Just under half of UK adults (44%) saying they pray, and among those who pray a third (33%) say that they have prayed since the COVID-19 lockdown because they believe it makes a difference, according to a new nationwide poll of 2,101 UK adults by Savanta ComRes1 for Christian relief & development agency Tearfund.
With churches being closed due to restrictions on social gatherings, thousands of churches are streaming their services online. A quarter (24%) of UK adults say they have watched or listened to a religious service since lockdown (on the radio, live on TV, on demand or streamed online), this jumps to three quarters (76%) amongst regular churchgoers. One in twenty UK adults (5%) who say they have watched or listened to a religious service since lockdown have never gone to church.
A third (34%) of UK adults aged 18-34 say they have watched or listened to a religious service since lockdown (on the radio, live on TV, on demand or streamed online) this compares to one in five (19%) adults aged 55+.
While some may view religion as more appealing to the older generation, the research shows that younger adults aged 18-34 are significantly more likely to say they pray regularly (at least once a month) than adults aged 55 and over (30% vs. 25%).
A call has been made for the Catholic Church in Ireland to present a credible roadmap to civil authorities for the commencement of public Masses.
An editorial in the Irish Catholic newspaper says the closure of churches for worship is draconian and the timeframe of starting public Masses on July 20 lacks ambition.
“Are we really to believe that churches must wait for weeks and weeks after libraries and restaurants for some semblance of normality to return? The answer is ‘no’ and Church leaders must lobby the Government for a timeframe that is realistic, ambitious and keeps public health to the fore,” it says.
The paper adds that it is not appropriate to leave this entirely in the hands of well-meaning public officials many of whom may be unfamiliar with the patterns of liturgy and Church life.
The worldwide order of the Brothers of Charity have cut ties with 15 care homes of theirs in Belgium after the Vatican stripped the institutions of their Catholic status because euthanasia was permitted on their premises.
Brother Rene Stockman, superior general of the Brothers of Charity, the order that founded the homes, said this week that the brothers had “no choice but to remain faithful” to their “charism of charity, which cannot be reconciled with the practice of euthanasia on psychiatric patients.”
The centres were managed by the Provincial Association of the Brothers of Charity in Belgium.
In March 2017, the association announced it would implement Belgian law on euthanasia, which includes the killings of patients with “unbearable” psychiatric conditions.
The policy conflicted with both the public position on euthanasia of the Brothers and also of the Belgian bishops, and the association was asked to change it but refused.
The Brothers of Charity was founded in 1807 in Ghent, Belgium, with a charism especially to serve the elderly and the mentally ill. They also operate in Ireland providing extensive services to people with intellectual disabilities, with annual funding from the HSE.
A challenge to a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) banning prayer around an abortion facility in the London Borough of Ealing, will be submitted to the European Court of Human Rights.
Introduced in April 2018, the Order criminalises activities including silent prayer and charitable offers of help. Alina Dulgheriu, a young mother who herself received help from pro-life volunteers, argues that the Order violates the fundamental rights to freedom of speech, assembly, and religion.
Ryan Christopher, Senior Policy Officer for ADF International based in London called the order disproportionate and a serious threat to fundamental freedoms.
“It sets a worrying precedent and outlaws even the most compassionate offer of assistance as well as silent prayer. In a free society, the authorities do not simply criminalise speech with which they disagree. Evidence shows that hundreds of women – like Alina – have accepted the help offered by peaceful pro-life groups outside abortion facilities,” he said.
Modern society is formulating an “anti-Christian creed” and punishing those who resist it with “social excommunication,” Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI has said in a new biography, published in Germany on May 4 this week.
In a wide-ranging interview at the end of the 1,184-page book, written by German author Peter Seewald, the pope emeritus said the greatest threat facing the Church was a “worldwide dictatorship of seemingly humanistic ideologies and to contradict them constitutes exclusion from the basic social consensus.”
He continued: “A hundred years ago, everyone would have thought it absurd to speak of homosexual marriage. Today whoever opposes it is socially excommunicated. The same applies to abortion and the production of human beings in the laboratory.”
“Modern society is in the process of formulating an ‘anti-Christian creed,’ and resisting it is punishable by social excommunication. The fear of this spiritual power of the Antichrist is therefore only too natural, and it truly takes the prayers of a whole diocese and the universal Church to resist it.”
A woman is taking the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to court after an abortion provider did not inform her that a baby at 23 weeks’ gestation may feel pain and that her unborn child had a chance of surviving outside the womb at the time of her abortion.
Anna-Maria Tudor, 32, had an abortion at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) clinic in Richmond, London and has outlined that she was never told her unborn baby might suffer during the abortion procedure.
Mrs Tudor from Newcastle told the Mail on Sunday, “I did not find out a baby at 23 weeks might be able to feel pain until afterwards. It made me feel awful and I now deeply regret my decision.
Ms Tudor has taken NICE to the High Court and is seeking a declaration that current NICE guidelines, which do not require women to be informed of the potential for foetal pain, are unlawful.
Current guidance for abortion providers relies on a 2010 review by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) that claims that the unborn baby is in an unconscious state and does not reach consciousness until birth.
But two medical researchers, including a ‘pro-choice’ British pain expert who used to think there was no chance unborn babies could feel pain before 24-weeks, say recent studies strongly suggest the assumption is incorrect.
Catholic schools that reward pupils who attend religious ceremonies are discriminating against non-Catholic pupils, the Workplace Relations Commission has ruled.
The commission decided that Yellow Furze primary school in Co Meath discriminated against an atheist pupil by giving his classmates who attended a First Communion choir ceremony homework passes. The commission awarded a sum of €5,000 in respect of discriminatory treatment and ordered the school to review its policies to ensure it complies with the provisions of the Equal Status Acts.
The mother of the child at the centre of the case said her son was upset after being “penalised” with homework for not attending the choir ceremony.
She argued that he did not have the option to take part in the ceremony as the family are atheist.
The school submitted that the claim was “wholly unfounded” and said all children – regardless of their religion – were able to participate in the ceremony.
As a Catholic school, it said it enjoyed a proud tradition of participating in religious ceremonies and that music was an integral part of this.
It added that its code of behaviour provided that all children who participate in extra-curricular activities or events on behalf of the school will receive a “reward” for their doing so.
Churches across the world are reopening or laying plans to do so, even as many Governments treat public worship as something of an afterthought.
Church-state tensions arose in Italy and Germany after both countries failed to include public worship in their initial easing of lockdown restrictions. After protests, the Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the Government were looking for ways of lifting the ban on Masses with “conditions of maximum security”. After similar protests by German Bishops and a ruling by the Constitutional Court, Germany allowed individual states to reopen churches for mass from May 3rd. Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced plans for public Masses to begin again on May 15, whilst Spain later announced that a partial reopening of churches would begin on May 11.
In the UK, meanwhile, churches were completely closed in March, after a representative of the bishops pointed out a discrepancy between the government’s social distancing measures and its policy of allowing churches to “open for solitary prayer”.
In the US, a number of states have begun to relax social distancing measures, including restrictions on churches. Montana saw Masses restart on Sunday April 26.
Churches have largely remained closed in South America. Even in Brazil, where the federal Government overruled local Government bans on church services, the Catholic bishops have been supportive of stringent public health measures.
In Africa, most countries have closed churches during the pandemic, but there remain exceptions to the continent-wide lockdown.
Elsewhere, Masses have resumed in a number of Vietnamese dioceses after the government there lifted some social distancing measures.
In Australia, Archbishop Anthony Fisher of New South Wales similarly pleaded for the government to consider a prompt “soft opening” of churches for confession and private prayer, after churches in Australia and nearby New Zealand remain closed despite the authorities in both countries having begun to ease national lockdowns.
Five years after its enactment, two key sections of the Children and Family Relationships Act have finally been commenced.
The Act was rushed through the Oireachtas in the run up to the same-sex marriage referendum in May 2015. Despite an entire section on surrogacy having been stripped out of it, it was still found to be flawed after it had become law. Unforeseen consequences and drafting errors delayed the commencement of two sections that were meant to provide a legal framework for registering the births of children who are born as a result of assisted human reproduction involving donated eggs or sperm or embryos. The commencement of these sections now means that some female same-sex couples will be legally recognised as co-parents of their children.
Specifically, it enables the birth mother and an intending parent (the mother’s spouse, civil partner or cohabitant) of a donor-conceived child – born as a result of a Donor Assisted Human Reproduction (DAHR) procedure – to register with the Registrar for Births, Deaths and Marriages, as parents. The couple can then obtain a birth certificate which reflects this. However, the DAHR procedure must have been undertaken in Ireland, and using a traceable sperm donor.
Nonetheless, campaign group Equality for Children said that the legislation is not enough.
According to the group, it leaves out children who have two male parents, a transgender parent, are born via surrogacy or reciprocal IVF, are born outside of Ireland or are conceived in an international clinic.
The legislation also leaves out children who are conceived via at-home insemination or have used an unknown donor. They say this amounts to 60% of the children of same-sex parents.
The leaders of Ireland’s main Churches have asked that the Northern Executive might reopen churches for private prayer and individual visits “sooner rather than later”.
In a joint statement, the leaders of the Church of Ireland, Methodist Church in Ireland, Roman Catholic Church, Presbyterian Church in Ireland and the Irish Council of Churches said they accept that it would not yet be appropriate to consider a full return to churches for collective worship, apart from the limited number of people who are able to meet for funeral services. “At this time, we are not calling on the Northern Ireland Executive to remove the current general restrictions on gathering together for church services, but we are asking that the issue is kept under regular review, so that when it is safe to do so there can be an easing of these restrictions”.
However, they say the issue of church buildings being permitted to open for individual visits and private prayer, where this is desired locally and can be done so safely with appropriate social distancing in place, is however a different and a separate matter. “Where the medical and scientific advice indicates that this limited step is possible, we would urge the Executive to consider easing this particular restriction sooner rather than later”.
