Cincinnati, Ohio, Jul 11, 2019 / 12:42 am (CNA).- A recently introduced bill in Ohio would add scientific information about the development of the unborn child to the state’s public and charter school curriculum.
HB 90, known as the “Human… […]
Steadily they walked, well-dressed, serious, each carrying a staff or a lit candle about a meter long, even the children. Over the two hours or so that we watched, there were hundreds of them—men and […]
Indianapolis, Ind., Jul 10, 2019 / 02:05 pm (CNA).- A teacher at a Catholic school in Indianapolis whose contract was terminated due to his same-sex marriage is suing the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, one day after […]
Moscow, Russia, Jul 10, 2019 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- The Russian Orthodox Church is debating an end to the practice of blessing large scale weapons, including nuclear missiles.
Last month, a committee on ecclesial law met in Moscow and recommended en… […]
London, England, Jul 10, 2019 / 03:18 pm (CNA).- The British parliament voted Tuesday to legalize same-sex marriage and abortion in Northern Ireland – a vote that will take effect only if the region’s own legislature is not functional by Oct. 21.
British MPs voted 383-73 July 9 to add same-sex marriage as an amendment to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill, which is designed to keep the region running in the absence of a functioning government.
The vote on an amendment liberalizing abortion provision in the region passed by a vote of 332 to 99.
Both amendments were introduced by Labour MPs.
Northern Ireland has its own Assembly, but it has been suspended for the past two years due to a dispute between the two major governing parties. The Democratic Unionist Party, the largest party, is opposed to changing the law. Sinn Féin, another prominent party in Northern Ireland, backs a liberalization of the abortion law.
British prime minister Theresa May has said in the past that abortion should be a devolved issue for Northern Ireland.
Abortion and same-sex marriage are both legal in both the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Elective abortion is legal in the rest of the United Kingdom up to 24 weeks, while currently it is legally permitted in Northern Ireland only if the mother’s life is at risk or if there is risk of permanent, serious damage to her mental or physical health.
Ahead of the vote in Westminster, Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh said that he is “deeply concerned by suggestions that amendments are being considered to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill … which will hijack this Bill to remove existing legal protection for unborn babies and to ‘fast track’ the legalisation of abortion on demand in Northern Ireland. How tragic it is for humanity that some legislators would ‘fast track’ the ending of the lives of the most defenceless in our society.”
Archbishop Martin added that “it is urgent to restore an executive in Northern Ireland, so that the common good of all our people can be served. There is something particularly cynical, however, in taking advantage of the present political crisis to remove the right to life of the most vulnerable of our people; the unborn baby. The common good cannot be served in this way.”
Bishop Noel Treanor of Down and Connor urged similar action, asking July 6 that people contact their MP “to register their objection to this undemocratic process.”
Bills to legalize abortion in cases of fatal fetal abnormality, rape, or incest failed in the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2016.
Clare McCarthy, a Right to Life UK spokesperson, said July 8 that Northern Ireland’s abortion law “should be a decision for the people of Northern Ireland and their elected representatives” and that it is “inappropriate to bring forward abortion amendment to a Bill which has nothing to do with abortion in any way.”
Northern Irish women have been able to procure free National Health Service abortions in England, Scotland, and Wales since November 2017.
In June 2018, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission challenged the region’s abortion laws in the UK Supreme Court. While the Supreme Court concluded that Northern Ireland’s abortion laws violated human rights law by banning abortion in cases of fatal fetal abnormality, rape, and incest, it threw out the case saying it had not been brought forward by a person who had been wrongfully harmed by the law.
An amendment to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill that would block a no-deal Brexit was defeated.
The bill next faces a second reading in the House of Lords.
Canberra, Australia, Jul 10, 2019 / 01:19 pm (CNA).- The religious discrimination bill proposed by Australia’s coalition government is being well received generally, though some conservative members of parliament have asked instead for a religious freedom bill.
The religious discrimination bill would make it unlawful to discriminate against people on the ground of their religious belief or activity; establish a religious freedom commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission; and amend existing laws regarding religious freedom, including marriage and charities law, and objects clauses in anti-discrimination law.
The government wants to make religious belief and activity a protected class, like race or sex. It also hopes to ensure that groups rejecting same-sex marriage are not stripped of their charitable status.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said July 9 that “of course we will do what we need to do from a legislative point of view,” but “what all that boils down to is the culture in this country. It’s not the laws that make freedom of religion work, it’s the culture that accepts it.”
Morrison’s coalition government is led by the Liberal Party, which is joined by the National Party. The opposition Australian Labor Party is expected to back the bill.
Coalition MPs were briefed on the bill by attorney-general Christian Porter July 5.
Afterwards, Porter told Guardian Australia that “a bill like this would provide a very powerful avenue for someone who believed that a general rule in their employment especially disadvantaged them because of their religion, to argue that that rule was contrary to the act and unfair.”
He said the bill “provides an avenue for people who think a rule in their employment has unfairly disadvantaged them or led to their termination unfairly because of their religion, provides an avenue for complaint and potentially redress in those circumstances, and so it goes a long way to protect people from being discriminated against in the context of their employment.”
Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, of the Liberal Party, voiced concerns July 9 that the bill does not go far enough, saying it “would be defensive in nature and limited to protecting against acts and practices by others which are discriminatory on the grounds of religion.”
She said that “quiet Australians now expect the Coalition to legislate to protect their religious freedom.”
Porter made a case for the superiority of a religious discrimination bill over a religious freedom bill.
“As soon as you say, ‘Here is a bill that says everyone has a right to freedom of speech, everyone has got a right to freedom of association, to freedom of religion’ they all start competing with each other, and eventually you get the circumstance that you have got in America where the highest court in the land decides what is more important: the right to free choice or the right to life, and then the decisions around how the boundaries on really, really sensitive public policy decisions are made get made by courts,” the attorney-general stated.
Senator Pauline Hanson, of the One Nation Party, expressed concern on Facebook July 9 that “the government may be creating a pathway for extremists to practice polygamy, genital mutilation, or even under-aged marriage.”
One Nation, an Australian nationalist party, is a crossbench party with two seats in the country’s 76-member Senate. It does not have a member in the House of Representatives.
“Many people, including myself, are concerned about the rights of Australians who practice a legitimate religious faith,” Hanson said. “But what do we do when a belief clashes with the laws and customs of our land?”
The religious discrimination bill is being introduced to implement a commitment made in the 2019 federal election.
A review of religious freedom in Australia was finished in May 2018, making 20 recommendations; among these was a Religious Discrimination Bill.
The government has asked the Australian Law Reform Commission to report on how to balance competing claims of religious freedom rights and LGBT rights.
Australia has seen debate over religious freedom in recent years with respect to the seal of the confessional, hiring decisions, and same-sex marriage.
When same-sex marriage was legalized in Australia in 2017, efforts to include amendments that would protect religious freedom failed during parliamentary debate.
Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney noted last year that “we cannot take the freedom to hold and practice our beliefs for granted, even here in Australia,” and that “powerful interests now seek to marginalize religious believers and beliefs, especially Christian ones, and exclude them from public life. They would end funding to faith-based schools, hospitals and welfare agencies, strip us of charitable status and protections.”
Louisville, Ky., Jul 10, 2019 / 12:15 pm (CNA).- Archbishop Joseph Kurtz requested prayers Wednesday as he announced that he has been diagnosed with bladder cancer and will soon undergo treatment. The Archbishop of Louisville announced he wil… […]
Editor’s note. The following homily was preached by the Reverend Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Ph.D., S.T.D., on July 10, 2019, at the Church of the Holy Innocents, New York City. Let’s check your grasp of […]
Ten years ago, a friend and colleague suggested that I write “The Great Vatican Novel.” I quickly declined, not just because the truth about life behind the Leonine Wall is often stranger than fiction (and […]
Vatican City, Jul 10, 2019 / 10:06 am (CNA).- Authorities will open two tombs in a cemetery on Vatican property Thursday in order to perform testing in connection with the unsolved disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi in June 1983.
Orlandi was the daughter of an envoy of the Prefecture of the Pontifical House and a citizen of Vatican City State. Her disappearance has been the subject of international intrigue, including suspicion about the Vatican’s role, since it occurred. After multiple investigations, Orlandi’s case was closed in 2016.
The exhumation of the tombs in the cemetery of the Teutonic College, located on Vatican extra-territorial property adjacent to Vatican City State, was authorized after a request by Orlandi’s family.
According to Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, the mother and brother of Orlandi requested the tombs be opened after receiving an anonymous message claiming the graves near a large statue of a pointing angel could contain clues to the 15-year-old girl’s disappearance.
Interim director of the Holy See press office, Alessandro Gisotti, stated last week the exhumation will take place July 11 in the presence of the case’s lawyers and Orlandi’s relatives and the relatives of the people buried in the graves concerned.
The opening of the tombs will be overseen by a forensic anthropologist and by the Vatican gendarmerie. Gisotti said that as the Vatican has no jurisdiction over the investigation of Orlandi’s case, the exhumation and forensic and DNA testing will be performed only in order to determine if Orlandi’s body was buried on Vatican property.
Speculation about Orlandi’s disappearance reignited last October when human bone fragments were discovered during the renovation of a building connected to the Holy See’s nunciature in Rome, though DNA testing found the remains to be from a male who died sometime between the 1st and 3rd centuries.
The tombs to be opened are those of Princess Sophie von Hohenlohe, who died in 1836, and Princess Carlotta Federica of Mecklenburg, who died in 1840.
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