A parish priest in Spain could face criminal charges for prohibiting a small-town mayor in a same-sex relationship from receiving the Eucharist, according to the country’s equality minister.

“[Denying communion] is contrary to the Spanish constitution” Minister of Equality Ana Redondo said during an interview, adding that the Church “cannot, even if there is no specific law, be exempted from the constitutional rules, the principle of equality and non-discrimination of Article 14.”

“You cannot discriminate against an LGTBI citizen and require him to choose either his faith or his sexual condition. This is clearly discriminatory and I hope there will be a [legal] challenge,” she added.

The minister’s remarks come after Rubén García, mayor of the Segovian town Torrecaballeros, said that his parish priest denied him the Eucharist because of his public same-sex relationship.

Around 380 million Christians face “very high or extreme levels” of persecution or discrimination worldwide, according to Open Doors International, which advocates on behalf of persecuted Christians. That is one in seven Christians across the world. However, one in five Christians is persecuted in Africa and two in five in Asia.

The annual Open Doors World Watch List revealed that almost 4,500 Christians were killed for their faith in 2024, 69 per cent of whom were in Nigeria. Nigeria, ranked seventh, remains “among the most urgently dangerous places for Christians on earth,” according to the report, primarily because of violent attacks by Islamic, ethnic Fulani militias in the country’s northern states. The attacks are meant to drive Christian communities off the land they farm.

North Korea remains the most dangerous country to be Christian, followed by Somalia, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, Eritrea, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan.

Terminally ill patients given six months to live often survive for three years, official figures have revealed, fuelling fresh concern over euthanasia and assisted suicide becoming legal.

Patients who are given a prognosis of six months by their doctors are entitled to be fast-tracked onto universal credit.

But Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) data obtained by The Telegraph revealed that a fifth of those benefit claimants are living much longer than expected.

The disclosure, made under freedom of information laws, prompted palliative care medics to warn lives will be “tragically cut short” if Kim Leadbeater’s euthanasia bill becomes law.

The draft legislation, for which MPs voted in November, proposes granting people with six months to live – or less – medical assistance to die, given the approval of two doctors and a judge.

Hospital data previously indicated that doctors’ prognoses were wrong more than half the time, but this is the first government data to confirm the inaccuracy of NHS life expectancy estimates.

News that Trump has signed an executive order that mandates adherence to the biological reality of two sexes, rather than multiple genders, has been welcomed Ethics and Public Policy Center boss, Ryan Anderson, a leading Catholic thinker in the US.

The author of the book “When Harry Met Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment” posted “Thank you @realdonaldtrump” and added: “Does this mean Amazon will be selling my book again?” Sale of his book had been banned by Amazon.

Anderson underscored his point by also quoting Martin Luther King Jr., who said: “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with moral law. To put it in terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.”

Another leading Catholic thinker who welcomed some of Trump’s early decisions is University of Notre Dame professor, Patrick Deneen. He said: “We have been living under a lawless regime for quite some time,” referring to the outgoing Biden administration and praising the new president for a “common sense” approach to public policy.

Catholic schools benefit all of society by serving every person “regardless of creed, background, faith, social status or age,” according to the Bishop of Meath, Tom Deenihan.

He was speaking at the opening of Catholic Schools Week.

In a statement, Bishop Deenihan said this year’s theme “will explore how we exist for one another in Christ, building from the wellbeing of the individual, extending the notion of true wellbeing to others, to our families and communities, and to the Other, in God”.

“The 2025 theme will mediate on hope, the true purpose and meaning of human life, and, in the more senior years, on true freedom”.

Reflecting on the civic purpose of Catholic education, he said: “Generations of people have benefited from Catholic schools and our society is all the better for their contribution to the common good. Our schools, following the example of Jesus, serve every person regardless of creed, background, faith, social status or age”.

Deaths outnumbered births in China last year by almost 1.5m, while the number of marriages has almost halved since 2016.

The country’s just released population figures for 2024 show 9.54 million births and 10.93 million deaths, a decrease of 1.39 million.

The 530,000 additional births in 2024 births in 2023 were due to a 12% increase in marriages in 2023 after the end of the three-year Zero-Covid policy, but it is not arrested the sharp decline in the marriage rate.

But since then, marriages fell 16.6% in the first three quarters of 2024, including a 25.3% drop in the third quarter. The full year is projected to see a fall of 18.8%, meaning births will plummet in 2025, with little over 7 million expected.

There was an increase in the number of births in China by 5.8% to 9.54 million in 2024.

This put the total fertility rate at 1.10 children per woman about half what is needed for a population to simply replace itself.

The submission of Irish female religious to the recent Synod in Rome backs up claims by the Association of Catholic Priests of an unfair portrayal of nuns in the Irish media.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Cloyne priest Fr Tim Hazelwood, said that religious sisters have become the “fall-guy” for all of the ills in society during a particular period in history.  “All of us have worked in parishes where sisters have worked and know the reality and we’re upset at the way they’re being portrayed,” he said.

Irish nuns themselves have said the same thing.

In their submission to Rome, the nuns said: “Today, religious life is given a lot of bad press, with a particular focus on the past, and as women religious many of us feel hurt and challenged in a very deep way.  Most media reporting seems happy to use women religious as scapegoats for Church and society.”

They added: “There is a sense of being silenced, but silence is seen as condoning the accusations [referring to the abuse reports] and giving the impression that ‘“we’re all guilty.”’

The report adds: “What can be done? It is difficult for women religious to respond, as we believe “any religious who speaks up would be shut down.”

The distinctive feature of Catholic education is forming students “in the image and likeness of God”, according to a newly published document.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic, the National Director for Catechetics, Dr Alex O’Hara said that ‘Wellbeing and the Catholic School’ reaffirms the view that schools should be concerned with “the holistic education of the whole person in the image and likeness of God”.

“We’re giving guidance on how you might structure the 400 hours of wellbeing that students have to do at junior cycle and ensuring that the mandatory two hours of religious education in primary and in post-primary a week are not further eroded.

The document also touches on some of the more sensitive issues that have emerged among young people, namely anxiety and suicide, and how to respond to them.

“It also acknowledges the challenges, particularly for young people in terms of anxiety and it’s responding to that,” he said.

“It’s worth remembering that significant research in Ireland and other countries has demonstrated that religious belief and practise are positively associated with good mental health and reduced depression and other aspects of wellbeing.”

The new Programme for Government (PFG) contains a list of major historical events that will be commemorated over the next five years, but no mention is made of one of the most important events of the 19th century in both Ireland and Britain, namely Catholic Emancipation which took place in 1829.

The PFG says the Government “will remember and reflect on many significant historical events which have been important to the legacy of the State and left a lasting impact on Irish culture.”

Among the events to be remembered are the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and the anniversary of the birth of Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington and the death of Constance Markievicz.

Later this year, it will also remember the 250th anniversary of the birth of Daniel O’Connell, who won Catholic Emancipation. The PFG says it will recall “the bicentenaries of some of the most pivotal moments in his career and develop an educational schools’ pack for use across the island highlighting how Irish identity was, and remains a European identity, while showcasing O’Connell’s contribution to intellectual and political thought on a global scale.”

But no explicit mention is made of Catholic Emancipation which is considered his greatest achievement earning him the title of ‘The Liberator’. It is not clear how big a role this achievement, which removed most of the remaining the Penal Laws, including a requirement by MPs to take an anti-Catholic oath, will play in the commemoration, or whether anything separate will be done in 2029.

Commenting on the matter on ‘X’, the head of the Catholic Education Partnership, Alan Hynes, said: “No mention of the 200th anniversary of Catholic Emancipation, a measure secured largely by the Irish to the benefit of Catholics not only here but in England, Wales and Scotland. It was one of the most significant mass-democratic civil rights movements in history at that time.”

Responding, the former Irish ambassador to Washington said: “I agree that is a surprising lapse. Catholic Emancipation was not just an Irish gain. It was a breakthrough for Catholics in Britain too and the first great measure of British parliamentary reform of the 19th century. I dare say it will be marked by English Catholics”.

Children in large families, in lone parent households, and in households where someone has a disability face a higher risk of income poverty and deprivation, according to a new study by the ESRI.

The report compares child poverty and related factors and policy measures in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The report uses two measures of poverty: income poverty, which means having a household disposable income that is less than 60 per cent of median income; and, material deprivation, which occurs when families are unable to afford at least two of five basic essentials like paying their bills on time or keeping their home warm.

Author of the report, Helen Russell, of the ESRI said an “unacceptable number” of children are experiencing poverty and reducing this “must be a priority” for governments on both sides of the border.

More than 40pc of births now take place outside marriage.