Legislators in Mexico have blocked a government proposal to extend same-sex marriage provision across the country. The Commission on Constitutional Matters voted 18-9 against such a move, thwarting the initiative of President Enrique Peña Nieto. The commission argued that such an extension would violate the right of individual states to set their own civil registry rules. Same-sex marriage is currently legal in 11 of Mexico’s 31 states. The National Front for the Family, which organised mass demonstrations across the country when President Nieto first proposed the extension, is now calling on the nation’s Senate – via a citizens’ initiative – to enshrine traditional marriage as between one man and one woman in the constitution.

President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to stand over his pro-life campaign promises during the US election campaign, but says the issue of same-sex marriage “is settled law”. In his first television interview since winning the presidency, Mr Trump insisted “I’m pro-life,” and, when pressed on nominations to the Supreme Court, added, “My judges will be pro-life.” On the Roe v Wade ruling which originally extended abortion provision in the United States in 1973, Mr Trump said only that matter “will go back to the states”. Proving himself more liberal on LGBTQ issues, Mr Trump said that “I have been in their corner” and professed himself “fine with that” on same-sex marriage.

Dublin’s Archbishop of Diarmuid Martin has insisted that “Christianity still has much to say to an amnesiac world about human dignity, political freedom and economic inequality”. Speaking as he delivered the first sermon by a Catholic Archbishop of Dublin during evensong at Christ Church Cathedral, Dr Martin challenged people of faith “to find a language from our own rich faith tradition which can be understood and welcomed in a pluralist world”. “People have, in many ways, lost that historical understanding of the contribution of Christian belief to the development of Western culture. This is often the fault of the way we live as churches,” he explained, adding, “churches urgently need to find new language for…engagement and the churches must build bridges of new and perhaps surprising partnerships.”

The Romanian Orthodox Church has voiced support for a constitutional amendment in the country to recognise marriage as between one man and one woman. In line with the submission of a Bill proposing a referendum on the measure, to be held on the same day as parliamentary elections, the Orthodox Church revealed it has garnered three million signatures supporting the strengthened recognition of the traditional family unit. Romanian Patriarch Daniel urged congregations to “protect the natural, traditional and universal family, and resist some new family models that consider the natural woman-man union only one model among others”. Gay activists have accused the Church of “meddling” in secular matters.

Britain’s Archbishop of Canterbury has warned that government officials know so little of religion that their definition of ‘extremism’ would include conservative Christians. In an address to the heads of Church of England schools, Archbishop Justin Welby lamented that some officials have “no grip” on what it means to be a person of faith. “The Foreign Office, the Ministry of Defence, our Government generally,” he said, “is desperately trying to catch up, to understand a world in which they have no grip on what it is to be religious at all; where religious illiteracy is prevalent and extremely destructive of understanding and where they can’t see really the difference between an extremist Muslim group like the Muslim Brotherhood and a sort of conservative evangelical group in a Church of England church.” The Archbishop said that while not everyone has to believe, “we do want them to recognise that [faith is] a feature in people’s decision making”.

Bishops and Church leaders in the United States have pledged to hold President-elect Donald Trump to his pro-life promises and other social justice issues. Communicating their congratulations to Mr Trump and expressing hopes for his tenure, Church figures used the win to restate those issues to which the new president would be held. Among the messages, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, president of the US Bishops’ Conference said: “The Bishops’ Conference looks forward to working with President-elect Trump to protect human life from its most vulnerable beginning to its natural end.” And, he added: “We will call attention to the violent persecution threatening our fellow Christians and people of other faiths around the world… And we will look for the new administration’s commitment to domestic religious liberty”. Archbishop Kurtz ended by stating: “Now is the moment to move toward the responsibility of governing for the common good of all citizens. I believe God will give us the strength to heal and unite.”

The Netherlands’ Cardinal Willem Eijk has said a papal encyclical or other magisterial document may be needed to counter the spread of gender theory and the belief that gender can be a choice over biology. Warning that Catholic parents are beginning to accept that their own children can choose their genders partly because “they don’t hear anything else”, Cardinal Eijk said: “It [gender theory] is spreading and spreading everywhere in the Western world, and we have to warn people…From the point of moral theology, it’s clear, you are not allowed to change your sex in this way. Perhaps a document only on this problem might be an urgent question,” he concluded.

Hungary has recorded a fall of almost a quarter in the number of abortions in the country following a long-term pro-life push by government. Figures between 2010 and 2015 have shown a 22.9% decrease in terminations. Since 2011, Hungary – which allows for abortion up to 12 weeks, and up to 24 weeks in the case of severe disability – has promoted a major pro-life drive coupled with a requirement that a woman seeking a termination undergo counselling and wait three days between requesting an abortion and having one. In addition, since 2012 Hungary’s constitution has stated that life begins at conception.