Males need to be taught from the earliest age possible to do half of housework and caregiving, a men’s charity has claimed.

Sean Cooke, chief executive of the Men’s Development Network, said sharing unpaid work in the home is an “urgent matter of gender justice”.

He maintained there will never be gender justice until men take responsibility for half of the world’s childcare and domestic work.

Work to develop positive attitudes towards fatherhood and managing households should begin at the earliest age for boys, Mr Cooke said.

Speaking at the same event via videolink, the Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People Mary Butler said the goal of achieving “equitable and involved fatherhood cannot be underestimated”.

Ms Butler praised the network for “supporting family units across the country and challenge damaging stereotypes that often prevent people from availing of the support they need.”

The Spanish government has said it wants to change the law to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to seek an abortion without parental permission.

Equality Minister Irene Montero said women should have the right to “decide about their bodies”.

In 2015, the ruling Popular Party (PP) changed Spain’s abortion laws and mandated parental consent for those aged between 16 and 18.

Abortion is legal in Spain upon request in the first 14 weeks of a woman’s pregnancy, up to 22 weeks  in cases of “serious risks to life or health of the mother or fetus”, and after 22 weeks where the child is suffering from a life-limiting condition.

The French bishops’ conference has urged Catholics to join mass protests against a government-backed bioethics bill that would liberalize abortion and embryo research and allow in vitro fertilization for lesbian couples and single mothers.

“Pressure is mounting on the National Assembly to further extend abortion terms under the guise of women’s rights and equality and to reduce filiation to a simple act of will by those wishing to become parents — a child is no longer received, but sought, produced and chosen,” said the conference’s 10-member Permanent Council.

“We invite all citizens, especially Catholics, to inform themselves about these matters and make their reservations and opposition known. Our society must not let itself be surreptitiously drawn along a dangerous path for humanity’s future,” it said.

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.