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.

The High Court has adjourned a case centred on the legal status of a child born through surrogacy who was later discovered to have no genetic link to the commissioning adults. The case involves an Irish couple who sought surrogacy outside the State and subsequently applied to bring the child back to Ireland. Needing to prove a genetic link to the child in order to secure necessary documentation, the test showed no such link exists. The child was admitted to Ireland on humanitarian grounds. The High Court has now declared it requires more time to gain further statements from the State on its position on a most unique case and adjourned until January.

An Australian proposal to hold a national referendum on legalising same-sex marriage has been defeated in the nation’s senate. Despite a preference for such a vote on the issue by the government of Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull, opposition parties and supporters of same-sex marriage have argued that a referendum would be ‘deeply divisive’ and the issue of gay marriage should be decided by parliament alone. The defeat of the proposal means same-sex marriage is now set aside as a topic for the next parliamentary term.

The rate of assisted suicide in Switzerland surged by over a quarter in a single year, latest figures in the country show. With 742 cases of assisted suicide for the year 2014, this was a 26% increase on the previous year. At least 20 of the latest number sought assisted suicide due to depression. Assisted suicide has been legal in Switzerland since 1942, but since 2009, the rate of this means of death has grown by 250%.

A new study on faith in Britain has found that people of faith who regularly attend their church services are most likely to want to pass on their faith beliefs to their children. Conducted by the religion and society think tank Theos, in conjunction with pollsters ComRes, Passing on Faith discovered that while 60% of parents overall think that children should make up their own minds on faith “independently of their parents”, when categorised by belief or lack of, some 77% of people who believe and attend church saw it as important to pass on their beliefs. By comparison, just 59% those who believe but do not attend worship regularly saw this faith communication as important. “The more engaged Christians were with their faith, the more likely they were to want to pass it on to their children,” the study concluded.