A poor Christian couple from central Pakistan have had their appeal against their death sentence for “blasphemy” delayed again. Shagufta Kausar and her husband Shafqat Emmanuel have spent the last six years in jail waiting for their trial to conclude.

The final hearing at Lahore High Court had been scheduled for Wednesday this week, before it was postponed, with a new date due to be announced.

Their lawyer, Saif ul Malook, who also represented Asia Bibi, another Christian woman who had a death sentence for blasphemy successfully overturned, told the BBC the evidence used to convict the couple was deeply flawed.

But, he warned, that judges can be “fearful” of acquitting suspects, in case they are targeted themselves by extremists. Court proceedings have also slowed in recent weeks as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

The married couple were convicted in 2014 of sending blasphemous text messages insulting the Prophet Muhammad to a local imam. Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan, and though no-one has ever been executed for it, dozens have been killed by mobs after being accused of the crime.

Shagufta’s brother Joseph, who requested his surname not be published, told the BBC the couple were innocent, and he doubted they were literate enough even to have written the abusive messages. Shagufta worked as a caretaker in a Christian school, whilst her husband Shafqat is partially paralysed.

While NGOs have fled refugee camps because of the coronavirus, one Christian charity has moved in to take up the slack.

Dublin priest, Fr William Stuart, helps provide schooling to children of Syrian refuges in the city of Tyre, Lebanon, but he has had to refocus on providing basic food aid as NGOs have abandoned their posts.

The school building he used to use has been closed down so he delivers worksheets directly to children in the refugee camps. His group have also been distributing food aid, and helping families plant gardens beside their tents in the camps.

“The situation is critical, all NGOs are gone. People are starving,” Fr William Stuart has told parishioners in Dalkey, Co Dublin, where he had previously served.

“All the NGOs have gone to ground and are ‘working from home’ with the result that refugees are receiving no aid,” he wrote in a stark message.

He told the Irish Times his group view themselves as frontline people “who don’t have the luxury of ‘working from home’ nor can we abandon the most vulnerable in this most difficult of times. To my disappointment this view is not shared by the NGO sector who have wholescale abandoned ship.”

The most urgent need among the refugees was for food, he said. “With no sign of aid agencies and the body politic only helping the Lebanese, things are not good.”

The Vatican Museums and the Pope’s summer residence of Castel Gandolfo reopened their doors to the public this week.

The reopening coincided with Italy’s gradual easing of the nearly 3-month lockdown, which allows many businesses and activities to restart.

The Vatican Museums are ensuring a very careful balance between safety and health needs and the dynamics of a museum visit, without compromising the essence of such a visit, the Holy See Press Office said..

In keeping with the norms of hygiene and physical distance, visitors to the Museums will be subject to a body temperature check and will be allowed in only with a facemask.

A medical and health team from Italy’s Misericordie volunteer group and the Vatican’s Health and Hygiene Department will ensure every need during the opening hours.

Other important requirements for the reopening of the museums will be revised from time to time as the current emergency situation evolves.

A recent ruling by the UK Supreme Court has brought the legalisation of commercial surrogacy, and its funding by taxpayers in the United Kingdom, several steps closer. Commercial surrogacy involves paying a large fee to the surrogate mother and is banned by most countries as a form of baby-buying.

On April 1st, the Supreme Court’s since-retired President, Lady Hale, provided the leading Judgment in Whittington Hospital NHS Trust v. XX. This Judgment has, for the first time, legitimised compensation claims against the taxpayer-funded National Health Service (NHS) in order to pursue commercial surrogacy services abroad that are illegal in the UK.

The coronavirus pandemic has so far kept this Judgment off the media radar, but according to Gary Powell, the European Special Consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture, California, it represents “an ominous development”.

The court upheld a claim from a woman to pursue four commercial surrogacy pregnancies in California at the expense of the UK taxpayer. The judgment is notable in that commercial surrogacy is illegal in the UK, and two Supreme Court Judges dissented from the Judgment on the grounds that it is against public policy for a court to award damages to enable conduct abroad that is illegal in the UK.

The Northern Irish Assembly passed a motion Tuesday night rejecting a major plank of the North’s new abortion law.

MLA’s from both communities voted 46 to 40 against abortion for non-fatal disabilities, including Down’s syndrome.

The motion also implied a rejection of the whole abortion regime recently imposed by Westminster.

While the vote does not overturn the new law, it does apply pressure on the UK Government to amend or rescind it.

Sinn Fein had also come out against some of the Northern Ireland’s Office’s abortion regulations, prompting criticism from pro-choice groups such as Amnesty International who accused the party of propping up “a dangerous anti-choice agenda”.

The Republican party’s amended motion did not go so far as the one proposed by the DUP and failed to get enough support to pass.

NI’s Both Lives Matter said the vote gives hope that the North’s elected representatives “do not aspire to the extreme abortion regime that pro-choice lobbyists have insisted on”.

Both Lives Matter services advocate Marion Woods said: “Both lives matter before and after birth and so we call on our local Assembly to ensure that women and families who face a prenatal diagnosis of disability are supported during pregnancy and post-birth”.

Eilis Mulroy of the Pro-Life Campaign welcomed the motion saying the result shows what can happen when the political establishment doesn’t censor debate and allows the pro-life side to get a fair hearing. “The heart-breaking personal testimonies of women who regret their abortions and the intervention of people like disability rights campaigner Heidi Crowter all helped influence the outcome”.

She added that Westminster cannot justifiably continue to try and impose abortion on Northern Ireland. “It is clear from the 46:40 vote that this devolved issue should be decided by Northern Ireland’s elected representatives and not the UK parliament.”

People should limit themselves to one sexual partner to reduce the spread of Covid-19, chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan has said.

He was asked at the daily Covid19 briefing yesterday whether he agreed with advice from the Dutch public health team to people in the Netherlands to limit themselves to one partner.

He said “that is good public health advice” as a precaution against the transmission of infections generally.

Dr Holohan said there was no specific advice around Covid-19 regarding intimate contact for people who were in a relationship and lived in different houses.

“We know that is a challenge for people,” he said. “And there are general guidelines which they can refer to on engagements between different households.”

A Fine Gael policy paper drafted for the government formation talks recommends changing laws to allow all children change their legal gender.

The report drafted by Fine Gael’s LGBT committee recommended that children aged 16-17 should be free to legally self-declare their own gender.

The committee, which includes Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as a member, also says laws need to be changed to allow even children under 16 change their gender with parental approval.

The 15-page report also recommends that the Gender Recognition Act 2015 be changed to “allow for the recognition of a gender other than male or female in law”.

It recommends that the next government should allow people who do not consider themselves either male or female to be permitted to mark X on their passports.

This would mean Irish passports would have three gender categories – male, female and X.

The policy paper also calls for changes to the Road Traffic Act to allow for the introduction of rainbow-coloured pedestrian crossings.

The committee also calls for an easing of restrictions on gay men who wish to donate blood.

It also called for so-called “conversion therapies” to be banned in Ireland and wants major legislative reforms to address the perceived lack of LGBT sex education in schools.

The Catholic Bishops have called for an official inquiry into why nursing home facilities in Ireland were so badly affected by covid19.

Residents of nursing homes, accounted for 63% of coronavirus deaths in Ireland, a proportion which is the second worst in the world.

One GP, Marcus de Brun, resigned from the board of the Medical Council in protest, attributing the torrid situation to failures by the Department of Health and Minister Simon Harris.

In a statement on Saturday, the Council for Healthcare of the Irish Episcopal Conference said that lessons must be learned, and they “would welcome appropriate inquiries into the reasons why nursing care facilities were so badly affected”.

“Every resident is someone’s mother, father, grandparent, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, or friend. They have played their part over many decades in contributing to their communities and to the economy. The lives of those who live in such facilities should be valued, respected, and enhanced”.

“Human life is sacred and precious from the child in the womb to the elderly person in care. We must do all that we can to protect life and to improve the quality of life for those who are particularly vulnerable. At this time, the coronavirus crisis presents an opportunity for society to reflect on where it stands in relation to the elderly and to others who are most vulnerable among us. The lessons learned will enable us to build a culture of life and care where everyone is supported and all are entitled to life-protecting services and facilities”.

The importance of both mothers and fathers was celebrated by a European Federation of Catholic Family Associations on Monday to mark the UN Global Day of Parents.

FAFCE’s President, Vincenzo Bassi, said parents are those who take joyful responsibility in caring for their children, in a free gift of themselves. “This openness to life generates new vitality far beyond the family itself, benefitting the society at large”, he said, and added that the current crisis is highlighting to all the importance of the family as the centre of the society. “Let’s take the time, today, to honour fathers and mothers and to applaud them, recognising their fundamental role during the current pandemic”.

Bassi also said there was a certain irony in the UN’s celebration.

“Despite many declarations, family is often not considered as a priority, while the role of parents has been overshadowed by the so called new rights. These ‘new rights’, by affirming the right to have a child, neglect the right of every child to have a father and a mother”.

Two weeks ago, FAFCE warned of a shocking video showing 46 new-born babies via the practice of surrogacy in Ukraine: a small hint into the hidden reality of this lucrative business. “These babies were displaced there, as objects in the markets, waiting for their buyers to come and pick them up,” Bassi continued, highlighting that “there is no right to generate or to have a child, but only the responsibility to take care of his/her life for the common good. The community should help the parents to not feel alone, awarding them when they take on this responsibility as parents”.

The US Supreme Court turned aside a California church’s request to lift a lockdown measure that limited church attendance to 25 percent of building capacity or a maximum of 100 attendees.

Lawyers for the church argued that the order violates the First Amendment’s religious exercise clause and discriminates against places of worship because “no comparable let alone equal limitations” are imposed on secular activities such as manufacturing, retail merchandising, or marijuana or liquor dispensaries.

In a three-page opinion, Chief Justice Roberts disagreed, saying that similar or more severe measures have been applied to comparable secular gatherings where people are in close proximity for an extended period of time, such as lectures, concerts, movie showings, spectator sports, and theatrical performances.

He said the state’s order only treats more leniently to activities that aren’t comparable, “such as operating grocery stores, banks, and laundromats, in which people neither congregate in large groups nor remain in close proximity for extended periods.”

Roberts said that once broad limits are not exceeded, it isn’t the role of the federal judiciary to be second-guessing officials who appear to be acting in good faith while making decisions about public health.