Living in harmony with God’s creation will be the theme of this year’s Catholic Schools Week.

It will be held from Sunday 26 January – Sunday 1 February and families, parishes and schools, North and South, are invited to celebrate Catholic schools and their contribution to the common good.

Commenting on this year’s theme Father Paul Connell, Secretary of the Bishops’ Council for Education, said this year’s theme encourages us to see that we all have a responsibility to care for the earth, not just for our own future, but for the future of every one of God’s creatures.

“In Laudato Si’ Pope Francis has very clearly delivered the message to people all over the world about the need for all of us to care for our common home.  Pope Francis challenges us to look at our lifestyles.  He asks for justice and equality, as it is clear that climate change is creating a huge amount of suffering and impacting the poorest of the poor in our world; the very people who did least to cause this situation.  The hope of Catholic Schools Week 2020 is that we realise how powerful each and every one of us is and that even the smallest changes can have the biggest impact.”

The importance of the European Union in promoting and protecting the right to religious freedom, was emphasised in a meeting in Zagreb on Monday between a delegation of European bishops and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.

Croatia is currently presiding over the Council of the European Union and in that context, Prime Minister Plenković met with representatives of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community, headed by the Archbishop of Luxembourg, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, and representatives of the Conference of European Churches, headed by pastor Christian Krieger.

After they were informed of the priorities of Croatia’s EU presidency, the bishops underlined the significance and role of the European Union in promoting and protecting the right to religious freedom and confession within their borders as well as in relations with third countries.

Spain’s Catholic bishops have expressed fears of a conflict with the new Socialist-led government over radical plans to strip the Church of thousands of “improperly registered” lands and properties, while restricting religious education and legalising euthanasia.

“The Church isn’t seeking privileges but nor does it want to be discriminated against,” said Bishop Luis Argüello, secretary general of the bishops’ conference. “Our welfare state depends on the Spanish Church’s active role in education, health, social services and care for the elderly. Instead of considering it a residue of the past or a nest of privilege, the authorities should value its work with generosity and solidarity.”

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez launched his “progressive coalition” with the far-left Unidas Podemos party, led by political scientist Pablo Iglesias.

He is committed under the coalition deal to legislation on a range of “feminist policies”, as well as for “a dignified death and euthanasia”; the scrapping of religious teaching in schools; and “facilitating recovery of assets improperly registered to the Church”.

The assets in question mostly concern lands and properties registered for religious uses in the Spanish Church’s 23,000 parishes in controversial circumstances under a 1998 mortgage law loophole, which was removed in 2015. Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera of Valencia told Catholics in a pastoral letter that their country faced “a critical situation and true emergency”, and needed intensive prayer “in these times of secularisation and the eclipsing of God”.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Paris on Sunday to protest a bill that would create a generation of children without fathers through a radical change of law to enable donor assisted IVF.

French law currently only allows women in heterosexual relationships to access medically assisted procreation (MAP).

The French government now plans to extend MAP to single women and lesbian couples.

“Many of us have come from all over France to raise the alarm: the child, the father and the mother are in danger,” said the president of Manif pour tous, the main organisation behind anti-gay marriage protests in 2013, Ludovine de la Rochère.

Many families were among the protesters.

“We’re here for every child,” said a male protester pushing a pram. “They have the right to have one father and one mother. Many people today are protesting in order to protect society. The family is part of that society. The family is the foundation of it.”

The German parliament has voted down a proposal to make every citizen an organ donor by default.

Instead, members of parliament accepted the alternative proposal of Annalena Baerbock of the Green Party.

The goal of the Baerbock proposal is to foster a regular examination of the question of organ donation. People would be encouraged to register their decision, either for or against organ donation, in an online database. That decision could be changed at any time.

After the votes, Reinhard Cardinal Marx, president of the German Bishops’ Conference and archbishop of Munich and Freising, welcomed the decision for the “Baerbock proposal” made by lawmakers.

“The German Bishops’ Conference emphatically supports the intention of this law to effectively increase the number of organ donations.”

Marx added, “The law still grants as wide as possible a freedom of decision on the issue of organ donation. At the same time, it takes steps leading to people considering the question of organ donation more intensely.”

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.