Doubts have been raised as to the validity of hundreds of marriages conducted in Ireland due to questions around training and accreditation of some wedding solemnisers. The Department of Social Protection expressed concern after the Registrar General raised issues regarding the training being offered to solemnisers by smaller, newer religious bodies. The Registrar General admitted there is no way to police this: “Religious bodies are not required by law to have training and accreditation procedures, and there is concern that the quality assurance provided by training and accreditation may not be present in some cases. The office is aware any individual can easily obtain an online ordination certificate without any training or accreditation by the religious body issuing the certificate.”
Prison authorities in England and Wales have been ordered to ensure transsexual prisoners have access to hair dye and make-up under new government guidelines. The move, which also calls for prisoners to be allowed to nominate the gender category of prison where they are held, comes after a review of prison policy found that it places too much emphasis on a prisoner’s birth sex and, in order to avoid “harm or distress”, prisons should support a prisoner’s self-identified gender option. The new policy states: “Regardless of where prisoners are held, they should be respected in their self-identified gender, being provided with those items that enable their gender expression.”
A growing number of hospitals in the US state of California are defying a newly introduced law on assisted suicide. Rather than comply with the law which allows physicians to prescribe life-ending medications, a number of hospitals in the Santa Barbara and Palm Springs areas have vowed to ignore the law on this issue. One spokesperson, for Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs and the JFK Memorial Hospital said: “After careful consideration, we have determined that aid-in-dying medication will not be ordered or administered.” The facilities have agreed that patients seeking information on the End of Life Option Act will receive said information, but nothing further at the hospitals now opting out.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has announced he will bring a memo to Cabinet next week towards the formation of a Citizens’ Assembly on abortion. Questioned in the Dáil on a UN Committee’s recent call for Ireland to set aside its constitutional protection for the unborn, Mr Kenny resisted calls for an immediate move to repeal the Eighth Amendment protection, insisting that the UN call was “non-binding”. However, he also added: “If we were to decide to have a referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment in October, it would not be passed…It is pointless rushing into a constitutional referendum unless there is a realistic consensus on whatever change might be recommended [by the Citizens’ Assembly].”
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has called on Northern Ireland to decriminalise abortion “in all circumstances”. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child made its call as a separate UN body, the Human Rights Committee (HRC) ruled that the Republic of Ireland’s pro-life laws are “inhumane and degrading”. However, like the HRC, the call by Committee on the Rights of the Child is also non-binding and Northern Ireland is not compelled to act. The UN has been criticised for this latest call, with Callum Webster, of the Christian Institute’s Northern Ireland Office, accusing the UN of acting against its founding purpose: “Unborn children in Northern Ireland currently have some of the best protections in the world. A committee tasked with looking after the ‘Rights of the Child’ should seek to uphold that, instead of acting as a cheerleader for abortion in any and every circumstance.”
Four Englishmen are facing trial for the mock crucifixion of a Catholic co-worker in a campaign of bullying described as religiously aggravated assault. The young Catholic man at the heart of the case, who remains anonymous, told York Crown Court that he felt “ashamed” and “embarrassed” when the defendants restrained him in 2015 and tied him to a make-shift cross and placed it against a wall while they filmed the incident. The man alleges a pattern of behaviour of bullying which included him being covered in drawn crosses on another occasion. He said: “I just felt ashamed that everyone else saw what was happening to me and it wasn’t happening to anyone else. I just felt really embarrassed.”
Some 40 schools in England have adopted a gender neutral uniform code which will allow for young boys wearing skirts. The move has been led by the government funded campaign group Educate & Celebrate. One school involved said its adoption of the policy was to reflect “each child’s right to express their gender and personality in whichever way feels right for them”. However, Andrea Williams of Christian Concern said: “Children at the age of five years old need to be reassured and supported if they experience feelings of confusion about their gender. This policy will only serve to introduce unnecessary questioning and doubt to pupils who may have never otherwise experienced such feelings.”
Ireland could move to liberalise its abortion laws as early as this September, it has been revealed. As ministers gather to discuss the country’s response to a recent UN call for such a move, some indicated to the media that, rather than Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s earlier suggestion of convening a Citizens’ Assembly on the issue within six months, moves could be underway by September. However, regardless of the discussions to be held between ministers, Simon Harris, the Minister for Health, reminded that legal advice to Government has been that the issue of abortion remains a constitutional matter and therefore one to be placed to the people by referendum.
Significant numbers of parents still want their children to be taught the sacraments at school, the chief of the new Community School model of patronage has said. Michael Moriarty, general secretary of the Education and Training Boards Ireland (ETBI) said: “This is being ignored by people who live in mainly large urban centres, but throughout provincial Ireland, in particular, there is a demand for the tenets and basics of the core of Catholic religion and sacraments.” He added that this need for ‘belief nurturing’ is recognised in the Community National Schools, 11 of which are already running on a trial basis.
Requiring children to attend school assemblies is a violation of their human rights, a United Nations committee has ruled. In a report, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concern at Britain’s requirement that school children attend gatherings with are “wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character” and called on the government to “repeal legal provisions for compulsory attendance at collective worship”. Reacting to the report, Conservative MP David Burrowes described the criticism as “ludicrous” and said the government can “respectfully put those kind of reports in the bin where they belong”.
