The four Catholic archbishops of Ireland have requested a meeting with Taoiseach Micheál Martin to address concerns about the closure of public masses due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Under Level 3 all religious services must move online, although places of worship can remain open for private prayer.

However, a letter from the Archbishops points out that communal celebration of Mass and the Sacraments, even with restricted numbers, “is at the very heart of what it means for us to be a Christian community”.

“We wish to engage constructively with the civil authorities to ensure that our people have continued access to the support of Mass and the Sacraments and essential spiritual nourishment for these challenging times,” it says.

The Church of Ireland Archbishops on Thursday evening affirmed “that each and every human life is intrinsically valuable in all its phases” as an assisted suicide bill in the Dáil goes to Committee stage.

Earlier on Thursday, Presbyterian Moderator Rev Dr David Bruce, said he was “deeply disappointed and gravely concerned” at Wednesday night’s decision by TDs not to reject the ‘Dying with Dignity Bill’.

The Bill, he said, “raises fundamental questions about the value that is placed on human life in Ireland, something that we firmly believe to be a gift from God”.

“At the same time, we welcome the acknowledgement by the Government, in its failed amendment to the Bill, that there is no human right to access assisted suicide.”

Meanwhile, the Irish Catholic Bishops released a statement saying there is no such thing as a life without value. “We ask people to consider the manner in which assisted suicide and euthanasia undermines the whole ethos of healthcare. Doctors and nurses are called to be advocates for life and should never be required to assist in any way in the deliberate ending of life”.

People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny has warned that progression of his Dying with Dignity Bill will take quite some time and may even need a referendum.

“It will hopefully move to the committee in the next four to six weeks,” said Mr Kenny.

“It will take the guts of around four to six months for a report on that process to be produced. It is not going to be straightforward and it is difficult to know where it will go.

“There could be a scenario where this never sees the light of day and gathers dust but, because of the cross-party support so far, I think that is unlikely.”

He said the committee report could also call for a referendum or citizens’ assembly.

Just four of 36 Fianna Fáil TDs supported the Bill going to pre-legislative scrutiny.

The Cabinet divided on the legislation, with Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Simon Coveney, Norma Foley, Heather Humphreys, Michael McGrath, Darragh O’Brien and Charlie McConalogue objecting to progression of the Bill.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, Helen McEntee, Stephen Donnelly, Simon Harris, Catherine Martin, Roderic O’Gorman and Eamon Ryan supported it.

Tanaiste Leo Varadkar, Justice Minister Helen McEntee, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and Higher Education Minister Simon Harris were among those who voted in favour of an assisted suicide bill in the Dail last night.

By a margin of 81 votes to 71 votes, the bill has been passed to second stage where it will now be examined by the Justice Committee.

A Government counter-motion to pause it for 12 months was defeated. The opposition of palliative care doctors was ignored.

Sinn Fein, the Greens, and all the smaller parties of the left, plus 10 FG TDs and 4 members of FF voted for the bill.

An earlier motion by the Government to set up a special Oireachtas Committee to examine the issue in depth, while the bill was put on hold for 12 months, failed by a vote of 65 to 86. Non-cabinet members of the Government parties were allowed vote against the it.

In response, leader of Aontu, Peadar Toibin, decried the lack of scrutiny and said the manner in which the bill was passed was shocking. He noted there had been only 70 mins debate, after which 4 minutes were given to those who opposed the bill, a position ultimately adopted by 71 TDs.

The Pro-life campaign released a statement saying it is “extremely troubling to see a bill designed to facilitate the ending of human life pass second stage with such ease and without any meaningful debate or scrutiny whatsoever.”

The so-called “safeguards” that usually accompany euthanasia laws are more window dressing than real protection.

That’s according to Robert Clarke, Deputy Director of ADF International, a faith-based legal advocacy organisation, and lead counsel for Tom Mortier at the European Court of Human Rights in Mortier v. Belgium.

In 2012, Mortier’s physically healthy 64-year-old mother was euthanised for what the doctor called ‘incurable depression’. Clarke lists seven of the Belgian law’s “safeguards” and argues that each one proved to be a myth in that case.

One states that the patient must have made a settled and voluntary decision, but Tom’s mother was suffering from a diagnosed psychiatric condition at the point at which her life was ended by lethal injection. To satisfy this apparent requirement, the doctor simply scribbled on the form that she had been “asking for it for years.” And yet this doctor had only met her months earlier; he specialises in cancer, not psychiatry; and appears only to have been approached because of his unquestioning approach to euthanasia.

Assisting in suicide is a “false exercise of compassion” and tolerance of the practice is “flawed in its moral judgement”, a bishop has said in light of an assisted suicide bill being considered by the Oireachtas.

Bishop of Cloyne William Crean added that introducing the bill during a pandemic is “disingenuous and unnecessary”.

“Is it not a contradiction of enormous magnitude to introduce a bill of this nature in the middle of a pandemic? If the frail and elderly were fearful and anxious due to the virus, they have an added legitimate concern as to how much value is really placed on their life and their lifetime’s contribution to society,” he said.

“Our treatment of the vulnerable is the judgement of our humanity. Assisting in suicide is a false exercise of compassion and tolerance of its practice is flawed in its moral judgement.”

Vietnam’s communist regime has released an evangelical pastor arrested four years ago accused of helping people escape abroad illegally, said Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a worldwide rights group working for persecuted Christians.

Pastor A Dao, leader of the Montagnard Evangelical Church of Christ, was released one year before he completed his five-year jail term. He was arrested in 2016 after he attended a conference on religious freedom and spoke about the difficulties his church faced from the state, said the US-centered rights group in a release on Oct. 5.

“Vietnamese authorities sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment for allegedly helping individuals to escape abroad illegally,” ADF said.

The authorities tortured Pastor A Dao after he refused to admit to the charges against him, the group said. They also interrogated members of his church and told them to cease all contact with “foreign reactionaries,” it said.

A group of consultant doctors have said they are “gravely concerned” about the proposals to empower doctors to euthanise terminally ill patients.

The threats of the proposed bill to healthcare in Ireland, to the true meaning of the doctor-patient relationship, and to the future of what we know compassionate and supportive specialist palliative care to be are many, they say.

“We worry about the impact on people who already struggle to have their voices heard in our society – older adults, the disabled, those with mental illness and others.

“We fear that the most vulnerable are those who may be made to feel a burden to their families and come under pressure to end their lives prematurely,” the doctors argue.

“Our experiences tell us that many in our society don’t really know what dying is like, or how rare it is that severe pain cannot be controlled.

“Most people do not know that the easing of physical, psychological or spiritual distress and addressing people’s fears, hopes, sadness and loss can transform the experiences of living, dying and bereavement for individual patients and their families.

One of Belgium’s most prominent trial lawyers has been found guilty by a court in Ghent of libel of the head of a religious order during the trial of three doctors involved in a case of euthanasia. The case involved a woman who was euthanised on the grounds of ‘psychological suffering’.

Walter Van Steenbrugge was representing the doctor accused of improperly administering euthanasia. He petitioned the court for René Stockman, head of the Catholic Brothers of Charity, to be called as a witness.

Now a court in Ghent has upheld Brother Stockman’s complaint, which carries a possible penalty of one year in prison.

Christian leaders have urged the government in India’s Chhattisgarh state to act against those who attacked 16 Christian families and destroyed their houses for refusing to abandon their faith.

Even after a week, state police have not registered Christians’ complaint against the tribal group that attacked them on Sept. 22 and 23, said Pastor Moses Logan.

“Police refused to register a first information report and are forcing the persecuted to compromise with the perpetrators of the crime,” Pastor Logan told UCA News on Oct. 2.

A crowd of people opposed to indigenous people following Christianity vandalized 16 houses of tribal Christians in three villages — Kakrabeda, Singanpur and Tiliyabeda — in the state’s Bastar region.

“They also assaulted women and children, so many ran into the forest to save their lives,” the pastor said.