Removing the offence of blasphemy from the Constitution will confirm Ireland’s status as a modern democratic society where free speech is ‘valued’ and multiculturalism is ‘embraced’, Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan said.
Mr Flanagan was speaking in the Dail as he introduced legislation to allow a referendum take place on the issue on October 26th. He said as long as the offence remained in the Constitution, Ireland would be seen internationally as “a country which keeps company with those who do not share the fundamental values we cherish such as belief in freedom of conscience and expression”.
The House passed the 37th Amendment of the Constitution (Repeal of offence of publication or utterance of blasphemous matter) Bill without a vote and the legislation now goes to the Seanad.
If the referendum is approved by the people, Article 40.6.1°.i will then state: “The publication or utterance of seditious or indecent matter is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law.”
Labour TD Sean Sherlock and People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett questioned the retention of the offences of indecent and seditious matter.
Mr Boyd Barrett said: “One person’s sedition is another person’s completely legitimate criticism of institutions of the State or of society, or of particular laws. And the work of many of the best writers of this country was considered ‘indecent’, including that of James Joyce.”
The Minister said however that sedition and indecent matter were covered by law and it was right to have laws for offences such as the production and distribution of child pornography.
A religious upbringing can profoundly help adolescents navigate the challenges of these years according to research from Harvard’s Chan School of Public Health. The research also found that a religious upbringing contributes to a wide range of health and well-being outcomes later in life.
The study used a large sample of over 5,000 adolescents, followed them up for more than eight years, and controlled for many other variables to try to isolate the effect of religious upbringing. The researchers found that children who were raised in a religious or spiritual environment were subsequently better protected from the greatest dangers of adolescence.
For example, those who attended religious services regularly were subsequently 12% less likely to have high depressive symptoms and 33% less likely to use illicit drugs.
Those who prayed or meditated frequently were 30% less likely to start having sex at a young age and 40% less likely to subsequently have a sexually transmitted infection
Moreover, a religious upbringing also contributed towards to a number of positive outcomes as well, such greater happiness, more volunteering in the community, a greater sense of mission and purpose, and higher levels of forgiveness.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison will enact “preventative regulation and legislation” to shield freedom of religion from future threats.
In a television interview with Sky News on Monday night, Mr Morrison indicated he was displeased with the “trajectory” of freedom of speech and freedom of religion over the past decade.
Asked to identify specific areas that needed protection, the PM said the Christian school to which he sent his children should be able to hire and fire staff as it pleased, and deliver education in line with his expectations as a Christian parent.
He also said Australians should be free to take up positions on the boards of public companies — or as partners in a law firm — regardless of whether their religious beliefs conflicted with the policies of that company.
“Why should you be denied a directorship or a partnership in a law firm or accountancy firm just because you happen to have expressed on Facebook or somewhere a particular religious belief?” Mr Morrison asked.
The country’s first Pentecostal Prime Minister has inherited from his predecessor a review of Australia’s laws on “religious freedom” which was undertaken by former Liberal attorney-general Philip Ruddock and handed to the government in May.
An increasing number of Christian pastors and community leaders have signed a joint declaration condemning an ongoing, violent persecution of Christians in China by the State authorities. The initial statement, released at the end of August, was signed by 19 people, but many more have risked further persecution by adding their name to the list which stands at 279 now.
In September, 2017, the State Council issued a decree on the administration of religious affairs, and began implementing them in February, 2018. Since then, Christian churches have suffered varying degrees of persecution, contempt, and hostility from government departments during public worship and religious practices, including measures that “attempt to alter and distort the Christian faith,” the statement says.
“Some of these violent actions are unprecedented since the end of the Cultural Revolution. These include demolishing crosses on church buildings, violently removing expressions of faith like crosses and couplets hanging on Christians’ homes, forcing and threatening churches to join religious organisations controlled by the government, forcing churches to hang the national flag or to sing secular songs praising the State and political parties, banning the children of Christians from entering churches and receiving religious education, and depriving churches and believers of the right to gather freely.”
The statement calls these actions unjust and an abuse of government power as they infringe on the human freedoms of religion and conscience and violate the universal rule of law. They then pledge to obey God, rather than man, even if the cost is martyrdom.
The State’s healthcare watchdog has criticised two care homes for failing to provide elderly residents with adequate voting arrangements during May’s abortion referendum. All care home facilities are required to ensure that every resident is able to use their right to vote in all elections and referendums but the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) found that the Croft nursing home in Inchicore, Dublin, and Cramers Court nursing home in Belgooly, Co Cork, had failed to do so. By this omission, the care homes effectively disenfranchised the votes of their residents. The two homes in question were found to be in breach of the law when they were subjected to unannounced inspections. It is not known how many other care homes may have similarly failed to provide voting arrangements for their elderly residents.
The incidents contrast with the Government’s major efforts to ensure that students would be given every opportunity and help to vote as they were expected to support the referendum.
Mervyn Taylor, executive director of Sage Advocacy, said: “People can forget that care isn’t just about the physical care but also about people’s rights as citizens.”
An investigation has been ordered into why so many girls are seeking gender reassignment after the number referred for treatment rose by more than 4,000% in less than a decade.
These treatments include puberty blockers that suppress puberty, injections of cross-sex hormones that render women and girls permanently infertile, and physical surgeries that leave them altered for life.
The Women and Equalities Minister, Penny Mordaunt, has instructed her officials to look into the cause. Official figures show the number of girls being given gender treatment has risen from 40 in 2009-10 to 1,806 in 2017-18.
Over the weekend, a source at the Government Equalities Office told the London Times: “There has been a substantial increase in the number of individuals assigned female at birth being referred to the NHS. There is evidence that this trend is happening in other countries as well. Little is known, however, about why this is and what are the long-term impacts.”
Last month the junior equalities minister, Victoria Atkins, was criticised by transgender rights campaigners for expressing caution about those undergoing “serious and life changing” gender reassignment treatments.
Several international corporations operating in Northern Ireland including Coca Cola, IBM and Citibank, have started a campaign to pressure the region into deconstructing its marriage laws so as to recognise same-sex unions as marriages.
Leigh Meyer, managing director of the Citi financial services firm’s operation in Belfast, said: “Today is the start of a ground-breaking journey for the business community in Northern Ireland, we make a stand with the LGBT community and apply pressure on the legislative bodies to make marriage equality a reality.”
“It is not just the right thing to do, it is the only thing to do, it is the proper thing to do,” she added.
The businesses released a joint letter which talked of ‘diversity’, ‘inclusion’, ‘rights’, ‘equality’, and ‘prosperity’ but failed to mention ‘children’, ‘mothers’, or ‘fathers’.
They took their campaign to social media under the hashtag #Businesses4LoveEquality.
The highest court of the EU, the European Court of Justice has ruled that the dismissal of a Catholic doctor from a managerial position in a Church-run hospital due to his remarriage after a divorce may constitute unlawful discrimination on the ground of religion. This case has important implications for all ethos-based groups, as well as the law governing the relationship between the EU and religious bodies.
Commenting on the case, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) said the ruling contributes to the weakening of the right of Churches and ethos-based organisations to operate freely without State intervention—the kind of organisational autonomy that stands at the heart of religious freedom.
They added: “For church autonomy to be effective, Churches and religious organisations need to retain the right to decide on their internal process and occupational requirements within the positions of the Church and related religious organisations.”
The Romanian parliament has passed a resolution to hold a referendum on the country’s marriage laws. If passed, the referendum would amend the country’s constitution to define marriage as a union between “a man and a woman.” At present marriage is defined simply as a union of “spouses.”
Over 3 million citizens had signed a petition in 2016 to hold this referendum. The upper house of Romania’s parliament approved the referendum in a 107-13 vote on Sept. 11. The lower house of parliament approved the referendum last year. The vote could take place as early as Oct. 7, and could bar any effort to recognize same-sex unions.
The Romanian Orthodox Church has backed the referendum, as have the smaller Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic Churches.
Local and international LGBT advocacy groups have criticised the referendum, as have several dozen members of the European Parliament.
About half of the EU’s 28 countries recognize same-sex “marriage” and others recognize same-sex civil partnerships.
The existence of publicly-funded denominational education has been called into question with a leading campaigner calling for sweeping Constitutional changes aimed at severely diluting the rights of faith schools and other religious bodies. Writing in The Irish Independent, the former head of Equate, which campaigned against the rights of faith schools, called for a Citizens’ Assembly to consider eliminating the role of the Churches in education as a prelude to a referendum on the matter.
“The days of the Church dictating policy in education should be over. The days when Church bodies decide how young people are taught potentially life-saving sexual health issues – or what non-Christian students are taught during religion class – should be over,” wrote Michael Barron.
He zoned in on the key parts of the Constitution that undergird the rights of faith schools, Articles 44.2.5 and 44.2.6 of the Constitution, which, he says, “protect the rights of religious organisations to manage their own affairs, maintain institutions and to maintain property for specific purposes.”
He proposes a referendum that would authorise the Oireachtas “to nationalise essential State services such as schools and hospitals.”
