The federal government of Nigeria should establish an interreligious commission to handle atrocities stemming from religious conflicts and persecution, says the Kukah Center.

The policy research institute is founded by Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of the Nigerian Catholic Diocese of Sokoto.

The recommendation comes at the end of a 32-page report detailing the latest incidents of kidnapping and violence aimed at the Christian community in Nigeria.

“Christians have been disproportionately targeted both in terms of marginalisation, exclusion, and physical violence,” says the report.

Many Christian communities are becoming “soft spots” for violent attacks because of the “government’s failure to nip the crisis in the bud,” the report says.

“Their susceptibility is worsened with an utter deprivation of basic amenities such as good access [to] roads, potable water, hospitals, schools, etc. Christians are subjected to the Sharia law, mob killings, forceful conversion to Islam, violent extremism, kidnappings, rape, child labor, human trafficking, and other human rights-related abuses. But the various arms and tiers of the government have shown complacency amid the increasing rate of these forms of violations against Christians.”

Surrogacy advocates have called on the Government to allow Irish parents to compensate surrogates financially when having children through surrogacy abroad.

The request to avoid blocking compensation being paid to surrogates was one of three concerns with the legislation raised by IFTS in advance of a Dáil debate on proposed legislation. The group also called for greater protection for Irish LGBTQ+ couples seeking to have children via surrogacy in the form of an amendment to the Government’s proposal of creating a green list of countries.

Sinn Féin politicians will not be given a free vote on potentially major changes to the existing abortion law, according to a report in the Irish Times.

This is despite their Justice Spokesperson, Kerry TD Pa Daly, having campaigned against removing the right to life for unborn children from the Constitution in 2018.

They previously suspended Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín, twice, for his consistent opposition to abortion. Carol Nolan also left the party over the issue.

By contrast, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that Fine Gael TDs will have a free vote on any changes to legislation, while it is understood Fianna Fáil TDs will also have a free vote.

A Sinn Féin spokesperson said: “Sinn Féin elected representatives are expected to respect policy decisions taken by the ardfheis and to vote in line with party policy.”

A Dutch judge has ordered a “mass sperm donor” who’s already fathered at least 550 children to stop donating.

The man donated sperm in the Netherlands and abroad, including to Danish sperm bank Cryos, but also offered his sperm up via online platforms.

He donated to at least 11 Dutch fertility clinics, which imposed a maximum of 25 children in 12 families per donor, while making false promises that he hadn’t offered his sperm elsewhere and wouldn’t do so in the future. In 2017, it was discovered that he’d already fathered 102 children via those clinics.

The judge ruled that the man “deliberately lied to get parents to pick him as a donor,” knowing full well that they wouldn’t have chosen him if they’d known how many children he’d already helped conceive.

The man claimed he was acting in the interests of prospective parents, who he wanted to help.

Thousands took part in the annual ‘March for Life’ in Dublin City Centre yesterday, which was organised by the Pro-Life Campaign (PLC).

This year’s march was being held in response to the “extreme” recommendations in the review of the State’s abortion law which was published last week.

PLC spokesperson, Eilís Mulroy told the gathering that the Review was so extreme and one-sided that it guaranteed that abortion is now an election issue.

Ms Mulroy described the report as a “travesty and betrayal of women and unborn babies” and criticised the way it “undermines freedom of conscience protections for healthcare workers” and for the way it “misleadingly presents abortion, which ends a human life, as healthcare.”

Aontú leader and TD for Meath West Peadar Tóibín told the crowd:  “The number of abortions jumped a devastating 25%, just in the last year. In the four years that the law has been in place nearly 28,500 babies have been aborted. It’s the equivalent of 1,228 classrooms for children. It is the equivalent to the population of Kilkenny City”.

Two in five couples who got married last year opted for a Catholic ceremony, figures from the Central Statistics Office show.

Among mixed-sex couples, Catholic ceremonies were chosen by 42pc (or 9,376), followed by a civil ceremony at 5,767 or 26pc.

The popularity of these two forms of ceremonies has been in decline since 2014, when they accounted for 87% of all marriage ceremonies.

Humanist ceremonies accounted for 9% or 2,053 of all opposite-sex marriages and 17% or 104 of all same-sex marriages in 2022.

Data showed there were 23,173 legal unions during 2022, a rise of 35 per cent on the previous year, when lockdowns and other Covid restrictions were still in force.

Pope Francis has spoken out strongly against abortion and gender ideology during a visit to Hungary, citing both as examples of “ideological colonisation” during a speech.

The pope’s denunciation came during an address to civil authorities and other dignitaries in which he lamented “self-referential forms of populism” and “supranationalism” gaining traction in Europe.

 “This is the baneful path taken by those forms of ‘ideological colonisation’ that would cancel differences, as in the case of the so-called gender theory, or that would place before the reality of life reductive concepts of freedom, for example by vaunting as progress a senseless ‘right to abortion’, which is always a tragic defeat,” said the Pope, who is in Budapest for a three-day visit.

“How much better it would be to build a Europe centred on the human person and on its peoples, with effective policies for natality and the family — policies that are pursued attentively in this country — a Europe whose different nations would form a single family that protects the growth and uniqueness of each of its members,” the Holy Father said.

Thousands of pro-life supporters are expected to attend the March For Life in Dublin, this Bank Holiday Monday.

The Pro Life Campaign (PLC) has organised the demonstration of support with participants due to march from St. Stephen’s Green to Leinster House.

Speaking ahead of the event, spokesperson Eilís Mulroy referenced the large number of abortions carried out last year and the Abortion Review’s proposals to liberalise the law even further.

She said the purpose of the March will be to start “the pushback against these extreme measures and to call for positive supports for women in unplanned pregnancy”.

Speakers will include Dr Kirsten Fuller who will speak about the challenges facing pro-life doctors and the importance of upholding conscientious objection.

Amrita Kaur will share her positive experience of taking the abortion pill reversal which saved the life of her unborn child.

Peadar Tóibín, TD and Leader of Aontú will speak on the importance of politics in determining the future of abortion policy and the need for more pro-life TDs.

The voices of people opposed to the introduction of assisted suicide must be fairly heard, the chair of an Oireachtas Committee discussing the topic has insisted.

Chairman of the Joint Committee on Assisted Dying, Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae, told The Irish Catholic newspaper that it is of “vital importance” that the Committee does its work “in an extremely fair fashion, and that everybody, whatever their viewpoint will get heard”.

Independent Senator Rónán Mullen, who’s also on the Committee, told The Irish Catholic that it’s his sense that Mr Healy-Rae is determined to be “scrupulously fair” as Committee chair, and that it is his hope that there will be a “greater freedom” to engage with and listen to those coming before the committee, “including those with expertise in working with people in end of life settings, those with expertise in palliative care settings and so on”.

Senator Mullen also welcomed the clarification from the Committee that it has full freedom to recommend against the introduction of assisted suicide if it sees fit.

A 5-year-old boy was reportedly beheaded when Islamists attacked a village in southern Kaduna State, Nigeria, leaving dozens of people dead.

In the April 15 attack, the killers descended on Runji village in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area (LGA) of southern Kaduna State, leaving 33 people dead, among them 14 children.

Condemning the attack in a Tuesday, April 18, report, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) called on the international community to put pressure on the Nigerian government to end the killing of innocent civilians in the West African country.

CSW’s press and public affairs team leader, Kiri Kankhwende, said he finds it regrettable that attacks continue on Nigerians in Kaduna and Benue States unabated as the international community does little to help.