As the Northern Ireland Catholic Council on Social Affairs (NICCOSA) held its first meeting with political figures in Northern Ireland, the Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin urged the region’s Assembly to protect religious freedom by giving “focused attention to the importance of respect for freedom of religion and conscience as a fundamental pillar of a genuinely free, diverse and democratic society.”
A European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) has been launched towards defending the family and marriage as between one man and one woman across the continent. The move is backed by Christian Concern and other pro-marriage groups. An ECI is “an invitation to the European Commission to propose legislation on matters where the EU has competence to legislate” and must be backed by a minimum of one million people across at least seven member states, with a minimum number of signatories required in each member state.
A Canadian poll reveals that 86% of people aged 55-plus oppose euthanasia on the grounds of psychological suffering, while 68% of all respondents objected to religious-run hospitals being required to participate in euthanasia provision.
The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis’ post-synodal document on the family will be published on April 8. The Apostolic Exhortation ‘Amoris Laetitia’ meaning ‘The Joy of Love’ will be released at a press conference that morning led by Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, general secretary of the Synod of Bishops, and Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna.
Northern Ireland’s newly issued abortion guidelines will “make doctors more conscious of their obligations” and make procuring a termination harder, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has said. The new rules, SPUC, added clear up the ambiguity of the previous ones where abortion as a legal option was “open to a wide spectrum of interpretation”.
Christians in the Islamic State stronghold city of Raqqa are being prevented from leaving and are now forced to study Islam, an observer group has revealed. It is believed that there are 43 Christian families remaining in Raqqa, having survived thus far by paying the non-Muslim tax levied by Islamic State.
A Christian man in Britain whose role as a magistrate was terminated by the Lord Chancellor after he expressed support for adoption by traditional family units over same-sex couples has now been removed from a National Health Service Trust where he held a non-executive position. Richard Page has been informed the NHS he is suspended while the body “considers whether it is in the interests of the health service” for him to remain in his post.
