Two more priests were kidnapped in Nigeria, as Christian persecution continues in a country that is also experiencing exponential growth in Catholicism.
Rev. Fr. John Ubaechu, of Izombe, southeastern Nigeria, was taken captive on Sunday, March 23, on his way to the Priests’ Annual Retreat.
On the same day, a joint security team consisting of police, army, civil defense, and vigilante groups succeeded in securing the release of Fr. Stephen Echezona, who had been kidnapped earlier in the day.
Fr. Echezona was abducted while refueling his car at a petrol station in Ichida, southern Nigeria.
He was released unharmed after a security team engaged the armed criminals in a gunfight, and successfully overpowered them.
There is a real need for good news, because society is wallowing in despair and meaninglessness, the bishop of Derry Donal McKeown has said.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Dr McKeown said Catholics need to participate in cultural life. He urged believers to “get out there and engage in debates about creation, about human life, about AI, about all those things”.
To do this, he said, they need to embrace an intellectual faith that is different from mere piety, adding that the Church is not retreating: “it is actually re-shaping for mission, we’re not downsizing for the sake of downsizing, we’re doing it in order to be better, fitter, leaner and better able to engage with our society at the intellectual level and all other sorts of levels.”
He said that for Derry, he hoped that the opening of the St Paul’s religious bookstore in Derry would help that task.
There has been a 1.15% increase in the global Catholic population, going from approximately 1.39 billion Catholics in 2022 to 1.406 billion in 2023.
Africa has registered the greatest growth, with the Catholic population on the continent increasing by 3.31%, from 272 million in 2022 to 281 million in 2023. It currently represents 20% of the world’s Catholic population.
Meanwhile, the Americas continue to be the region of the world with the highest proportion of Catholics, accounting for 47.8% of the global total. This increase is moderate, with a growth of 0.9% over the period.
In Asia, the Catholic population grew by 0.6% while Europe, home to 20.4% of the world’s Catholics, remains the least dynamic with its Catholic population increasing by only 0.2% between 2022 and 2023, reflecting a near-stagnant dynamic.
In Oceania, the Catholic population experienced an increase of 1.9%, with a total population of just over 11 million Catholics in 2023.
The Irish Government has handed over €2.3 million of taxpayers’ money, since 2022, to the world’s leading pro-abortion group, International Planned Parenthood Federation.
The bombshell news was contained in a reply to a Parliamentary Question by Independent TD Carol Nolan.
In response, the Pro-Life Campaign’s Eilís Mulroy called the revelation “astounding”.
“Planned Parenthood is the single largest provider of abortions in the US. In addition, many of its practices are deeply questionable. There is credible evidence that Planned Parenthood has been involved in the sale of the body parts of aborted babies. Meanwhile, its international affiliate International Planned Parenthood Federation is the main supplier and promoter of abortion worldwide”, she said.
Deputy Carol Nolan was also scathing in her criticism of the Government’s move.
“Not content with directing millions in taxpayers funding to abortion and ending innocent lives here in Ireland, the Government is now actively blurring the lines for abortion access abroad and promoting an ideology that is inextricably linked to its practice. How much death is enough?”
A retired church pastor has denied charges that his protest against abortion near a Derry hospital was illegal despite taking place within a so-called ‘safe-access zone’ which forbids even silent pro-life vigils or prayer near facilities that conduct abortions.
The 76-year-old clergyman disputes the charges on a point of devolution and under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights [ECHR].
Clive Johnston, from Belmont Road in Sion Mills, is a former president of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland and will be represented by former Attorney General John Larkin.
He is charged with protesting in a ‘safe access zone’ at the Causeway Hospital in Coleraine, “with the intent of, or being reckless as to whether, it had the effect of influencing a protected person whether directly or indirectly in connection with the protected person attending the premises” on July 7th last year.
Article nine of the ECHR “provides a right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion”.
A separate court will hear arguments that the matter should be a devolved one and any legislation imposed by Westminster upon Northern Ireland, as this was, is invalid.
New figures from the NI Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) suggest there will be more pensioners than schoolchildren in Northern Ireland by 2030.
The Nisra figures show that between 2022 and 2030 the pensioner population will have grown from 315,000 to 356,000. The South will reach this cross-over point at about the same time according to CSO statistics.
The number of children, aged 15 and under in the North, will have fallen from 389,000 to 349,000.
The reduction is driven by long term trends of increased life expectancy and falling birth rates.
A rapidly aging society is likely to have significant implications for public services.
The impact on schools will be felt over the next decade.
A Co Antrim school principal, Leanne Smyth, told the BBC that the number of pupils in her school is down more than a third compared to 19 years ago.
A seminarian abducted on March 3 from a parish rectory in the Nigerian Diocese of Auchi was murdered by his abductors, an official of the diocese has confirmed. A priest he was abducted with has been released.
Father Peter Egielewa and Andrew Peter were kidnapped from the rectory of St. Peter Catholic Church in Edo state when gunmen attacked both the rectory and church, destroying doors and windows, and led the abductees into a nearby forest.
A Church statement confirmed the safe release of Father Ekweli, ending 10 days of captivity, but noted that the 21-year-old major seminarian, Andrew Peter, “was gruesomely murdered by the abductors”.
The local Bishop, Gabriel Ghiakhomo Dunia, called on country’s security agencies to stop the deteriorating security situation, adding: “Life has been hell for our people in recent times.”
The world is sleepwalking towards certain social upheaval precipitated by decades-long falling birth rates, unless urgent action is taken, according to a leading scientist.
Writing in the Irish Times, Dr William Reville, emeritus professor of biochemistry at UCC, cited a recent McKinsey Global Institute report that details how falling fertility rates are reshaping global population. He also noted Ireland’s declining rates from 4.1 children per woman in 1960 to 1.54 and falling in 2022. A figure of 2.1 is needed for a population to simply remain stable.
If unchecked, the decline will cause the existing social contract to be drastically revised as the retired population grows and the working-age population declines rapidly.
One way to at least ameliorate the problem would be to increase low fertility rates but, he says, “hardly anyone sees this solution as even remotely likely to happen”.
“Very few think women who have grown accustomed to having one or no children will ever return to a higher birth rate. But, I believe this mindset could be changed by making changes to ensure the division of labour necessary to care for and raise children from birth onwards is divided strictly evenly between fathers and mothers”.
There is a systematic religious persecution and targeted harassment of Christians in Pakistan through the abuse of the National Identity Card system.
That’s according to the international human rights law firm, Alliance Defending Freedom.
They were commenting after a judge ruled in favour of a 24-year-old Christian brick kiln worker, Sufyan Masih, who had been fraudulently registered by his employer as a Muslim on his National Identity Card. His boss did this in an apparent attempt to enslave Sufyan, including withholding pay and prohibiting him from returning to his family.
Reversing the registration risked exposing Mr Masih to the charge of apostasy or being criminally prosecuted under Pakistan’s blasphemy statutes which could result even in a death penalty.
However, a judge ruled in March that Sufyan was a victim of fake “conversion”, and that his Muslim employers had fraudulently registered him as a Muslim in the national database.
Tehmina Arora, ADF International, commented that his is yet another example of how laws in Pakistan are “weaponized to punish and target Christians”.
Doctors have accused the Royal College of GPs (RCGP) of “grossly misrepresenting” the views of its members by softening its stance on assisted suicide/euthanasia. A vote by the governing body overrode the wishes of rank and file GPs by changing the College’s stance to one of neutrality rather than of opposition.
The organisation announced last week that it was no longer formally opposed to euthanasia, instead adopting a “neutral” position.
But critics say this shift is “baffling”, given that a poll of Royal College of GPs (RCGP) members shows support for euthanasia among GPs has fallen sharply in recent years.
More than 250 GPs have signed a letter to The London Times expressing their disappointment in the college’s leadership
A recent survey of members showed that 47.5 per cent believed the RCGP should remain opposed to so-called ‘assisted dying’, while only 13.6 per cent supporting the idea of a neutral position.
Meanwhile, 33.7 per cent wanted their organisation to support the legalisation of assisted suicide — down from 40 per cent in 2019, the last time members were surveyed on the issue.
