Europe have abandoned traditional Judeo-Christian values ​​and have aligned themselves with leftist positions for political gain.

Businessman Declan Ganley has urged the High Court to hear his challenge to the legality of the ban on attending public religious worship which operated from the mid-level, Covid19 restrictions.

Neil Steen SC, for Mr Ganley, argued on Friday that, although the disputed regulations had lapsed, the case raised important legal issues about the balance between the right to public worship and public health.

If the case was not heard, the State would have “outmanoeuvred any effort at judicial supervision” and the administration of justice could also be held in disrepute, he said.

In submissions for the State, Catherine Donnelly SC said, on the facts of this case and applicable law, it appeared the proceedings should be held to be moot (pointless).

It was for the court to decide if Mr Ganley’s side had met the burden of proof to show it was not moot, she said.

Mr Justice Charles Meenan will rule on a later date whether the case is moot or should proceed to hearing.

The Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) called on Cubans to continue to pressure Cuban communist authorities to open general elections after thousands of people took the streets of major local cities to protest the unprecedented scarcity of essentials and the death rate produced by COVID-19.

After months of food and medicine shortages and the collapse of hospitals due to the pandemic, thousands of Cubans took to the streets shouting “Down with the dictatorship!”, “Homeland and life!”, “We want vaccines!”, and “we are not afraid!”, in the largest demonstrations that ever occurred in more than 60 years of Communist rule.

Protesters in some regions marched with the image of Our Lady of Charity, the national Marian advocate of Cuba.

The MCL was founded by Catholic dissident Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas in 1988 to achieve a peaceful democratic reform in Cuba, explicitly inspired by the social doctrine of the Church.

The number of women from Northern Ireland choosing to abort their unborn children has dramatically increased since Westminster imposed radical abortion legislation on the six counties last year.

As of June 11, the Department of Health had received 1,624 notifications of abortions, despite the lack of a full and formal commissioning of the law.

English and Welsh Catholic bishops expressed relief after members of the House of Commons withdrew proposals to legalise abortion-on-demand up to birth and to make it a crime to hold a vigil or protest outside an abortion clinic.

Two amendments to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill were withdrawn by their sponsors when it became obvious during a debate in the House of Commons that they would be defeated.

Afterward, Auxiliary Bishop John Sherrington of Westminster, the lead bishop for life issues of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, said he was grateful to “the thousands of people who lobbied MPs and helped to prevent dangerous amendments to the bill from moving forward.”

More deaths than births took place in the UK last year for the first time in nearly half a century, figures confirm.

This means that natural change in the UK – the difference between births and deaths – was a negative figure of 6,438.

It is the first time deaths have exceeded births since 1976, according to provisional figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

It is also only the second time this has happened since the start of the 20th century.

Spain’s Catholic bishops have criticised recent government initiatives on issues from euthanasia to gender ideology.

Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera of Valencia told Spain’s La Razón that the euthanasia law was “iniquitous, criminal, anti-life, anti-human and anti-social” law contradicted the Spanish people’s “common good, identity and moral tradition,” and warned there would be “no forgiveness or pardon” for politicians backing it unless they “recognise their guilt and the damage caused.”

Meanwhile, a draft law was introduced by the government on June 29, allowing people over 16 to identify as a different gender in the civil register by a simple court declaration, without medical or legal measures, and imposing heavy fines for all discrimination. A similar law already exists in Ireland.

Auxiliary Bishop Luis Argüello Garcia of Valladolid, secretary-general of the bishops’ conference, warned on Twitter that the proposed law, which has been protested by some feminist groups as an attack on female identity, would “transform sentiment into a legal category and enthrone the will to power without limit.”

“Whoever is born a man will always be a man, and whoever is born a woman will always be a woman, no matter which hormones they impose and operations they perform,” the archbishop told Catholics in a homily.