News Roundup

There is no peace without religious freedom, says Pope Francis

Pope Francis has decried the fact that in many countries with a Christian majority the universal right to religious freedom is attacked.

“There can be no peace without religious freedom”, he said.

In his annual address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, he remarked, “it is worrying that people are persecuted simply because they publicly profess their faith, and in many countries religious freedom is limited. About one-third of the world’s population lives in such conditions”.

This conclusion coincides with data from the latest report on “Religious Freedom in the World” published by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), which found that 62 countries out of 196 have very serious violations of religious freedom.

The Holy Father stressed that Christians are particularly affected by religious persecution. “Alongside the lack of religious freedom, there is also persecution for religious reasons. I cannot fail to mention, as certain statistics show, that one in seven Christians suffers persecution.”

However, Francis continued, there are also problems in countries where Christians are in the majority and should therefore be safe from intolerance. “We must not overlook the fact that violence and acts of discrimination against Christians are also increasing in countries where the latter are not a minority.

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China’s population falls for first time since 1961

China’s population has fallen for the first time in more than 60 years, with the national birth rate hitting a record low – 6.77 births per 1,000 people.

The population in 2022 – 1.4118 billion – fell by 850,000 from 2021.

China’s birth rate has been declining for years, prompting a slew of policies to try to slow the trend.

But seven years after scrapping the one-child policy, it has entered what one official described as an “era of negative population growth”. The whole of East Asia has below replacement level fertility rates.

The birth rate in 2022 was also down from 7.52 in 2021, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, which released the figures on Tuesday.

China’s population trends over the years have been largely shaped by the controversial one-child policy, which was introduced in 1979 to slow population growth. Families that violated the rules were fined or lost jobs, forced onto contraception or even made to have abortions.. In a culture that historically favours boys over girls, the policy had also led to forced abortions and a reportedly skewed gender ratio from the 1980s.

The population fell in 1961 because of the ‘Great Leap Forward’ policy which caused mass famine.

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Catholic priest burnt to death in Nigeria

A Catholic priest burnt to death on Sunday after ‘bandits’ set fire to his parish rectory in predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria. There have been numerous attacks on Christians in the region.

The body of Father Isaac Achi was found among the charred parish building of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church yesterday, according to the Catholic Diocese of Minna, Nigeria.

He died after armed bandits attacked the priest’s residence in the village of Kafin Koro at 3 a.m. Another priest at the rectory, Father Collins Omeh, escaped the building, but sustained gunshot wounds and is being treated in a hospital.

Alhaji Sani Bello Abubakar, the governor of the Nigerian state of Niger where the attack took place, described the attack as “ungodly and inhumane” and directed the local security agencies to pursue the attackers, according to The Daily Post.

“This is a sad moment, for a priest to be killed in such a manner means that we are not all safe, these terrorists have lost it, and drastic action is needed to end this ongoing carnage,” Bello said.

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Court order to remove Virgin Mary statue is ‘ridiculous’

A French court has been slammed by a town Mayor after it ordered the removal of a statue of the Virgin Mary.

The statue is located at a crossroads in La Flotte, a municipality of 2,800 inhabitants on the popular holiday island Ile-de-Re, off France’s Atlantic coast.

The statue was erected by a local family after World War II in gratitude for a father and son having returned from the conflict alive.

Its initial home was a private garden, but the family later donated it to the town which set it up at the crossroads in 1983.

In 2020, it was damaged by a passing car, and the local authorities decided to restore the statue and put it back in the same place, but this time on an elevated platform.

That move triggered a legal complaint by an association dedicated to secularity, on the basis that a French law dating back to 1905 forbids religious monuments in public spaces.

A court in Poitiers followed the argument as did, on appeal, the regional court in Bordeaux, ordering La Flotte to remove the statue, according to a statement.

Local mayor Jean-Paul Heraudeau called the discussion around the statue “ridiculous” because, he said, it was part of the town’s “historical heritage” and should be considered “more of a memorial than a religious statue”.

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Religion leads to even greater well-being than previously thought, research reveals

Studies showing the profoundly positive impact of religion on people’s lives may have underestimated its benefits by not distinguishing those who are more committed from those who are less so.

New research from the Institute of Family Studies shows the full benefits of religion are experienced by those who actively engage in home-centered religious practices, in addition to regularly attending religious services.

For example, individuals with a home prayer life in addition to church attendance are significantly more likely to report high levels of life meaning and happiness in their lives. Specifically, “Home Worshippers” are nearly twice as likely as their less-religious peers, and more than four times more likely than ‘Seculars’ to report a frequent sense of meaning and purpose in their lives.

The researchers also found an increase in reported life happiness with each dosage category of religious involvement. Home Worshipers are significantly more likely to report high levels of happiness than are Attenders, Nominals, or Seculars.

The study also found that women and men across the globe who live the Home Worshiper lifestyle are significantly more likely to report having a highly satisfying and stable marriage relationship than less religious or nonreligious individuals.

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Refusing transgender procedure is ‘discrimination’, judge tells Catholic hospital

A federal judge has ruled that a Catholic hospital in the US state of Maryland ‘discriminated’ against a transgender patient by refusing a request for a hysterectomy as part of a gender transition. Catholic bioethics rule out removing healthy organs or body parts for non-medical reasons.

Officials at St. Joseph Medical Center, which is owned by the University of Maryland, refused to proceed with a hysterectomy scheduled for patient Jesse Hammons, 33, a transgender man.

Hammons, who is biologically female, brought the suit after the hospital said they could not perform the surgery due to guidelines set  by the National Catholic Bioethics Center.

U.S. District Court Judge Deborah Chasanow the hospital’s refusal to provide the patient with the ‘gender-affirming’ surgery was ‘discriminatory.’ The procedure is widely available in non-Catholic hospitals in the US.
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Birth rates slump again in Finland

Finland’s Covid-era baby boom appears to have been short-lived, according to Statistics Finland.

Unlike in many other countries, the birth rate began to rise in Finland during the coronavirus pandemic. But figures now suggest that Finland’s total fertility rate may have fallen to an all-time low last year—1.33— according to Johanna Lahtela, a senior statistician at the number crunching agency.

Between January and November of last year, 42,500 babies were born, which is some 4,300 fewer births than during the same period in 2021.

In 2010, the country’s fertility rate was 1.87 children per woman but in 2019 the ratio dropped to 1.35. However, a slight but brief uptick, partially attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic, was noted after 2019. Now early figures suggest that last year’s rate dropped to 1.33. The agency will publish final figures for 2022 in April.

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Dáil attacks on Church are leading to violence – TDs warn

Verbal attacks against the Catholic Church in the Dáil are inciting violent incidents targeting churches and parishioners Irish politicians have claimed, adding that the Republic of Ireland is for very many Catholics now “a cold house where they feel they have to hide their faith”.

The comments come in the wake of an arson attack on a church in Kerry and the violent disruption of a Mass at an Augustinian church in Cork.

Leader of Aontú Peadar Tóibín decried the “absolutely shocking” events, saying they don’t happen accidentally.

“There is hardly a day in Leinster House or in the media that there isn’t some kind of verbal attack or casual slur on the Catholic Church,” the Meath West TD told The Irish Catholic.

Michael Collins TD of Cork South-West described the recent attacks as “scandalous”, and that certain politicians in the Dáil are “ranting rather than talking” about the Church.

Clare TD Michael McNamara said there are regular attacks against the Church by TDs “in the name of tolerance”.

“We all need to be careful of our rhetoric. Just because you believe you are right does not make it correct to engage in vociferous condemnation,” Mr McNamara said.

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Diocese approves Catholic primary school becoming multi-denominational

A 290-pupil Catholic primary school is changing ethos to turn multi-denominational as part of the Department of Education’s diversity process and with the approval of the local diocese.

Cornamaddy NS in Athlone, Co Westmeath will become a community national school under the auspices of Longford and Westmeath Education and Training Board (LWETB). Athlone is in the diocese of Ardagh & Clonmacnois.

It follows months of discussions within the school community, with the assistance of a department-appointed facilitator.

Following engagement with the school community, it is up to the bishop formally to decide whether or not to go ahead with a proposed transfer and to advise the Department.

The department announced Thursday that the local bishop had notified the department of his intention to transfer patronage of the school under the Schools Reconfiguration for Diversity Process.

Education Minister Norma Foley said she was “delighted that this transfer of patronage will increase diversity of provision in the area and that there will be a multi-denominational primary school option for parents in Athlone.”

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Plummeting birth-rate creating a demographic winter, say Pope

Pope Francis has warned again about a coming ‘demographic winter’ in Europe.

Speaking yesterday to the Vatican’s Diplomatic Corps, he stated: “Tragically, we increasingly witness the emergence of a ‘fear’ of life, which translates in many places into a fear of the future and a difficulty in creating families and bringing children into the world. In some contexts, I think for example of Italy, there is a dangerous fall in the birth-rate, a veritable demographic winter, which endangers the very future of society.”

Responding to his comments, Vincenzo Bassi, President of the Federation of Catholic Family Associations. said: “The demographic issue concerns all, and it is appropriate, as well as necessary, to create institutional exchanges at the European and international level with the aim of promoting a new demographic spring”.

He added: “Family policies are a direct competence of every State. But this does not prevent them from taking initiatives by mutual agreement, across political alignments, for the exchange of good practices and for the promotion of family-friendly policies”.

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