Staff at the country’s largest Catholic university, Mary Immaculate College (MIC) in Limerick, say they feel “very much in the dark” over a process that could see them further subsumed into the University of Limerick (UL).

Fears have been expressed that any move on the future of the college could dilute the Catholic identity of the institution.

Correspondence obtained by The Irish Catholic reveals that MIC staff are concerned about a perceived lack of information over a proposed “structural alignment” with UL.

The move has been described as potentially “one of the most important strategic developments” in the college’s 125 year history by governing authority, including chairman Bishop Brendan Leahy.

Negotiations between the two institutions are ongoing, but “there is no formal record” as the negotiating teams agreed their meetings shouldn’t be minuted, according correspondence sent to members of the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) Mary Immaculate branch on May 3.

The alignment process – which Bishop Leahy has insisted would not be a merger – was announced to staff at a meeting in June 2022, but since then “staff remain very much in the dark”, the email says.

257 people were euthanized or assisted to suicide in the first year of the operation of New Zealand’s law enabling the practices.

Such deaths accounted for approximately 0.67% of all deaths in the country between 7 November 2021 and 6 November 2022.

23% more women than men applied for the procedures – 365 women and 296 men.

Only 6 of the 636 people assessed by a first medical practitioner or the 475 people assessed by a second medical practitioner for eligibility were referred to a psychiatrist, and each of these were confirmed as eligible other than one person who died before the assessment was completed.

The first annual report covered the period 7 November 2021 to 31 March 2022 and reported on 66 assisted deaths.

The method of administration of the lethal poison, and the number of deaths by each method were: ingestion, triggered by the person – 6; intravenous delivery, triggered by the person – 4; ingestion through a tube, triggered by the attending medical practitioner or an attending nurse practitioner – 0; and injection administered by the attending medical practitioner or an attending nurse practitioner – 56.

Alan Hynes of the Catholic Education Partnership (CEP) said schools under its purview will engage positively with the new curriculum, “recognising that SPHE is an important part of a holistic education, contributing to the wellbeing of our young people”.

“Catholic schools will seek to propose the Catholic perspective on the full range of the curriculum, in dialogue and encounter with other points of view.

“CEP will shortly be publishing a draft relationship and sexuality education resource for use in Junior Cycle.  This resource complements and is in line with the NCCA’s specification and will assist Catholic schools in proposing the Catholic view on RSE in a confident and positive manner, while inviting students to engage critically with Catholic teaching and other world-views”, Mr Hynes said.

In 2022, a near-majority of Hispanic Catholics, or 47 percent, reported attending religious services at least a few times each year, down from 65 percent in 2019. For white Catholics, the drop was even sharper, down to 45 percent in 2022 from 73 percent just three years earlier.

Less than half of all Americans, 43 percent, said they attended services at least a few times each year, down from 54 percent in 2019.

The findings were made public Tuesday in a new report from the Public Religion Research Institute.

80 percent of white Catholics and 81 percent of Hispanic Catholics said they are “optimistic about the future of their church.” Similarly high rates of both groups reported they are proud to say they are associated with their church and are happy with their church leadership.

The report is based on a 2022 online survey of 5,872 people, including 916 white Catholics and 305 Hispanic Catholics.

Russia has shut down an evangelical Christian church in Ukraine, marking Moscow’s latest move in a “persecution campaign” against Ukrainian evangelicals, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

The U.S.-based think tank said in an assessment published on Tuesday that Russian forces reportedly seizing the Ukrainian Christian Evangelical Church of the Holy Trinity in Mariupol was likely “part of a wider systematic religious persecution campaign in occupied Ukraine.”

Petro Andryushchenko, adviser to Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko, said in a Telegram post on Monday that from 10 to 30 Russian troops were occupying the church after expelling clergy.

Andryushchenko said the Russian occupiers had targeted the church at least in part because it provided a “human shield” for troops, located only five meters from occupied residential buildings.

According to ISW, the “Russian occupation officials most commonly persecute members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Protestants, particularly evangelical Baptists.” The think tank said two-thirds of “reported religious repression events in occupied Mariupol” targeted Protestants.

The Government have come under fire as more evidence was published last week showing the link between children watching porn and sexual violence.

The Children’s Commissioner for England said “frequent users of pornography were also more likely to have real-life experience of an aggressive or degrading sex act”.

Commissioner Rachel de Souza found “references to specific acts of sexual violence commonly seen in pornography in half of the interviews carried out following these cases of sexual abuse”.

“I am clear that children should not be able to access pornography, and my office’s work in this space continues to demonstrate the harm it can cause to children and young people”.

Commenting on the matter, Aontu’s Peader Toibin said the report is clear that pornography is fuelling sexual violence against women and the increase in children sexually abusing other children.

Aontú has introduced a Bill that would make it illegal for Internet Service Providers to provide hard core pornography to children. But, he said, the FF/FG/Green government refused to help the bill proceed through the Dáil.

“Indeed rather than any effort to stop the supply of hard core pornography to children the government seeks to deliver classes to children in school on the topic. While education is important, its reckless of the government to make no effort to protect children”.

Leading Israeli rabbis and Catholic Church leaders have signed a joint declaration on the ethics of treating the terminally ill, rejecting assisted suicide and euthanasia, while also advocating for improved palliative care.

“For both Jews and Christians, taking care of the terminally ill with belief, respect, and love means truly to light the lamp of faith and hope at a time shrouded in darkness and a sense of solitude and abandonment for both patient and dear ones,” they said in a joint declaration at the conclusion of a recent gathering in Jerusalem.

The delegations from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with Jews met in Jerusalem May 2–4 for their 17th bilateral meeting.

A teacher in the UK was encouraged to share his Christian beliefs at a seminar – then dismissed for ‘hate speech’.

Ben Dybowski, 55, was urged to give his views during a training course delivered by a Left-wing charity to reduce ‘unconscious bias’ among teachers.

During the ‘diversity and inclusion’ discussion about how to avoid offending pupils, teaching assistant Mr Dybowski challenged the group over whether his Christian beliefs were considered discriminatory.

He told them that he believed marriage was between a man and a woman, that life began at conception and that he was opposed to some aspects of sharia law such as the stoning of men for homosexuality.

Next morning he said he was summoned before headmaster Marc Belli, then ejected from The Bishop of Llandaff Church in Wales school, near Cardiff.

He said this was despite Mr Belli saying privately he shared many of the same Christian values.

The Irish Catholic Bishops have released a pastoral letter encouraging a “change of narrative” about abortion as the Government seeks to further liberalise the already radical law.

They say they remain convinced that the 2018 Abortion Act will be repealed in due course and they promised “to encourage a greater political acceptance that abortion is not the solution to a crisis pregnancy”.

Regarding the recent Abortion Review, they “strongly oppose” dropping the 3-day waiting period and called on the Government to instead be “proactive in proposing alternatives to abortion, which would both support women and protect babies”.

They called attention to the Review’s controversial proposal that provision of abortion should feature as a mandatory requirement in contracts of employment, calling it a “shocking” proposal.

“Freedom of conscience is a fundamental human right and cannot simply be over-ridden in this way.  We totally reject the suggestion that healthcare professionals who respect the right to life would be excluded from practicing in maternity care, or from obstetrics and gynaecology generally”.

They finished by re-iterating their belief that all human life is sacred, and pledged to “change the narrative through dialogue and by testifying, in season and out of season, to the Gospel of Life.”

https://www.catholicbishops.ie/2023/05/14/bishops-message-encourages-parishioners-to-change-the-narrative-around-abortion/

Two independent Senators have sought clarification from Minister for Justice Simon Harris about the definition of gender in the new hate speech legislation.

The Bill says ‘Gender’ means the person’s preferred gender or that “with which the person identifies and includes transgender and a gender other than those of male and female…”

Senator and former attorney general Michael McDowell asked why it is different from the Gender Recognition Act, which he says has a binary definition of gender as either male or female.

“The purpose of this letter is, in advance of the second stage debate in the Seanad, to obtain absolute clarity as to what you as proposer of the Bill intend these terms to mean. In particular, I must ask the following questions: a) Is transgender a gender for the purposes of Irish law? And b) Can you specify what is meant, in addition to transgender, by ‘any gender other than those of male and female’?”, he wrote.

Meanwhile, Independent Senator Ronan Mullen accused the Government of “smuggling a radical new definition of gender into an already controversial hate speech law”.