Kemi Badenoch, MP, the new leader of the Conservative Party, is agnostic but pro-Christian.

Born in Wimbledon to Nigerian parents, she identifies as agnostic, but describes herself as a “cultural Christian”—someone who aligns with Christian values without a personal faith. Her family background, which she describes as “sort of Anglican and Methodist,” instilled these values.

Married to a Catholic, she is raising her two children in the Catholic Church and jokingly calls herself an “honorary Catholic.”

Badenoch’s stance on religious freedom came into the spotlight recently when she defended Scottish politician Kate Forbes’ right to express Christian views on social issues. While Badenoch supports same-sex marriage, she opposed efforts to marginalise Forbes over her religious beliefs.

She argued strongly for free expression, adding: “I’m not religious at all, but I understand it. I grew up in a very religious country, so I understand what it means to people and how they live their lives. Stopping people from saying what they really feel is overly draconian.”

The decline of Christianity in Ireland is leaving a dangerous vacuum that is being filled with “pagan spiritualty, religion and worship”, the Fr Billy Swan, the Administrator of Wexford parish has warned.

Pope Francis recently said the Church must confront forms of paganism in secular culture, describing the air we breath as “a gaseous pagan god”, while in Ireland, a recent report from the Iona Institute shows people are increasingly ditching traditional church weddings for ‘New Age’ style ceremonies.

Writing in the Irish Catholic, Fr Billy Swan said that “there is evidence that Ireland is ‘re-paganising’ or reverting to the worship of false gods like it did before we accepted the Christian faith back in the 5th Century”.

Echoing his warning, Prof. Patricia Casey, cited the risks of people “dabbling in the occult”.

“The occult is very dangerous because it takes people into all kinds of things like devil worship, witchcraft, pornography – people actually working in tandem with the devil. It leads people into very dark things and into a very dark perspective on life that worships evil, because that’s what devil worship is about, it’s worshipping evil and that’s obviously very concerning.”

A change in law could spur a change in culture to induce people, especially the vulnerable and defenceless, to accept assisted suicide if Ireland were to legalise the practice.

That’s according to Bishop of Kilmore, Martin Hayes.

He was speaking after the Dáil voted to ‘note’ an Oireachtas committee’s report calling for an assisted suicide regime to be introduced.

“If assisted dying is legalised then the elderly, the sick and people with disabilities are vulnerable to cultural coercion, i.e., to messages of ‘you’re no longer useful or wanted, ….you are a burden on society’”, Bishop Hayes told the Irish Catholic.

He added that the Report “fails to provide adequate safeguards for the vulnerable, the elderly, the sick, those with disabilities. It could enable funding being prioritised for assisted dying above that for palliative care thus leading to a devaluation of palliative care”.

Independent Senator Ronan Mullen has said last week’s passing of the Hate Crime Bill in the Oireachtas places “radical gender politics” firmly into Statute Law.

While 2015 legislation allowed people to change their legal sex upon request, to either ‘male’ or ‘female’, the latest Act recognises other ‘genders’.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Senator Mullen said that the new law doesn’t confine itself to male or female but instead ‘transgender’ or any form of gender expression including a gender that’s neither male nor female, what you have is radical gender politics coming in for the first time into our statute law.”

He added: “My concern is by introducing this new definition of gender that it would be the Government’s intention and NGOs who are very well-connected politically, to push to have that new definition of gender, which is coming from a very ideological place, to replace the time-honoured definition of gender in other areas of our law in the future,” he said. “Even if it’s just in connection with hate crimes, it sets a bad precedent for the future.”

Euthanasia could become “almost an obligation” for those with a terminal illness, a bishop has claimed.

Last Thursday, the Dáil voted to “take note” of a report by an Oireachtas Committee that called for the practise to be legalised in certain circumstances.

Speaking on Newstalk, Kevin Doran, Bishop of Elphin, said he sympathised with those who fear a protracted and painful death.

“Sometimes they may even say things like, ‘I wish I were dead’ – but I’ve never actually come across anyone who wanted to die.

“What they want is to not have to go on living with physical or emotional pain.”

Bishop Doran said that society should do “much more” to make them comfortable in their final days.

He added that he feared the consequences of a legal regime of ‘assisted dying’.

“The difficulty . . . is that people who are already vulnerable feel under pressure to ‘do the decent thing’ and agree to it,” he said.

“Quite often, we find that legislation that begins by allowing something becomes almost an obligation to make it happen”.

The fertility rate in the UK fell to 1.44 children per woman last year, which is the lowest since records began in 1938.

The measure reflects the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime and should be at least 2.1 for a population to naturally sustain itself. The Irish fertility rate is around 1.5.
Greg Ceely, from the Office for National Statistics, says the decline is “most dramatic” among women in their twenties.

Research from the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies found that factors dissuading ‘Millennials’ from having children included not feeling ready, financial pressures and not finding the right partner. The cost-of-living crisis and high housing costs in Britain have also been cited as barriers to having children.

Paul Morland, 59, a demographer and author of the book ‘No One Left: Why the World Needs More Children’, said he expected the UK’s fertility rate to drop further. He said it could even plunge to levels seen in South Korea, which has a 0.78 fertility rate.

Morland said: “I think the Generation Zs, who are coming into the childbearing cohort, are very non-natal. Having children is a very low priority for them”.

Vice President Kamala Harris confirmed that she would oppose any faith-based, conscientious opt-out from participating in abortions if elected president.

The Democratic presidential nominee made the comments in an interview with NBC News.

When asked “what concessions would be on the table” when considering federal laws on abortion and specifically whether she would consider “religious exemptions”, Harris responded: “I don’t think we should be making concessions when we’re talking about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body”. It is not clear exactly what she meant.

Grazie Pozo Christie, a senior fellow at The Catholic Association, said in a statement that Harris “should clarify, and quickly, whether given the chance she would force Americans who object on religious or conscience grounds to participate in abortion.”

Harris has committed to enshrining a legal right to abortion into federal law at least until the point of viability by codifying Roe v. Wade into legislation. She has also refused to disavow late-term abortion, which is legal in several states.

As President she may renew a push to force all maternity hospitals, regardless of ethos, to provide abortions, and mandate all employers, regardless of conscientious convictions, to cover abortifacient drugs in the health care plans they offer their employees.

A leading Catholic member of the UK’s House of Lords is drawing attention to the persecution of the Church in China.

Lord David Alton said in a statement the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Beijing is targeting ten bishops after they opposed the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, which requires its members to pledge independence from the Holy See and “conform Christian teaching to Chinese communist doctrine.”

Alton said seven of these bishops have been detained without due process, with some of them having been under continuous detention for years or decades, while others have been detained repeatedly, up to six times since the agreement’s signing.

Alton called them the “ten inconvenient bishops the Vatican wants us to forget.”

“Why? because they do not accept the right of the Chinese Communist Party to tell them what to believe, think or what to say,” he wrote.

Scotland’s First Minister has “significant concerns” over 16 and 17-year-olds being given the right to end their lives under proposed laws on ‘assisted dying’.

John Swinney said the minimum age was a “very significant issue” and is two years younger than what is being considered in Westminster.

The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill is at stage one in the Scottish parliament.

The SNP leader voted against two attempts to legalise assisted dying in Scotland, in 2010 and 2015.

The bill, championed by Liam McArthur, a Liberal Democrat MSP, would allow a terminally-ill person aged 16 or over to ask for their life to be ended. Those who seek an early death would need to have lived in Scotland for at least a year, be registered with a GP in the country and be mentally competent.

The Dáil has voted by to 76 to 53 to “note” the controversial majority opinion of an Oireachtas committee that assisted suicide and euthanasia should be legislated for.

The vote came on the same day as a similar proposal was rejected by the Welsh Parliament.

A number of prominent Government TDs opposed the motion including former minister Simon Coveney and current Ministers Peter Burke and Norma Foley, but Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald and Justice Minister, Helen McEntee, voted in favour.

The vote has no binding effect on either legislation or Government policy, but is seen as the Dail’s acceptance of the committee’s recommendations.

Commenting on the result, Eilís Mulroy of the Pro Life Campaign said it would have been preferable if a majority of TDs had voted to reject the “radical and far-reaching report”.

In addition to reducing the value of human life and undermining anti-suicide campaigns, she said the introduction of euthanasia/assisted suicide in Ireland would undercut investment in palliative care and lead to certain vulnerable groups feeling growing pressure to opt for the practice.

“Significantly the push for euthanasia/ assisted suicide has been opposed by professional bodies such as the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland and the Irish Palliative Medicine Consultants Association”.