A UK University has dropped a case against a midwifery student it banned from her hospital placement over her pro-life views. The student is now seeking a formal acknowledgement of wrongdoing by the university to ensure no other student undergoes the same ordeal she has.

Julia Rynkiewicz, 24, a final year midwifery student at the University of Nottingham, was subject to an almost 4-month long investigation after concerns were raised about her involvement with the “Nottingham Students for Life” society. Rynkiewicz was immediately suspended by the University pending the outcome of the investigation which was ultimately dismissed by a Fitness to Practise Committee on 13 January. However her suspension meant that she was unable to complete required assessments in time and has led to her being forced to delay her studies. Rynkiewicz has now lodged a complaint with the University and is considering her options.

Ms Rynkiewicz, of south east London, said that she would like an apology from the university “as a matter of justice” so that “they realise they have done wrong and will change it so that no one else has to go through what I have”.

“I think it’s important to remember that being pro life isn’t incompatible with being a midwife,” she added.

A proposal to survey lawmakers’ support to legalize assisted suicide on the Isle of Man drew criticism from disability groups and other foes of the practice, who say it promotes “despair” rather than support for the vulnerable.

“There is no safe system of assisted suicide and disabled people want help to live, not to die,” said the disabled persons’ advocacy group Not Dead Yet UK. The group asked residents of the Isle of Man to write their legislators to voice their concern and to call for opposition to the motion set for a Jan. 21 vote.

The group said it is “very concerned” by the proposed motion to determine whether the parliament, known as the Tynwald, is “of the opinion that legislation to allow for voluntary assisted dying should be introduced.”

Efforts to legalize assisted suicide have repeatedly failed to pass the legislature on the Isle of Man. The last vote, held in 2015, failed by 17-5.

The leading candidate to become head of the UK Labour Party has spoken positively of her Catholic faith.

Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey who has been chosen by the Labour grassroots group Momentum as “the only viable candidate” to continue Mr Corbyn’s “socialist agenda”, said before the last election that the teachings of her Catholic faith drives her work and the policies she helps create.

In a questionnaire to Salford Catholic Diocese, she said: “[M]y Catholic faith has taught me that the only society we should be striving for is one based on love. . . The teachings I have based my life around drive the work I do every day and the policies I help to create as a politician”.

She added that in difficult times, “my faith is often the only thing that keeps me going. In those quiet moments before sleep every night, I always I pray for help and strength in doing the right thing, making the right decisions and making my time worthy of helping those around me as I truly want to.”

Some media have focussed on comments where she said she would limit the law that allows abortion on disability grounds up to birth:

“It is currently legal to terminate a pregnancy up to full-term on the grounds of disability while the upper limit is 24 weeks if there is no disability. I personally do not agree with this position and agree with the words of the Disability Rights Commission that “the context in which parents choose whether to have a child should be one in which disability and non-disability are valued equally”.

On the issue of legalisation on assisted suicide, she said she was against it. “Aside from the moral and ethical red lines, I had serious concerns that those who looked at assisted suicide may simply feel compelled to end their own life for reasons beyond it truly being their time to go.”

A German court has ruled for the first time in favour of a pharmacist who refused to sell the ‘morning-after-pill’ citing conscience reasons and his deeply held beliefs.

The drug can prevent the implantation of an embryo in the uterus and cause the death of an unborn child.

After refusing to sell the product in his pharmacy, he was reported to the Berlin Pharmacists’ Chamber which took the matter to the Professional Court at the Administrative Court of Berlin.

ADF International, a faith-based legal advocacy organisation that supported the pharmacist in this case, said the verdict upholds the pharmacist’s right to act in accordance with his conscience with regard to the sale of certain products.

Across Europe, the law clearly protects medical staff from participating in procedures which may violate their conscience. Pharmacists, however, can find themselves in a legal grey area when it comes to the protection of their conscience rights. No German court has previously addressed the matter. The decision is therefore of great importance for pharmacists.

“Personal beliefs and conscience influence all areas of a person’s life and are not simply laid down in a professional setting. This pharmacist in Berlin faced legal proceedings for choosing to act in line with his conscience. The court recognized that he did not violate the law and should not be forced to act against his personal convictions,” said Felix Böllmann, Legal Counsel for ADF International.

Persecuted Christians abroad will have their protection bolstered by the British government, following a landmark pledge to implement in full all the recommendations of the Truro report.

The announcement was made last week during a foreign affairs debate in the House of Lords, by Baroness Goldie, Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence.

The report by the Bishop of Truro said that the UK government should “name the phenomenon of Christian discrimination and persecution and undertake work to identify its particular character alongside similar definitions for other religions”. Recommendations included rolling out mandatory training to help staff at home and abroad better identify persecution in all its forms as well as adopting a definition of anti-Christian discrimination and persecution, similar to those applied to Islamophobia and antisemitism.

Baroness Goldie also revealed that the government will also “show global leadership” by imposing Magnitsky-style sanctions on nations which violate human rights. Such sanctions target individual perpetrators of human rights abuse in the offending countries.

The incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STIs) continued to rise in 2019 with provisional figures indicating a 17% rise in diagnoses of gonorrhoea to 2,823 new cases and a 16% increase in chlamydia to 9,180 new cases.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre’s provisional figures also show a 6% increase in new diagnoses of herpes and a 3% increase in HIV, to 537, last year. The highest number of diagnoses was for chlamydia. There were 787 new cases of syphilis.

The HSE said: “We expect when figures are finalised that approximately half of chlamydia [diagnoses] will have occurred in young people of 15-24 years, and that gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men will have been disproportionately affected by syphilis and gonorrhoea, with approximately four out of five cases of syphilis and two in three cases of gonorrhoea occurring in this population.”

Three Belgian doctors are going on trial in Ghent accused of unlawfully poisoning a patient who had requested euthanasia.

The sisters of the woman, Tine Nys, who was 38 when she died on 27 April 2010, argue that her reason for seeking to end her life was because of a failed relationship, far short of the “serious and incurable disorder” as required under Belgian law.

The three doctors from East Flanders who are going on trial have not been named, but they include the doctor who carried out the lethal injection and Nys’s former doctor and a psychiatrist. If found guilty they could face long jail terms.

The 38-year-old had suffered a childhood of severe psychiatric problems but had not had psychiatric treatment for 15 years. She was given a diagnosis of autism two months before her death but had not yet received treatment for it, the sisters say.

A man who legally married his long-time male friend for tax purposes two years ago, has died aged 84.

The legal union of Matt Murphy and Michael O’Sullivan (60) made headlines after Mr Murphy told RTÉ Radio’s Liveline that he planned to marry his heterosexual friend of 30 years to help him avoid paying inheritance tax on his home.

Mr O’Sullivan moved in with Mr Murphy during the recession after his apartment was repossessed and he acted as his carer in recent years.

The two married in the Dublin registry office on December 22nd, 2017 and lived in Mr Murphy’s home in Stoneybatter.

In the run-up to the same-sex marriage referendum of 2014, campaigners for a No vote predicted that a redefinition of marriage would lead to this very outcome.

Gardaí are investigating after St Brigid’s Church in Milltown was ransacked in the early hours of Saturday morning last.

The alarm was raised by a man visiting his mother’s grave at 8am on Saturday morning.

Several sacred items taken from the Church have since been recovered in the Newbridge area by Gardaí but their condition is not known at this stage.

The raiders took the tabernacle containing Communion hosts from the altar area.

They also threw the priests’ vestments on the floor and removed a safe and a candle stand.

A stained glass window at the side of the Church was broken and the back door was kicked in.

It’s understood parish priest Fr Willie Byrne and curate For Brian Kavanagh were very shocked and upset by the incident.

At Sunday morning Mass, Fr Kavanagh asked for prayers to be said for the perpetrators.