Christian holidays have been excluded from the National Trust’s inclusion calendar, triggering a backlash from members.
While Diwali, Eid and Ramadan feature in the heritage group’s “inclusivity and wellbeing” calendar, distributed to volunteers, Christmas and Easter go unmentioned.
At the Trust’s Annual General Meeting, a panel member was forced to deny it was in favour of “internal discrimination” when it was pointed out that its calendar for volunteers highlighted Muslim, Hindu and Jewish festivals while ignoring those celebrated by Christians.
David Lamming, a Trust member from Suffolk, had asked for an explanation, prompting a loud round of applause from the audience, one of whom later said it was a sign that the heritage group had become “too woke”.
John Orna-Ornstein, the Trust’s curation director, said in response: “I’m really clear that there is no such internal discrimination”.
Other dates flagged up on the calendar include Transgender Awareness Week, Black History Month and LGBT+ History Month.
The Catholic Bishops are alleging a breach of human rights by the British Government in imposing what amounts to a pro-abortion point of view on pupils in Northern Ireland, including Catholic schools.
The Catholic Schools’ Trustee Service (CSTS) believes that the legislation brought forward through Westminster by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland challenges the rights of Trustees to promote a faith-based education.
CSTS is very concerned that this has been done “to impose on schools a particular ideological view of abortion and the prevention of early pregnancy”.
In a statement, they say this “undermines the parent’s or carer’s right to have their children educated in accordance with their ethical, religious, and philosophical convictions, as is recognised through international human rights legislation. Legislative topics of such sensitivity should have remained a matter for a locally elected assembly to consult upon, debate, and agree a way forward that best meets the needs of the people in this jurisdiction.”
The live animal crib is to return to the Mansion House in Dublin this Christmas, Lord Mayor Daithí de Róiste has announced.
There was controversy and a break with tradition last year when the crib – featuring a donkey, two sheep and a goat gathered around a scene depicting the nativity – moved to St Stephen’s Green after then lord mayor, Green Party councillor Caroline Conroy, objected to it citing, without evidence, animal welfare grounds.
The crib, which attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year, had been in place on the forecourt of the Mansion House since 1995.
Announcing the return of the crib to the Mansion House, Mr de Róiste (FF) said tradition was “such an important aspect of Christmas” and that for many Dubliners, including himself, the crib “was always a huge part of that”.
In an opinion piece published in the Irish Medical Times, Dr Brendan Crowley wrote that the report arising from the Abortion Review undertaken by the state, “raises several worrying points which would have a negative impact on freedom of conscience.”
“Its author and the Minister for Health have stated they intend to compel the eight remaining maternity hospitals into providing abortions. It’s clear that eroding freedom of conscience is a key means to achieve this,” he said.
“The report’s author herself stated at the Oireachtas Health Committee on May 31 that she would have no compunction about discriminating against doctors in the hiring process who indicated they may wish to exercise their right to consciously object to the abortion process, which they are entitled to do, under section 22 of the 2018 Act.”
Voters on Tuesday enshrined a legal right to abortion in Ohio and rejected Republican candidates in Virginia to thwart the State Governor’s plan to ban abortion at 15 weeks.
The conservative-leaning state of Ohio approved a ballot referendum that adds a new right to “reproductive freedom,” including abortion and contraception, to the state constitution.
Over 56% of nearly 4 million Ohioans selected “yes” for the adoption of Issue 1, in contrast to only 44% who chose “no.”
The amendment guarantees that “every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decision,” including, but not limited to “abortion.”
Many opponents of the amendment fear that it will open the door to late-term abortion and eviscerate parental consent and notification laws for minors seeking abortions.
Meanwhile in the liberal-leaning state of Virginia, Democrats kept control of the state Senate and flipped the state House of Delegates on Tuesday in what is a major blow to Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s efforts to pass legislation that would ban abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy.
An effort by Youngkin and legislative Republicans to pass a ban was a key focus of the rhetoric from both Republican and Democratic candidates. Democrats sought to paint Republicans as a threat to abortion access and Republicans labelled Democrats as extreme on the issue.
The decision has important implications for euthanasia or assisted suicide.
The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig said medical care includes “the use of an anaesthetic to cure or alleviate illness or pathological complaints,” and this does not entail (self-)killing.
“In principle, ending one’s own life does not have such a therapeutic purpose.”
Welcoming the ruling Dr. Felix Böllmann, of ADF International, said suicide is not a health service.
“The task of doctors, medical professionals, and also the personal environment is to save lives and provide support instead of killing,” he said.
He added that the current legal situation remains unsatisfactory since a prior judgement of the German Constitutional Court made a dramatic shift that left the most vulnerable people in society unprotected from the dangers of ‘assisted dying’ while allowing commercial and ideological interests to dominate the scene.
“Nevertheless, It is good that the federal administrative court mentions and strengthens the State’s concept of protecting the life of every individual. Everyone has a right to life. And everyone has the right to have their life protected from and by everyone. Indeed, the state has a legal obligation to systematically protect every human life”.
https://adfinternational.org/adf-international-welcomes-germanys-top-administrative-court-ruling-on-euthanasia-statement-by-dr-felix-boellmann-difference-between-alleviation-of-suffering-and-killing-has-been-confirm/
The Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) of the European Parliament agreed on a proposed EU regulation to ensure parental rights granted in one member-state are recognised across the Union independent of the national laws in other states, even if the child is acquired through surrogacy.
This means, for instance, if two people were declared the parents of a child born via surrogacy in one state, even if they have no biological connection to the child, would automatically be regarded as the legal parents of the child if they were to move to any other state. This would circumvent the national laws for establishing legal parenthood and enable ‘surrogacy tourism’ within the EU.
Expressing concern at the development, the Federation of Catholic Family Associations, FAFCE, said that “a child is not an entitlement and parenthood is not a right; rather, a child is a gift and parenthood is a responsibility.”
They added that the current proposals would impose on states the recognition of parenthood established in another state “(i) irrespective of how the child was conceived or born. In a nutshell, it confirms that it shall also cover children born through surrogacy; and (ii) irrespective of the status of the persons asking to be recognized as the parents of the child, going as far as to the so-called “multi parenthood”, as explicitly mentioned in the voted proposals”.
Making assisted suicide legal for people with unbearable suffering would be unethical, according to a review of proposals for the Channel Island of Jersey.
The panel of medical law experts had “serious reservations” about allowing assisted dying (AD) on that ground, deeming the term too vague.
However, they said proposals for those with a terminal illness were “ethically appropriate”.
The review panel also looked at whether AD should be limited to Jersey residents, to avoid Jersey becoming a “suicide/death tourism” destination.
They said while an open regime might generate income and meet the needs of those who live where AD is illegal, “we suspect the case for restricting access to residents is stronger”.
Age eligibility was also considered, with the review concluding that AD should be restricted to adults.
But, it added, if AD for children is to be considered, the views of children themselves would need to be sought.
The report said healthcare professionals (HCPs) “should have the right to conscientiously object to direct participation in AD, not least because AD is a controversial practice, which does not serve the usual aims of medicine to heal/cure”.
Marriage is not and never was designed with women’s happiness in mind, says one Australian author who is urging women to avoid it altogether.
Clementine Ford says her new book, “I Don’t”, is “an excoriating critique of marriage and the lies that are told to keep women enlisting into its service”, adding that, “everything we’ve been told about marriage, from start to finish, is a diabolical deception”.
Describing marriage as a “cage”, she says when you peel back the layers of history and propaganda, “it’s impossible not to want to completely destroy this inherently misogynistic institution”.
“Marriage is an unsalvageable lie, designed to keep women in service to patriarchy and away from realising our full potential. We should reject it entirely, and refuse on principle to willingly add our names to a list built primarily on the backs of women who had no choice, no rights and no freedom,” she writes.
Speaking to Newstalk, she described the enduring appeal of marriage the result of a “PR campaign that has been run by the marriage industrial complex to make women want those things”.
A lack of security is impoverishing the Church in Nigeria, the bishop of Nigeria’s Sokoto Diocese said this week, noting that in the northern part of the country alone, more than 30 million naira (about €35,000) has been spent rescuing kidnapped priests, seminarians, and parish workers from Islamic militants.
Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah outlined the travails of his people in an interview with local media.
“We have had our churches burnt down, the killing of Deborah Emmanuel [a Nigerian Christian student who was murdered by a Muslim mob], our cathedral was almost burnt down, and my priests were almost killed,” Kukah said. “I have lost a seminarian, I’ve lost a priest; we have spent over 30 million naira, which we don’t have, to rescue our pastoral agents from kidnappers.”
The vocal bishop lamented the lack of support to cope with the situation in the embattled region, saying: “I cannot remember anybody from some part of Nigeria calling me to say ‘Bishop, we heard what has happened to you. What can we do, is there any way we can help, are you safe?’”
“We are all part of one body, when one part hurts, the rest of the body hurts, but we in northern Nigeria have the feeling that we are hurting alone,” said the 71-year-old bishop, who has been the local ordinary of Sokoto since 2011.
