Proponents of assisted suicide believe the Government is ducking the issue and will not legislate for it in the current Dáil.

In 2024, just a few months before the last General Election, a Special Oireachtas Joint Committee called for the Government to bring forward legislation for TDs to scrutinise.

Two years on, former People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny, who was an advocate of assisted suicide but lost his seat in the last election, said he does not believe the Government has any interest in the topic.

“I just don’t see this Government legislating for assisted dying,” he told Newstalk Breakfast.

His comments follow confirmation from Justice minister Jim O’Callaghan that “no decision” has been taken on the matter. He has described such a bill as “very complex”, adding that it would require careful consideration of medical, ethical, and cultural issues.

Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane, who was a member of the committee that backed change, hit out at the lack of action, claiming the Government are “avoiding the issue”.

Childhood depression is less than half as prevalent amongst the children of married parents, according to a recent report for the Institute for Family Studies.

Depression was most common among children in single-mother households, married stepfamilies, and households with no parent present.

Lead researcher, Grant Bailey, said the research “underscores the importance of tracking and reporting family structure as a key variable in student well-being”, as otherwise key structural dynamics may be overlooked in baseline data.

A surrogate mother is battling a couple who contracted her to carry their baby as they want the pregnancy aborted after the child was diagnosed with a heart defect.

McKenna West, a nurse from Alaska, is arguing that post-birth surgery should be performed on the child – whom she has named Gabriel – and claims the couple who entered a surrogacy contract with her are refusing to allow the surgery after she denied their abortion request.

The intended parents allegedly stopped sending Ms West payments following her decision and demanded that she repay money they had already provided, along with damages for breaching the surrogacy agreement.

The couple have also filed legal proceedings in California to establish their parental rights over the child, and have asked the court to require Ms West give birth in the state.

According to Ms West, the intended parents have indicated they would provide only “comfort” care after the birth rather than the operations required to treat the baby’s condition.

She wishes to give birth in a hospital in Texas with a high success rate treating infants with the same condition.

Newly published research shows a rise in the use of remote consultations for women seeking abortions in Ireland despite an inability to detect dangerous contraindications such as ectopic pregnancy.

A previous report published in the Irish Medical Journal in 2024 revealed how a 24-year-old woman in Limerick, who had a pill-induced abortion, nearly died due to the presence of an undetected ectopic pregnancy.

19% of the GPs who participated in the new study in the BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health journal provided “fully remote consultations” for the first abortion consultation, and another 48% used a mixed model of remote and in-person meetings for the first of two consultations.

Among other things, the increased reliance on remote consultations doesn’t allow for ultrasound examination of the pregnant woman and her baby, leading to potential delays in detecting rare but very serious cases of ectopic pregnancy.

A spokesperson for the Pro-Life Campaign said the latest research suggests that fully remote consultations are taking place much more frequently than previously indicated.

“The risks this poses to women, as well as to their unborn babies, cannot be overstated”.

The Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, Norma Foley, has launched a three-year “Action Plan” to implement its policy on combatting the influence of ‘tradwives’ and the so-called ‘manosphere’.

The action plan was developed “in coordination with the National Women’s Council of Ireland”.

One section deals with providing “gender equality education and education environments that directly counter patriarchal gender norms, including restrictive masculinities”.

Nowhere in the 52 page document does it mention the words “wife” or “mother”, but it does adopt the gender neutral “parent” 20 times.

A press release on the launch of the document described it as “a living document” that establishes mechanisms to track progress over the coming years.

While the Action Plan’s language is generic, the earlier Strategy document spells out its target in clearer terms: misogynistic male influencers in the “manosphere” and “Tradwife” influencers promoting “patriarchal norms” seen as pressuring women into “restrictive, stereotypical roles for women and girls”.

The Diocese of Lokoja announced the death of Fr Samuel Opeyemi Oyetoro in a statement on July 30.

“We commend our beloved priest to the infinite mercy of God, giving thanks for his faithful ministry, sacrificial love, and unwavering dedication to the people of God,” the diocese said.

The murder of Fr Oyetoro is the latest in a series of increasingly violent attacks against priests, religious and lay Catholics in the country.

Four days after the priest’s murder, seven gunmen entered the Church of St Joseph in Enugu state in southeastern Nigeria during Sunday Mass, Fides reported. The attackers kidnapped three people, including a seminarian, a catechist and a parishioner.

The catechist was able to escape his captors while police conducted a search operation. However, the seminarian and the parishioner remained hostages for a few days before thankfully being released.

The State Attorney General of Florda has demanded that Catholic schools accept religious objections to vaccines or risk losing millions in state funding.

According to state law, children wanting to attend public or Catholic schools are subject to vaccine mandates. However, exemptions are granted on either medical or religious grounds.  Philosophical or personal belief exemptions are not recognized in Florida.

A state office grants exemptions when claimed by parents on sufficient grounds.

Catholic schools in Florida, however, have not been accepting the religious exemptions, as the Catholic faith does not provide grounds for a principled objection to any of the required vaccines. This follows advice from the US National Catholic Bioethics Center.

Florida’s AG, James Uthmeier, disputes that reading of Catholic teaching.

Speaking “as a Catholic” and after citing numerous Catholic sources, he says “there is no religious basis on which to reject a person’s claim of religious conscience for refusing to take vaccines”.

He urged the schools to accept the religious exemptions, warning: “[f]ailure to comply could jeopardize eligibility for state educational scholarship programs”.

Notre Dame professor of Law, Rick Garnett, called the letter “a glaring and dangerous government overreach.”

A religious swath of the Netherlands is continuing to show fertility levels far above the rest of the country.

A recent study from the Iona Institute showed that religious people in general have more children than those who are secular.

The total fertility rate (TFR) across all of the Netherlands dipped slightly from 1.43 in 2024 to 1.42 last year, well below the replacement level of 2.1.

However, that masked significant municipal differences where TFR’s ranged from 2.94 in Renswoude in Utrecht, where they are many Calvinists, to 0.62 on the island of Schiermonnikoog.

The TFR of eight of those municipalities actually increased or remained steady in 2025 over 2024, even as the rate fell in the rest of the country.

New UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said debate around the introduction of assisted suicide and euthanasia should be put on hold until palliative and social care programs in the country are properly funded.

Labour MP Lauren Edwards had reintroduced an assisted suicide bill that had failed in the last session of parliament. Her bill is due to have its second reading on September 11.

“I take the view that that debate – and I don’t say that there shouldn’t be a debate at some point about those issues – personally, I think there’s something that needs to happen first,” Burnham told reporters on Wednesday.

Archbishop John Sherrington of Liverpool welcomed the news.

“It is highly significant that the Prime Minister has confirmed his position about the need for proper palliative and social care ahead of the Second Reading”.

Sherrington stressed the Church’s long-standing opposition to assisted suicide and support for palliative and end of life care “as an appropriate focus to uphold the dignity of all at the end of life.”

French President Emmanuel Macron commemorated an elderly priest martyred 10 years ago in North-West France.

“We have not forgotten Father Jacques Hamel. Ten years ago today, he was cowardly murdered by two Islamist terrorists — targeted because he embodied the rejection of hatred, as well as fraternity and hope,” the French leader wrote on his X account on July 26.

“To his loved ones, his parishioners, all the inhabitants of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, and the Catholics of France, I extend the nation’s faithful, fraternal greetings,” Macron added.

On July 26, 2016, two young Islamic State terrorists stormed the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray in Rouen, France, during a celebration of mass.

Shouting “Allahu Akbar” (Arabic for “God is great”), the killers entered the church and began destroying religious images. The priest tried to stop them but was unable to do so. The terrorists attempted to force him to his knees, but he refused.

One of the killers stabbed him, and Hamel cried out, “Begone, Satan!” These were his last words, and they slit his throat.

The cause for Hamel’s beatification was announced on April 13, 2017, and officially opened on May 20 of that year.