The Government has announced the establishment of the referendum commission for the upcoming vote on repealing restrictions on divorce from the Constitution. If passed, it would enable the Oireachtas to set time restrictions as it sees fit, without any limits imposed by the Constitution.
Under the legislation proposed by the Government the time spent living apart by couples before becoming eligible for divorce will be cut from four years out of the preceding five to two years out of the previous three.
The vote will take place on the same date as the local and European elections, May 24th.
High court judge Ms Justice Tara Burns has been nominated by the Chief Justice to act as chairperson of the commission.
Violence against Indian Christians rose significantly since the start of 2019 with at least 29 violent mob attacks against Christians in 13 different states across India in January alone.
That’s according to the United Christian Forum and ADF India who have been documenting the attacks.
“Nobody should be persecuted because of their faith. It is worrying to see these horrendous acts of mob violence continue. It is high time special laws are enacted to protect Christians and other religious minorities from being attacked and then imprisoned under false accusations,” said Tehmina Arora, Director of ADF India, an advocacy organization that protects fundamental freedoms and promotes the inherent dignity of all people.
The attacks often take a similar shape and rarely receive any police attention. A mob will arrive at a prayer meeting or Christian gathering, shout abuse and harassment, and beat up those in attendance including women and children. Then, the pastors or priests are usually arrested by the police under false allegations of forced conversions.
In another ongoing case, Sister Concelia Baxla, a member of the Missionaries of Charity, was arrested last year on false charges of human trafficking because one of her co-workers in an orphanage allegedly took money for facilitating an adoption. While all others involved in the case have been granted bail, Sr. Concelia’s appeal has been rejected multiple times.
Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, Secretary General of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, sees the denial of the sister’s right to be released on bail despite her age and poor health as an attempt to harm the Church in India. Sr. Concelia has been imprisoned for two hundred and twenty two days now without a trial.
A group of women marched on the UK Parliament yesterday highlighting the estimate that 100,000 people are alive today because of Northern Ireland’s strict abortion laws.
The march was organised by the pro-life group, Both Lives Matter, to counter a demonstration by Amnesty UK with actors from the TV series Derry Girls who want Westminister to unilaterally impose liberal abortion laws on Northern Ireland.
The pro-life march was led by 10 women each holding a box representing 10,000 people symbolising the total number of people researchers estimate are alive today because of abortion restrictions in the North.
Dawn McAvoy, co-founder of Both Lives Matter said: “Abortion pressure groups have no mandate from us the people of Northern Ireland to impose abortion on Northern Ireland from Westminster. We urge the British Government to respect the people of Northern Ireland and our elected representatives.”
She was critical of Amnesty’s stance which she said “ignores the approximately 38 babies born every week in NI directly because of our pro-both laws.”
“While English MPs and comedy actresses are entitled to their views, this is a matter for the people of Northern Ireland. Two thirds of women (and 70% of 18-34 year olds) in NI want legislative decisions on our abortion law to be made by our democratically elected politicians in the Northern Ireland Assembly.”
The Government in the UK have mounted a “state takeover” of relationship and sex education in schools that denies parents a choice, according to the organiser of a 106,000-strong petition calling for parents to have an automatic right to opt out of the lessons. Kate Godfrey-Faussett, a chartered psychologist, said the government was “increasingly taking over and encroaching into parenting.” She added: “We are talking about intimate relationships and personal education for which it is a fundamental right of parents to take responsibility.” In the Commons, a number of Tory backbenchers also challenged education secretary Damian Hinds on the opt out rights.
Seven-in-ten religiously unaffiliated adults, who do not follow any religion, nonetheless believe in a higher power of some kind, including 17% who say they believe in God as described in the Bible and 53% who believe in some other form of higher power or spiritual force in the universe. Only one-quarter of religious “nones” (27%) say they do not believe in a higher power of any kind.
That’s the result of a Pew Research Center survey of more than 4,700 U.S. adults.
The ‘religiously unaffiliated’ comprises those who describe themselves as ‘atheist, ‘agnostic’ or ‘nothing in particular’.
Even one-in-five of the self-described ‘atheists’, however, do believe in some other kind of higher power or spiritual force in the universe (18%).
A child who suffered injuries in the womb at 20 weeks gestation has been awarded damages for a personal injury claim arising from an accident in a Tesco store.
David K McGrath, lawyer for the now 4 year old child, told Judge Eoin Garavan in the Circuit Civil Court that his client was injured when her mother collided with her shopping trolley which stopped suddenly on a moving walkway. Mr McGrath said that when the child was born in May 2013 she was found to have been suffering with haemolytic disease of the newborn, a type of jaundice, and had to be treated in a special unit for just under a week.
He said a medical expert linked the child’s condition to the accident and that Tesco had offered Ms Stewart, of Claremont Road, Sandymount, a settlement of €45,000 in respect of what happened to the child. The judge approved the settlement.
The case comes only two weeks after a new abortion law in New York state made it impossible to prosecute someone for killing an unborn child in the course of an assault on its mother, even if the assailant deliberately targeted the womb of the mother. This was a result of entirely decriminalising abortion and moving it into the realm of public health care instead.
Ireland’s existing Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) is being blamed for the continued rise in new HIV cases in the country.
Noel Donnellon from ACT UP Dublin was speaking as figures were released showing that 531 people in the country were newly diagnosed with HIV in 2018, the highest number on record.
He said: “We are absolutely in a crisis, we are seeing rising numbers of new diagnoses, in direct opposition with what is happening with the rest of Europe, and it’s not a coincidence that we also have an outdated or non-existent sex education programme compared to other countries too.” He suggested a number of elements should form part of a HIV prevention program including “better education”.
Some commentators disputed the assertion regarding RSE by pointing out that in 2017 official figures published by the HSE show that only 26% of new HIV cases involved people who were born in Ireland; 63% were born abroad; and 11% did not have information on country of birth.
Thieves have vandalised the crypt of a Church of Ireland church in Dublin and taken the head of an 800 year old mummy known as ‘The Crusader’.
The crypt of St Michan’s Church on Church Street, Dublin 7, has been badly damaged and several of the mummies, including the 400 year old remains of a nun, have been desecrated in the incident. The Crusader’s body was turned over and his head has been removed.
The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Michael Jackson, has expressed sadness and outrage at the incident. “I am shocked that someone would target this ancient burial place and desecrate the remains of those lying within it,” he stated.
The Archdeacon of the group of parishes of which St Michan’s is part, David Pierpoint, described the actions of the vandals as “devastating and sacrilegious”.
Polyamorists in Ireland claim they are suffering from the lack of legal recognition of their relationships and the negative judgements of their lifestyle choices. ‘Polyamory’ involves three or more people in a sexual relationship.
In The Irish Times, Sile Walsh, who specialises in ‘integrative coaching psychology’ and has a special interest in polyamory is quoted as saying that cultural non-acceptance of polyamory is one of the major stresses on poly relationships: “In Ireland, many poly people keep their lifestyle private and out of the public eye, with private groups and meet-ups for those choosing a poly lifestyle. There are a number of cultural barriers to poly[amory], one being no legal position in law for poly marriage . . . Another being ideas about what successful relationships look like and obviously religious influences.”
Apart from giving legal recognition to polyamory, the article also speaks about the parallel task of normalising the practice: “The true signifier that something has been accepted into mainstream culture is indifference; the luxury of having no particular feelings indicates a phenomenon’s normality”.
Fianna Fail leader, Micheál Martin said it was “unchristian” that one of his TDs was recently refused holy communion at a funeral mass. FF Transport spokesman, Robert Troy, TD, wasy denied communion due to his support for abortion, including voting to repeal the Eighth amendment.
“It was unchristian, it was very unchristian thing to do. It goes against… the grain in terms of the true meaning of Christianity,” he added.
In 2008, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict, said a politician could be refused Communion if they were a high-profile supporter of abortion.
