The Department of Education raised no objection to a secondary school holding a prayer assembly for 152 pupils on their first day back after the Covid shutdown of schools in March.

The assembly, at St Leo’s College, Co Carlow, has come in for criticism, with Association of Secondary Teachers’ Ireland president Ann Piggott describing it as “unwise and ill advised” in light of the continuing pandemic.

As students started to return to school for the first time in almost six months, incoming first-years at St Leo’s College were welcomed with a prayer service, with pupils seated a metre apart in the hall.

Principal Niamh Broderick, whose daughter Laura (13) was among the group, said they had followed department guidelines and everything was done properly and safely.

A former Minister of the Interior and serving Member of the Finnish Parliament, has undergone her third police interrogation in recent months for having voiced her biblical views of marriage and family.

The Finnish Prosecutor General suspects Päivi Räsänen of “ethnic agitation”, a crime punishable with up to two years of imprisonment.

“These police investigations have to do with whether it is legal to publicly confess and teach Bible-based views on man’s relationship with God,” said Mrs Räsänen. “I will defend my right to confess my faith, so that no one else would be deprived of their right to freedom of religion and speech. I hold on to the view that my expressions are legal and they should not be censored. I will not back down from my views. I will not be intimidated into hiding my faith.”

The UK Government is being urged to impose sanctions on Nigerian government officials “turning a blind eye” to the slaughter of Christians in the West African country.

Ayo Adedoyin, Chief Executive of PSJ UK, said that Nigeria’s Christians were facing a “catastrophe”.

“Tens of thousands of Christians have been murdered in Nigeria and many thousands more have been subjected to vicious assault.”

Mr Adedoyin added: “The British government must do more to support Nigerian Christians and should apply sanctions to the members of the Nigerian government that are, at best, turning a blind eye to this ongoing catastrophe.”

The move comes after a new report warned that extremists may have been responsible for the deaths of up to 100,000 Christians in Nigeria over the last two decades.

It said that Nigeria has suffered more violent incidents and deaths than the rest of the entire West Africa region.

The report cites the findings of a new Savanta ComRes poll which finds strong public support in the UK for tougher action.

Around half of UK adults said they would support the withholding of British foreign aid to Nigeria over the persecution of Christians, while three in five said they would support sanctions on individuals responsible for human rights abuses.

https://www.christiantoday.com/article/britain.called.to.sanction.nigerias.government.officials.over.christian.persecution/135418.htm

An archbishop has accused the BBC of ignoring persecuted minorities such as Christians and Yazidis in its acclaimed documentary ‘Once Upon a Time in Iraq’.

Iraqis oppressed because of their faith had been “airbrushed” out of the BBC’s history series, Bashar Warda, the Chaldean archbishop of Arbil, claimed.

He said Christians and others felt wounded and pained to be deprived of their voice and that the corporation had failed in its duty of impartiality.

The documentary looks at the legacy of the war against Saddam Hussein and the rise of Islamic State.

Iraq’s Christian community has dwindled by 90 per cent in a generation to an official 250,000 although experts believe it could be half that number.

Archbishop Warda, asked the BBC: “Does the persecution, murder and rape within our minority communities not count? Are our experiences of the 2003 invasion . . . irrelevant? Minority communities have felt and continue to feel voiceless in our persecution and suffering in Iraq; to be then airbrushed out of a . . . major BBC documentary is wounding and damaging.”

He asked for omissions to be “rectified so far as it is possible”.

A US university has taken immediate “corrective action” after a professor threatened to discipline students who submitted projects opposing abortion, same-sex marriage. Or the Black Lives Matter movement.

The professor at Iowa State University said the course’s goal was to help students “develop skills in written, oral, visual, and electronic communication.”

The syllabus included a “GIANT WARNING” for students: “Any instances of othering that you participate in intentionally (racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, sorophobia, transphobia, classism, mocking of mental health issues, body shaming, etc) in class are grounds for dismissal from the classroom”.

“The same goes for any papers/projects: you cannot choose any topic that takes at its base that one side doesn’t deserve the same basic human rights as you do (ie: no arguments against gay marriage, abortion, Black Lives Matter, etc). I take this seriously.”

In a statement to CNN, the university said it took immediate “corrective action” and amended the syllabus.

The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin has warned that the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic is challenging people’s mental health and sense of worth, leading some to give in to despair.

At Mass at the Pro-Cathedral on Sunday, Diarmuid Martin said the world was facing very difficult times as the pandemic “threatens relentlessly” and is throwing up “unknown threats”.

“Many may unexpectedly find themselves facing shattering change in their lives.

“Jobs will be lost, even among those who have never before experienced insecurity,” he said.

He added that this may challenge people’s mental health and their sense of personal identity and worth. “Some may be tempted to give in to a pattern of despair.”

He appealed to people to build a society that will reach out to those who find themselves “unexpectedly in dramatic situations” and to create a culture in which “no one is driven to despair”.

The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life committee has praised the National Institute of Health (NIH) for its decision to withhold funds from 13 of 14 research proposals that involved the use of fetal tissue.

Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said the bishops applaud the Trump administration “for moving NIH in a direction that shows greater consideration for medical ethics in research, and greater respect for innocent human life.”

“It is neither ethical nor necessary to further violate the bodies of aborted babies by commodifying them for use in medical research,” he said in a statement. “The victims of abortion deserve the same respect as every other human person. We are grateful that the administration is following through on its commitment to end federal funding of research using aborted fetal tissue.”

In a separate statement, he praised the Trump Administration’s “Mexico City Policy” for ensuring that U.S. development aid “actually promotes health and human rights, and doesn’t undermine them by promoting abortion”.

A Canadian woman has gone to court to prevent her husband’s plans to die by euthanasia.

While he says he’s suffering and near the end of his life because of advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), she says his wish to die is not based on physical illness, but anxiety and mental delusions.

The man was approved and scheduled for medical assistance in dying (MAID) in July, but his wife applied for a permanent injunction from Nova Scotia Supreme Court, forcing him to pause his plans.

Justice Peter Rosinski heard the case earlier this month and dismissed her request for an interlocutory injunction in a decision that was released last Friday.

Hugh Scher, a lawyer representing the woman, told CBC he’s already filed an appeal, which is to be heard in the high court next week. The man’s plans to die will be forestalled at least until the appeal proceedings are complete.

Church leaders across Ireland have called on people to wear face coverings at all worship services to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

In a statement released on Wednesday afternoon, the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, the Church Of Ireland, the Presbyterian Church and the Methodist Church urged worshippers to wear facemasks when attending services as well as maintaining a two metre physical distance from other church goers.

While the wearing of masks in churches has not been made mandatory by the governments north and south of the Border, church representatives said it had become increasingly clear that wearing face coverings, in conjunction with hand washing and other measures, could help reduce the spread of the virus and thus protect others.

Islamic militants reportedly attacked a town in northeastern Nigeria on Tuesday, abducting hundreds of people.

Jihadists in nearly two dozen trucks attacked soldiers who were guarding Kukawa on Tuesday, overrunning the town and taking hundreds of people hostage, AFP reported on Wednesday.

The attack came after many in the village had just returned to their homes from a nearby displacement camp in Maidiguri. Attacks by ISWAP, an offshoot of Boko Haram that pledged allegiance to ISIS, and other militants have contributed to the vast number of displaced people in the region; around 300,000 people are estimated to be displaced in and around Maiduguri in makeshift dwellings, according to the UN.

More than 600 Christians in Nigeria have been killed in 2020 so far, while up to 12,000 Christians have been killed since June 2015.

Earlier this month, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto told Aid to the Church in Need that he believed violence against Christians by militant Fulani herdsmen has reached the level of genocide; he added that Muslims in northern states had also been targeted for mass killings.