In his apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis has said the Church must respond with better pastoral care to divorced-and-remarried Catholics, while defending the sanctity of marriage. “What we need is a more responsible and generous effort to present the reasons and motivations for choosing marriage and the family, and in this way to help men and women better to respond to the grace that God offers them,” he wrote.
The charity group Aid to the Church in Need has urged the Irish Government to formally recognise the actions of Islamic State against Christians and other minorities as genocide. The call was made ahead of a presentation in Dublin on ‘How Christians are being killed and driven out of the Middle East for their faith’.
Northern Ireland’s Precious Life group has written to the region’s Director of Public Prosecutions to request an appeal of the suspended sentence handed down on a woman who admitted procuring her own abortion through pill bought on the internet. “By passing such a lenient sentence we believe the judge undermined the seriousness of the crime of killing an unborn child,” the group said in a statement.
In a blow to people of faith in the workplace in Britain, a National Health Service therapist who was disciplined for giving a Christian text to a Muslim colleague has lost her appeal against the sanction handed down for her action. A judge hearing the appeal brought by practising Christian Victoria Wasteney ruled that the NHS had acted appropriately.
Calls have been made in the Dáil for an end to the traditional prayer which begins every sitting of the chamber.
As work towards Dáil reform and the establishment of a new Government continues, TD Paul Murphy of the Anti-Austerity Alliance and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan led calls for the scrapping of the prayer to be part of that reform process. Deputy Murphy said the prayer demonstrated that “we don’t have a separation of church and state in this country”.
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) has revealed it has received a record volume of responses from parents and teachers in its consultation process on plans to introduce of religion classes in primary schools. The classes, set to focus on all major forms of religion and secular views, have the NCCA said, led to fears of “curriculum overload”.
A major study in the United States has found that adult stem cells have the potential to halve the rate of deaths from heart failure. Doctors utilising such cells have already proved that they can repair damaged hearts in patients supplying the stem cells. The findings boost the cause of scientists who have long argued that adult stem cells are a viable alternative to the controversial use of embryonic stem cells.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York has said that “the major and most urgent mandate for the Church is to reclaim the beauty and nobility of the sacrament of marriage and family life”. The Cardinal made his comment during an interview just days ahead of the release of Pope Francis’ encyclical on the family.
