Church leaders have called on Western governments to intervene and demand justice for the victims of the “worst incident of persecution against Christians” in Pakistan.
On one day in August, a mob of 7,000 people went on the rampage in Jaranwala, Pakistan and attacked a total of 26 churches and chapels, as well as a cemetery and hundreds of homes.
Father Abid Tanveer, vicar general of the Diocese of Faisalabad, was on the scene when the atrocity took place.
He says international pressure is vital to ensure the prosecution of the culprits behind the attacks.
In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Father Tanveer said an economically faltering Pakistan would be open to calls made by Western powers on whom it depends for trade and aid.
The priest described encountering the “anger and hatred” of the mob as he entered Jaranwala on the day of the atrocity and said: “Unless justice is done, the victims of Jaranwala will never find closure. They will never feel safe. Governments in the West should call for justice. The Government in Pakistan will listen to the West because they need them in terms of aid and trade. The West should write to our government and ask why Christians in our country are being persecuted and what they are doing about it.”
Births rose in 2021 even as women are increasingly older when having children and the total fertility rate remains well below replacement level, according to new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The number of women giving birth aged 40 and over increased by more than one-third between 2011 and 2021, while the number giving birth under the age of 20 more than halved.
The average age of mothers at maternity rose to 33.3 years in 2021, the highest since the information was first recorded in 1995.
60,575 babies were born in Ireland in 2021, an increase of 6.6pc from the previous year. However, this is down from 74,033 in 2011, even though the overall population of the country has increased.
The birth rate per 1,000 population in 2021 was 11.9; in 2011, it was 16.2.
The total period fertility rate (TPFR) was 1.73 in 2021. A figure of 2.1 is considered to be the replacement rate.
Meanwhile, on mortality, there were 449 deaths from suicide in 2021, of which 359 were males and 90 were females.
Doctors who opt out of performing abortions will have to provide follow-up care for women who have had the procedure, under new ethics guidelines for the profession. However, in practice almost no pro-life doctors object to this because it is not regarded as assisting with abortion in any way.
Doctors “must provide care, support and follow-up for patients who have had a lawful procedure, treatment or form of care to which you have a conscientious objection”, according to the ninth edition of the Medical Council’s guide on ethics and professional conduct, to come into effect next January.
“Conscientious objection may arise in a number of different situations. The revised guide does not assume links to any one treatment, procedure or form of care,” a spokeswoman responded when asked if the change would affect doctors opting out of providing abortions.
The additional provision on conscientious objection is one of many changes to the guide, which was last updated in 2019.
The Catholic Church in Ukraine will face extermination if the Russian invasion is successful, leading Ukrainian Catholic bishops said this week.
The bishops spoke to media after a panel discussion titled “Faith Under Fire in Russia’s War on Ukraine” hosted by the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., on Monday.
Though Ukraine is majority Eastern Orthodox, there are nearly 5 million Catholics in the country. The bishops said that the Church in Ukraine could be facing severe repression and may once again be forced underground as in the days of the Soviet Union.
Archbishop Borys Gudziak, the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, told CNA that there “are many, many Catholics that are dying every day” and that there is a “danger for Catholics in particular in Ukraine.”
Under Russian occupation, Gudziak said that the Church “is eliminated as a visible body.”
“If the repression lasts a long time,” he added, “basically the Church is extinguished.”
Adherence to the Catholic faith is not a prerequisite for teaching in Catholic schools, according to an educational body of the Irish Bishops conference.
The statement was in response to an Irish Times article which asked whether religion is a barrier to getting a job as a primary teacher to the extent that “only Catholics need apply”.
The Catholic Education Partnership, an umbrella body for Catholic schools, confirms that a certificate in religious studies (CRS) is a necessary qualification to teach in a Catholic school, but not faith.
“A person does not need to be of the Catholic faith to gain the qualification and religious affiliation is not something asked of candidates in interviews,” says Alan Hynes, the partnership’s chief executive. But, he added, candidates “are asked to demonstrate a knowledge of the Catholic ethos” so they have the capacity to communicate the Catholic faith to children.
Many Church of Ireland schools also seek a Protestant version of the certificate. A separate certificate in “ethical and multi-denominational education” is available for teachers interested in teaching in multi-denominational schools such as Educate Together or Community National Schools managed by education and training boards.
https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/education/2023/10/31/only-catholics-need-apply-is-religion-a-barrier-to-getting-a-job-as-a-primary-teacher/
Italy’s government approved a new budget last week, setting aside 1 billion euros to support mothers and families, in an effort to boost the national birthrate.
The country’s fertility rate is currently one of the lowest in Europe.
Some of those measures include increased financial aid to working mothers with two or more children, increased government funding for day care facilities, and extended parental leave. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, herself a working mother, said, “We want to dismantle the narrative that birthrate is a disincentive to work. We want to incentivize those who give birth to children and want to work.”
She added: “We want to establish that a woman who gives birth to at least two children has already made an important contribution to society, and therefore, the state partly compensates by paying social security contributions”.
An assault at a San Francisco Catholic church on Sunday led to a police pursuit that reportedly included setting off a pipe bomb.
Archdiocesan spokesman Peter Marlow said that the incident began after an individual received Communion but did not consume the host.
“There was a visiting person [also in attendance] who stood up and confronted the person and told him, ‘You can’t leave the church without consuming the host,’” Marlow said. “And the guy went off and punched him and ran out of the church.”
A police spokesperson said the responding officers encountered a suspect “with an improvised device”. They pursued him into another county before apprehending him.
City Supervisor Aaron Peskin told the San Francisco Standard that police said the man “set off a pipe bomb” during the pursuit before subsequently igniting a “Molotov cocktail.” There were no serious injuries, Peskin told the outlet.
The British Education Secretary has said that parents have a right to be told what their children are being taught in sex education class. Her comments come after copyright was cited as a reason not to tell parents what their children were being taught in a number of schools. Material from the outside is sometime taught in sex education classes and the companies behind the material sometimes say they do not want rival organisations to see it.
The Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, said the right of parents to know what their children are being taught trumps copyright concerns.
The Times reports: “MPs and parents campaigned for action after it emerged that some materials asked children whether they were ‘planet non-binary’ and taught them about breast binders and a ‘galaxy’ of genders.”
The number of abortions taking place in Northern Ireland has doubled in the three years since the law there was made more permissive, according to pro-life group, Both Lives Matter.
The organisation has obtained figures from the Department of Health show that 5,648 terminations have been performed in the North since the new abortion regulations were laid out in March 2020 up to May 23rd of this year.
The number of abortions taking place in the South has also soared since the Republic liberalised its abortion law in January 2019 following the abortion referendum of the previous year.
A new tax aimed at developers who hoard land will also target religious congregations including contemplative orders like the Poor Clare Sisters whose convents have sometimes been situated for many years in what are often now becoming crowded urban settings.
The issue came to light after An Bord Pleanala slapped down a plea from the Poor Clares in Cork City to exempt them from the Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT), The Irish Catholic reports.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Cork TD, Michael Collins, said “this order has been in Cork for decades and decades. I would think that’s totally unacceptable that they are being faced with this concern and worry on them.”
Local Fianna Fáil TD Padraig O’Sullivan has vowed to bring the Poor Clare’s case before the Minister for Finance [Michael McGrath, pictured], saying “common sense has to prevail”.
“When [the tax] was first envisaged, I don’t think anomalies like this would have been foreseen… if there’s anything I can do, I’ll make representation for them.”
Other convents and monasteries are also affected. It remains unclear whether the RZLT will be amended to exclude them and not treat them as property developers and land hoarders.
