Members of the Westminster parliament voted on Thursday to extend abortion and same-sex “marriage” to Northern Ireland. They also voted to decriminalise abortion, while it still remains a crime in the rest of the UK.
This will only come into effect if the Stormont parliament is not restored by the 21st October.
“The vote to extend abortion will leave a hawk’s egg with better protection than an unborn child” said Peter Lynas, director for Northern Ireland ot thr Evangelical Alliance.
Clare McCarthy, speaking on behalf of Right to Life UK, commented: “This amendment is an unconstitutional and disrespectful attempt to override devolution in Northern Ireland and to attempt to impose abortion on demand on the Northern Irish people. The law on this issue should be a decision for the people of Northern Ireland and their elected representatives, not for MPs in Westminster to decide.”
Thousands of people attended the 2019 Rally for Life in Dublin on Saturday 6th July, showing that the prolife movement is alive and well after the abortion referendum.
Niamh Uí Bhriain, a member of organising committee, said people wanted to “continue to stand for life.”
Archbishop Eamon Martin was among the participants. “I march today because I believe it remains as important as ever to affirm the sanctity of all human life. The direct and intentional taking of the life of any innocent human being is always gravely wrong – we must avoid becoming desensitised to the value of every human life.”, Arch. Martin said.
Speaking at the rally, John McGuirk warned that the next battle for the prolife movement will be opposing any attempt to legalise euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Many doctors and healthcare professionals were at the march. “I got into medicine to help women and babies, I will not be forced to take part in abortions” said Dr Trevor Hayes, consultant in Obstetrics & Gynaecology at St Luke’s Hospital, Kilkenny. All obstetricians working in St Luke’s hospital are conscientious objectors and have written to GPs in the region to advise that abortions will not be practiced in the hospital.
The Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, has apologised following criticism over comments he made in the Dáil Wednesday when he stereotyped priests as hypocrites.
Mr Varadkar referred to “parish priests who preach from the altar telling us how to avoid sin while secretly going behind the altar and engaging in any amount of sin himself.”
Senator Ronan Mullen said in the Seanad that it was “not acceptable, at this moment in our history when clergy are fewer and older but continue to do good work, to make a mocking, stigmatising remark like that, whether for its own sake or in order to attack a political opponent.”
If somebody made a “similarly stigmatising throwaway remark about gay community leaders or spokespersons for the travelling community, they would be rightly criticised,” he said.
“I hope the Taoiseach will reflect on his remarks and come back with something more generous,” he concluded.
Mr Varadkar apologised yesterday saying: “I have offended a lot of people who I never intended to offend. I am sorry for that, I do apologise.”
A Christian student was wrongly expelled from university for his views on gay marriage, the Court of Appeal has ruled.
Felix Ngole was a student in the MA programme in social work at the University of Sheffield until he was expelled for sharing comments on Facebook saying, “the Bible and God identify homosexuality as a sin.”
Ngole then challenged the issue in court, filing a lawsuit against the university.
In 2017 Deputy High Court Judge Rowena Collins Rice ruled that Ngole’s comments disqualified him from being a social worker, saying that “social workers have considerable power over the lives of vulnerable service users and trust is a precious professional commodity.”
However, on Wednesday, three appellate judges announced they had overturned the original ruling.
After the original 2017 ruling, Ngole told the BBC that “it sends a chilling message that if you are a Christian and you hold traditional Christian views you should be careful not to express them because you might end up losing your job.”
After winning his appeal, Ngole said: “This is great news, not only for me and my family, but for everyone who cares about freedom of speech, especially for those working in or studying for caring professions.”
The Foreign Minister of Pakistan has been criticised in the UK’s House of Lords after he suggested last week that persecution of Christians and other minorities were merely “individual incidents” being “whipped up” by “western interests”.
Lord David Alton of Liverpool took him to task by saying not only were those incidents real, but they contradicted the promise of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, that minorities of all religions, castes and creeds would be safeguarded.
“Try telling that to the two children forced to watch a lynch mob of 1,200 burn their parents alive. Pakistan fails the Jinnah test, not western interests, when no one is brought to justice for the murder of the Christian Minister for Minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti. It fails the Jinnah test when 1,000 Hindu and Christian girls are forcibly married and converted. It fails when, in Punjab, Sadaf Masih, a 13 year-old girl, is kidnapped, forcibly converted and married and when, in Sindh, the same thing happened to two Hindu girls”.
Religious leaders are expected to ask Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to elaborate today on what he meant when calling for a new ‘covenant’ between Church and State during last year’s papal visit.
The latest structured dialogue meeting involving the Taoiseach, members of the Government and representatives of the churches, of other faiths and of non-confessional bodies will take place at Dublin Castle.
The Catholic Church, which will be represented at the meeting by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and Siobhán Hanley, head of Trócaire Northern Ireland, will call on the Government to support parents “who wish for a faith-based education for their children”.
The Church of Ireland is to discuss the primary school forum, which it said was “extremely constructive as a means of critical engagement with the formation and implementation of Government policy in the sector”.
Parents seeking a divorce in Denmark are now required to take a mandatory course and wait three months before they can separate.
The Danish Parliament agreed in March to implement a mandatory “reflection period” of three months and require parents who have children 18 years old and younger to take an online course before a divorce can be finalized.
The course is called ‘Co-operation After Divorce’ and enables parents to consider the ramifications of a relationship split, particularly through the eyes of their children, and explains how to communicate after divorce.
“The digital course answers some of the most fundamental questions that you are left with during a divorce,” Mai Mercado, Denmark’s Ministry of Children and Social Security, told the Paris-based news agency Agence France-Presse.
Approximately 30pc of children do not live with both of their parents, compared to just 15pc in 1980, according to Statistics Denmark. Until the adoption of this new policy, Danes have been able to obtain what is called a “mutually consensual” divorce speedily, by simply filling out an online form and requiring no judge nor waiting period.
A pro-life group in Northern Ireland has welcomed statements made yesterday by the two candidates for Prime Minister that they would not impose abortion law change on the North.
Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt both said that it is for the people of Northern Ireland to decide upon this devolved issue, not Westminster. There have been suggested that Westminster should impose a liberal abortion law on Northern Ireland with Stormont currently suspended.
Spokesperson for Both Lives Matter, Dawn McEvoy, welcomed the statement saying the law in the North already strikes a delicate balance that has resulted in over 100,000 people being alive today because the 1967 UK Abortion Act was not extended to the North.
A High Court judge has said he is concerned about the number of cases of young children committing serious offences as a result of exposure to pornography on “smart” phones.
Mr Justice Micheal White made his comments while dealing with a case involving a boy who sexually exploited his two younger cousins, one male and one female, including engaging in anal rape of both. The boy’s lawyer told the Central Criminal Court that his client, now aged 17, had access to porn from a very young age.
The boy, who cannot be identified because he is still a minor, told gardai he became obsessed with sex.
Mr Justice White adjourned the case to later this month for sentencing. He said this was the fourth case he has dealt with himself “where young children have committed the most serious offences…where the start was exposure to pornography on smart phones”.
“It is very serious and a matter of great concern.” he said. He said the offending the court is seeing “goes way beyond consensual sexual experimentation”.
At a curtailed cabinet meeting yesterday, the Government gave its approval of a bill to establish citizens assemblies on gender equality and local government.
The planned full cabinet meeting was delayed due to the Taoiseach having to attend the EU Council meetings in Brussels.
