A controversial sex education course that taught children as young as six about touching their own genitals has been pulled by a council following a backlash.

The “All About Me” syllabus, which was rolled out at over 200 primary schools across Warwickshire, proposed that children should learn that “lots of people like to tickle or stroke themselves as it might feel nice” including their “private parts”.

The syllabus reassures children that this is “really very normal” but adds that it is “not polite to do it when other people are about”. It recommends that children do this when they are alone, such as “in the bath or shower or in bed”.

But following an outcry from parents and religious groups, Warwickshire County Council has now axed the “All About Me” sex education course.

The Christian Institute had written to the council earlier this year saying it would take legal action over the “catalogue of errors” in the syllabus, including the assertion that gender identity “can be best understood as being a spectrum”.

Two recent articles in the New York Times portray the self-sacrifice of Catholic priests in Italy and the US during the current pandemic.

On Saturday last, two reporters filed a dispatch from Rome entitled “As They Console Coronavirus’s Victims, Italy’s Priests Are Dying, Too”.

The report notes that while doctors and nurses on the northern Italian front line have become symbols of sacrifice against an invisible enemy, priests and nuns have also joined the fight. It says: “Especially in deeply infected areas like Bergamo, they are risking, and sometimes giving, their lives to attend to the spiritual needs of the often older and devout Italians hardest hit by the virus.”

Meanwhile, opinion writer, Elizabeth Bruenig detailed the work of Dominican friars in New York.

She said their calling was to live in community and then go out to lay hands on the sick, but that all changed once the coronavirus struck. She mentions one friar, Fr Hugh Vincent Dyer, who decided to move into a nursing home to be with the residents and medical staff for the duration of the lockdown rather than be entirely physically absent.

Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran has paid tribute to all who have continued to provide essential services during the Covid19 lockdown.

In his homily at the Easter Vigil mass, he said that “nurses, doctors, chaplains and other healthcare workers place their lives on the line in a way that might never have been imagined. Gardaí serving the public, risk being spat at in the street, just as Christ was. For ordinary men and women who work in shops, or drive delivery vans or public transport, going to work involves taking a risk for others”. Bishop Doran said it is not what happens to us that makes the difference; it is the generosity and the freedom with which we give ourselves. “There are many people today, including people who would not necessarily think of themselves as particularly religious; who are not Christian perhaps, but who are making enormous sacrifices. It is in them that we meet Christ today, whether or not they realise it”.

The Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, has warned that the Irish Catholic Church is in danger of becoming a “middle-class church”.

With churches closed, broadcasting Mass on the internet has filled that void for some, but Dr Martin said: “A lot of people don’t have computers, especially lots of elderly people.

The Archbishop also expressed a lack of enthusiasm for suggestions the crisis would see people turn to religion. “They said in the last economic crisis that an economic crisis is good for religion. That is very superficial,” he said.

“There are people today who may have said a prayer and they haven’t said one for a long time, but that isn’t a long-term commitment that is going to bring people back to faith. Many believers may even be challenged by what is happening.”

He said he believes if people see the Church has reached out “to mirror the mercy of Jesus” during the pandemic and has given itself “totally in a situation like that”, it will be judged more on this than on webcam Masses.

However, he admitted he was particularly concerned about those who have lost loved ones during the crisis and have been forced by restrictions not just to scale back funerals but sometimes to have stayed away from the funerals.

“There are other ways in which we can show solidarity to those who are mourning. One of the things is just to keep in contact,” he said.

Pope Francis has called for an end to the aborting of innocent lives.

In a tweet sent out on Holy Saturday, he begun by issuing a plea for the end of all wars: “Let us silence the cries of death, no more wars! Since we need bread, not guns”. He continued with an appeal on behalf of the unborn and all innocent lives: “Let the abortion and killing of innocent lives end”. He concluded with a plea on behalf of the poor: “May the hearts of those who have enough be open to filling the empty hands of those who do not have the bare necessities”.

A 103-year-old Italian says ‘courage, faith’ helped her beat the coronavirus.

Ada Zanusso lives at the Maria Grazia Residence for the elderly in Lessona, a town in the northern region of Piedmont. Her family doctor of 35 years, Carla Furno Marchese, said he thought she wasn’t going to make it because she was always drowsy and not reacting.

“One day she opened her eyes again and resumed doing what she used to before,” Furno Marchese said.

When asked by an Associated Press reporter what helped her get through the illness? “Courage and strength, faith,” Zanusso said. It worked for her, so she advises others who fall ill to also “give yourself courage, have faith.”

Meanwhile, in the UK a prominent conservationist who chairs a global campaign to stop tropical deforestation, has recounted a vivid spiritual experience while he battled the coronavirus. Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme, Hylton Murray-Philipson, 61, who had spent five days in intensive care, many of them on a ventilator, said that in the moment of his greatest distress and struggle whilst in intensive care, he had a powerful image of Jesus calming the storm on the sea of Galilee. “I would like to think that was Jesus Christ coming to me, and helping me in my hour of need,” he said.

The home of the Bishop of Raphoe was broken into in the early hours of Easter Sunday morning.

A large number of windows and doors had been smashed on the premises, it is alleged.

Gardaí arrived at the house after reports of a break-in just before 3am.

Inside the property, gardaí also allegedly found damage to the building and contents, including a number of religious statues.

The parochial house is adjacent to St Eunan’s Cathedral from where RTÉ has been broadcasting Mass during the coronavirus crisis.

A 24-year-old man was arrested at the scene by gardaí and was taken to Letterkenny garda station.

Nobody was injured in the break-in and it is not believed that anything was stolen.

Religious leaders from a number of faiths discussed the Covid-19 emergency with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on a conference call on Wednesday.

Mr Varadkar sought the views of religious leaders on how communities and the most vulnerable can be cared for.

They were also due to discuss the changes brought in to reflect current public health guidelines for funerals and burials, and the impact of this on families at this difficult time.

It is understood that Mr Varadkar thanked those in religious life for their contribution throughout the emergency so far, especially as some are prevented from doing all they would like because of age or health.

After the meeting the Taoiseach tweeted: “At times of trial, many of us turn to faith for meaning and for comfort. Was a real privilege to talk to religious and spiritual leaders today and thank them their contribution during this Emergency”.

The discussion was part of the Structured Dialogue initiated by the Taoiseach following the visit by Pope Francis in 2018.

It is designed to foster a new covenant for the 21st century between State and faith communities, recognising their place in society and the valuable contribution they make to communities.

The chief social officer for Northern Ireland has insisted that it would be wrong for any hospital or care home staff to put up “do not resuscitate” (DNR) notices for patients without consulting their families first.

Sean Holland made his comment at the Stormont health committee on Thursday after a number of politicians complained that some families were being pressurised to agree to no resuscitation stipulations for their loved ones in Northern Ireland hospitals and care homes.

DUP North Down MLA Alex Easton said on Thursday morning he received an email from the family of a woman at the Ulster Hospital in east Belfast who said a DNR notice was put against that patient even though she was “conscious and she was not told this was happening”.

Mr Easton said her family was not contacted about the DNR notice. He asked the chief social officer Mr Holland for assurance “that people’s lives are not being decided without consultation with their loved ones because if that is the case that it totally unacceptable”.

Sinn Féin Assembly member Martina Anderson who referred to accounts of such action happening at some care homes and said such reports were “deeply worrying, against clinical guidance and are simply unacceptable”.

The coronavirus pandemic had struck at the very heart of the ministry of priests, curtailing their normal outreach to the sick, the elderly and the dying, the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, Eamon Martin, has said.

The Archbishop was speaking on Thursday morning at Holy Thursday Chrism Mass, commemorating the founding of the priesthood at the last supper, in the Cathedral of St Patrick and St Colman in Newry, Co Down.

“Perhaps saddest of all, it has cruelly restricted our capacity to draw close to families who are bereaved,” he said.

He also said it had “driven our congregations indoors, forced us to stay apart, prevented us from having the public celebration of Mass and hindered us from offering the healing sacraments of reconciliation and anointing in the normal manner.

Nonetheless, he said “Our calling as priests remains strong in this crisis: to be with our people, to encourage them, to bring them the hope and consolation”.

But he added that “there will be more sacrifices for our people and ourselves to make before this Covid-19 crisis is all over”.

Meanwhile, Easter liturgies will take place behind closed doors across Ireland due to the coronavirus restrictions.

In addition, many clergy are cocooning. The Dublin Catholic archdiocese has almost 200 priests unavailable as they are over 70 and cocooning. In Kildare and Leighlin, 58 priests are cocooning, with 47 in active ministry. In Killaloe diocese 44 of its 93 priests are in active ministry with 49 cocooned.