Religious services will again be effectively banned as the Government announced the imminent return of lockdown on the whole country.

Christmas religious services may take place, but will move online after 25 December when places of worship may remain open for private prayer.

10 mourners at most are permitted at funerals. Under the highest level of restrictions in England, public worship can continue.

Up to and including 2 January 2020, weddings can have up to 25 guests. From 3 January, weddings can have up to 6 guests.

The adjustments to Level 5 will allow non-essential retail to remain open, although it is requested that January sales events be deferred.

Gyms, leisure centres and swimming pools may remain open for individual training only, while outdoor golf and tennis are permitted.

Minister for Education Norma Foley has announced a Catholic patron for one of the four new post-primary schools to be established in 2021.

Le Chéile Schools Trust, formed from fifteen Catholic religious congregations, will operate the new secondary school in Ballincollig, Cork.

The three other schools, in the Booterstown-Blackrock-Dún Laoghaire area of south Dublin, in Gorey, Co Wexford, and in Dunshaughlin, Co Meath, will be run by Educate Together or an Education and Training Board.

In all cases, the minister accepted the recommendations of the New Schools Establishment Group.

Minister Foley said: “Parental preference is a key factor in deciding the patronage of new schools and I’m delighted that despite the ongoing Covid-19 situation, engagement levels from parents for this patronage process is generally in line with engagement levels in previous patronage processes.

“The views of parents as expressed through the process are reflected in the decisions I have made on the patronage of these four new schools.”

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF) has stated that it is “morally acceptable” to receive COVID-19 vaccines produced using cell lines that date back to tissue taken from aborted fetuses from decades ago when no alternative is available.

This does not in any way imply a legitimation of the grave evil of the practice of abortion or that there is a moral endorsement of the use of cell lines proceeding from aborted fetuses, the Vatican congregation said.

The Vatican health service will begin a vaccination program against COVID-19 using the Pfizer vaccine, the director of the Vatican health service has said.

The vaccine will be made available to the 800 residents and nearly 3,000 workers of the small city-state starting in January. At the confirmatory stage of its development, it used a cell-line called HEK293 which derived from an aborted foetus dating back to 1972.

It will not be mandatory, but will be made available for anyone who wishes to receive it.

“Only through a widespread and capillary immunization of the population will it be possible to obtain real advantages in terms of public health to achieve control of the pandemic,” Dr. Andrea Arcangeli said earlier this month.

“Therefore, it is our duty to offer all residents, employees and their families the opportunity to be immunised against this dreaded disease,” he said.

“It is important to educate everyone that the vaccine is not only to protect one’s own health, but also that of other people,” the Vatican News story said.

Dr. Arcangeli said the Pfizer vaccine, developed in conjunction with BioNTech, was chosen because it is the leading candidate for both European and U.S. approval, is already being used in England and has tested at 95% effective.

“Other vaccines produced with different methods may be introduced after evaluating their efficacy and full safety,” he added.

More than 90 per cent of married parents in the UK will still be together in five years’ time compared with just three-quarters of cohabiting families, new research has found.

Pro-marriage campaigners say the study proves that an official commitment ‘boosts stability and acts as a buffer against problems for children’.

Figures compiled by the Marriage Foundation suggest that on average 1.5 per cent of married parents split annually, compared to five per cent who live together.

Based on these rates, taken from Office for National Statistics (ONS) data and a UK Household study, it calculated that over the next five years, 93 per cent of married couples with dependent children would stay together. By comparison, only 75 per cent of the relationships involving cohabiting parents would survive.

Report author Harry Benson, Research Director at the Marriage Foundation, suggested there was more ambiguity in a relationship without official vows, but marriage offered a ‘clear signal of commitment’.

‘Relationships thrive when there is clarity and a plan,’ he said. ‘Living together and having children together on their own is not sufficient evidence of a clearly decided and agreed plan to spend the rest of their lives together.

Mr Benson predicted that if all cohabiting parents married or entered into a civil partnership up to 227,000 more families would be together by 2025. He claimed that this would ‘avoid the unnecessary experience of family breakdown for between 134,000 and 382,000 children’.

Spain’s parliament has advanced a euthanasia and assisted suicide bill that Catholic leaders had decried as “a defeat for all” which abandons those who suffer.

The Congress of Deputies, the lower house of Spain’s legislative body, passed the bill by a Dec. 17 vote of 198 to 138, with the backing of the country’s left-wing coalition and several other parties. The conservative Popular Party and the right-wing Vox party voted against the bill.

The legislation is expected to be passed by the Senate, though amendments may be suggested, then returned to the deputies for a final vote. It could become law as soon as spring of next year, making Spain the largest EU country to legalize euthanasia.

The law would allow public and private health professionals to help people kill themselves if they suffer “a serious and incurable disease” or a “debilitating and chronic condition” that is “unbearable.”

Protesters had rallied against the bill outside of the parliament building in Madrid. They held a banner that said “Government of death.”

“The euthanasia law is a defeat for civilization and a victory for the culture of death, for those who believe that some lives are more worthy than others,” said Santiago Abascal, leader of Vox.

Nigeria has been designated as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for engaging or tolerating “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom,” by the United States Department of State.

This comes after years of terrorism carried out by violent Islamic extremist groups, such as Boko Haram, that has targeted Christians in the Northern part of the country.

Responding to the move Kelsey Zorzi, who serves as Director of Global Religious Freedom for ADF International, said persecution against religious believers around the world must end.

“For too long, Nigeria has violated the fundamental rights of people of faith by allowing impunity for egregious crimes committed against religious minorities, and in particular against Christians. The United States’ designation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern sends a message that atrocities committed based on religious motives or identity will not be tolerated. This designation is a wake-up call to Nigeria to protect everyone’s inalienable right to religious freedom”.

The U.S. government with 34 other countries has officially filed a pro-life declaration with the UN Secretary General.

“The United States strongly supports the dignity of all human beings and protecting life from the moment of conception throughout the lifespan,” Ambassador Kelly Craft wrote to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres transmitting the Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family.

“The United States, along with our like-minded partners, believes strongly that there is no international right to abortion and that the United Nations must respect national laws and policies on the matter, absent external pressure,” Ambassador Craft added.

Craft instructed the Secretary General to share the declaration with member states more broadly and to include it on official record of the General Assembly, inviting all Member States to sign it.

The Government’s planned laws against ‘hate speech’ will target people who “intentionally or recklessly” incite hatred against individuals or groups,  Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said. Such laws are often attacked by critics for undermining free speech.

Speaking Thursday at the launch of a report recommending stronger hate speech and hate crime legislation, the Minister said the test for criminal hate speech will be the perpetrator’s intentions, not how the speech was perceived by the victim.

The Bill, which is due to be drafted over the coming months, will list trans people and people with disabilities, alongside already protected groups such as other members of the LGBT community people, refugees and immigrants, Travellers and ethnic and religious groups.

Asked if it will be an offence to misgender a trans person or use their former name, Mr McEntee said: “We’re not trying to catch people out, this is not something you can stumble into by accident. This is not about somebody causing offence to somebody else or misspeaking.

The Vatican has decreed that priests may celebrate up to four Masses on several important feast days, including Christmas, to accommodate the participation of more of the faithful.

Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, said the decision was made “in view of the situation brought about by the worldwide spread of the pandemic.”

According to the Code of Canon Law, while a priest “may not celebrate (Mass) more than once a day,” a bishop may “for a good reason allow priests to celebrate twice in one day or even, if pastoral need requires it, three times on Sundays or holy days of obligation.”

By allowing priests hold more masses, more lay Catholics could attend especially in churches with limited seating due to social distancing measures.