Europe

London, England, Jul 15, 2019 / 02:42 pm (CNA).- As the British parliament continues to consider a bill on Northern Ireland including amendments that would legalize abortion and same-sex marriage, a peeress from the region has warned the amendments are “not workable.”

The bill and its amendments will take effect only if the Northern Ireland Assembly, which has been suspended the past two years due to a dispute between the two major governing parties, is not functional by Oct. 21.

Last week the House of Commons voted to add amendments legalizing same-sex marriage and liberalizing abortion provision in Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill, which is designed to keep the region running in the absence of a functioning devolved government.

Thence the bill passed to the House of Lords, where it is now at the committee stage. It will remain in the upper house until July 17, when it will return to the House of Commons for amendments.

Nuala O’Loan, Baroness O’Loan, a member of the House of Lords from Northern Ireland, told BBC News NI July 15 that the amendments cannot work, and that it is wrong of the British government to “push it through in a situation where the people of Northern Ireland had no say.”

O’Loan said members of parliament had “hijacked” the Northern Ireland bill: “This was a bill that started its life in Parliament with the intention of allowing the secretary of state to postpone the date for an election… to enable the talks which are currently under way to restore the Northern Ireland Assembly to proceed. What happened was it was hijacked in the Commons… various amendments were put in and these should not have been accepted because they were outside the purpose of the bill.”

She added that the amendments don’t work, because “it says the secretary of state must make regulations – the secretary of state can’t.”

Introducing the bill into the House of Lords July 10, Ian Duncan, Baron Duncan of Springbank, said that “crucially, the amendments as drafted do not function properly and so do not enable the government to deliver on the instruction of Parliament.”

Similarly, John Larkin, attorney general for Northern Ireland, said the abortion amendment was not “drafted clearly or consistently” with human rights laws.

O’Loan noted that “100% of the Northern Ireland MPs who have taken their seat in Westminster voted against this.”

A letter opposing the bill was distributed at Masses held in Northern Ireland July 14. Authored by O’Loan and Robin Eames, who was the Church of Ireland’s Archbishop of Armagh from 1986 to 2006, it focused on the bill’s threat to devolution.

Addressed to British prime minister Theresa May, it said the overwhelming vote in the Commons “treats the people of Northern Ireland with contempt,” especially it was “voted for only by MPs who do not represent constituencies in Northern Ireland.”

May has said in the past that abortion should be a devolved issue for Northern Ireland.

The letter stated, “The imposition of this legislation on Northern Ireland in its current form … would represent a massive democratic deficit.”

It adds that the bill “has the capacity to undermine the delicate political calibration between Northern Ireland and Westminster and to cause significant damage to attempts to restore the Northern Ireland Assembly.”

O’Loan and Eames called on the government to withdraw the  Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill.

Failing this, they called for an amendment they introduced which would require public consultation and the support of a majority of members of the Northern Ireland Assembly before any change in the region’s legislation.

Bills to legalize abortion in cases of fatal fetal abnormality, rape, or incest failed in the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2016.

Both amendments to the were introduced by Labour MPs.

Stella Creasy, who represents a London constituency and who introduced the abortion amendment, has said the Commons “spoke clearly to say we wouldn’t accept the rights of women in Northern Ireland being ignored any longer”.

Earlier this year Creasy intended to propose an amendment to a draft Domestic Abuse Bill that would give the British parliament jurisdiction over abortion laws throughout the United Kingdom. However, the bill’s scope was restricted to England and Wales by the Conservative government.

She also introduced an amendment to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation and Exercise of Functions) Act 2018 to repeal Northern Irish law on abortion and gay marriage, which was defeated.

Ahead of last week’s vote in the Commons, Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh registered his deep concern that the bill would be hijacked “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.”

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.

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.

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Paris, France, Jul 11, 2019 / 07:01 pm (CNA).- Vandalism, theft, arson and other increasing attacks on churches in France have led to debates about their causes, amid shock to the community, questions bout the perpetrators, and debates over what the attacks might mean about French culture and the place of Christianity.

“Those downplaying the vandalism, which include most leading newspapers and politicians, point to evidence that the attacks are the small-bore crimes of small-time miscreants. Those concerned that the attacks pose a more serious threat expressly dismiss that perspective,” American journalist and author Richard Bernstein has said in an essay for RealClearInvestigations titled “Anti-Christian Attacks in France Quietly Quadrupled. Why?”

Bernstein sees merit in both perspectives, putting them in the context of pressing French questions about populism, national identity, immigration, tradition, authority, and power.

At the same time, he acknowledges the deep concern of Christian communities which suffer such attacks and vandalism, even when they are not “hate crimes” properly speaking.

“Still, even if many anti-Christian acts are not hate crimes intended to intimidate a community of believers, the fact is that there are a large number of attacks on Christian sites that are sacred to many people,” he said. “Communities are shocked and made to feel vulnerable, in part by the sense that the incidents have proliferated so dramatically over the past few years, and they are taking place in virtually every corner of France: urban and rural areas, large towns and small villages alike.”

The Conference of French Bishops said there were 228 “violent anti-Christian acts” from January to March 2019.

In 2018, French police reported 129 thefts and 877 incidents of vandalism at Catholic sites, mostly churches and cemeteries. The French Minister of the Interior counted slightly fewer numbers of anti-Christian incidents that year.

Such attacks quadrupled in number from 2008 to 2019.

While France has suffered more attacks than any other country in Europe, their numbers have increased across Europe.

Some leaders downplay the attacks.

“We do not want to develop a discourse of persecution,” Archbishop Georges Pontier of Marseile, the head of the French Bishops Conference, told the magazine Le Point. “We do not wish to complain.”

In June vandals toppled more than 100 tombstones in the main Catholic cemetery in Toulouse. The incident received little national press coverage, but locals too did not want to give it attention.

In Normandy in 2016, two men who professed allegiance to the Islamic State group murdered Father Jacques Hamel while he was celebrating Mass. That same year in Paris, police thwarted Muslim extremists who attempted to blow up a car near the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. Some feared anti-Christian sentiment was behind another Islamic State group sympathizer’s gun and knife attack on a Christmas market in Strasbourg in 2018.

The backdrop of these and other major terrorist incidents have heightened fears that Christians would be more directly targeted.

The April 15 fire at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame shocked the world as the 19th-century roof and spire were destroyed, though the structure was saved from collapse.

As soon as the fire was reported, social media influencers and others with no presence on the scene spread speculation, rumors and even hoaxes claiming that the fire was an act of terrorism. Anonymous internet accounts as well as right-wing activists, nationalists, and white supremacists used the event to fan anti-Muslim sentiment, NBC News reported in April.

In June investigators said they had been unable to determine the cause and there was no evidence the fire was intentional. They said they would consider the possibility of negligence, including electrical malfunction or a poorly extinguished cigarette, as a cause for the fire.

Vandalism and attacks on Christian churches often appear to lack any organized coordination or shared motives.

Earlier this year, when six churches were set on fire or vandalized in one week, the perpetrators of one incident were two youths. The perpetrator in another was a 35-year-old homeless man.

Of identified perpetrators of anti-Christian attacks, more than 60 percent are minors. Many perpetrators “appear to be disaffected young people, or the psychologically disturbed or homeless, rather than members of organized groups advancing a political agenda,” Bernstein said.

“Virtually none of the reported attacks have been against people; they are all against buildings, cemeteries or other physical objects,” he added.

About 60% of vandalism incidents involved graffiti like satanic inscriptions, anarchist symbols, swastikas, or nationalist or neo-Nazi slogans. In Bernstein’s view, this “would seem to represent a kind of ugly desperate social fringe than a general growth of anti-Christian hatred.”

For Bernstein, the evidence shows attacks by Muslims “account for a small fraction of anti-Christian crimes.”

The French government itself downplays anti-Christian actions for fear of stoking anti-Muslim reaction and retaliation, though there have not been any known incidents of retaliation.

While some commentators wonder why attacks on other groups draw more attention than attacks on Christians, Bernstein attributes this to the relative historical security of Catholics, especially in comparisons to Jews who were persecuted by French collaborators with Nazis in the Second World War.

Philosopher and cultural commentator Pierre Manent suggested that many churches are targets of opportunity, telling Bernstein, “This vandalism is drawn to Christian sites because they’re less defended and present little risk, and there are a lot of them.”

Church attendance has declined and the scandals about sexual abuse of young people and children by clergy make the Church “seem a weak and easy target,” Bernstein said.

Jean-Francois Colosimo, a historian and theologian who is general director of the Editions du Cerf publishing house, said it is not “Christianophobia” but “a loss of the sense of the sacred” that is to blame.

Bernstein’s essay cited an attack in the southwest France town of Lauvar. Two teenage boys sneaked into the town’s 700-year-old Cathedral of St. Alain, set the altar on fire, turned a crucifix upside down, threw another crucifix into the nearby river, and deformed a statue of Christ.

Mayor of Lauvar Bernard Carayon told Bernstein the attack was far different than misbehavior like bathroom graffiti. He blamed “Christianophobia.”

“The two boys who set fire to the altar and defaced the statue of Christ weren’t just drunk; they carried out their attack purposefully, taking their time, and then, after they left to tell their friends what they’d done, they went back inside, no doubt to check the results,” the mayor said, contending that the Catholic Church had wrongly prioritized inter-religious dialogue and working “to avoid conflict.”

There has been vandalism and theft at the church, its pastor, Father Joseph Dequick said, but the police do not distinguish which is which. This means it is difficult to distinguish criminal theft from vandalism based in hostility to the Church.

“But when somebody turns a cross upside down, that’s an anti-Christian expression,” he said. “That represents a society that no longer transmits respect for values. It’s a loss of the sense of the sacred. It’s consumerism. Young people can do whatever they want now, have whatever they want. Where are the limits? Where are the parents?”

According to the priest, professions of atheism are fashionable and there is “a mood against the Church, against faith”

“The media are anti-Catholic. There a discourse against the Church. In France, in particular, there’s an anti-clerical feeling that goes back a long time,” the priest told Bernstein. “It’s not so much a religious argument as a political one. It’s a reaction against the moral limitations that the Church represents.”

Manent told Bernstein there is a cultural attitude that the Church is “an obstacle to contemporary life,” and this attitude “nourishes a certain hostility.”

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Rome, Italy, Jul 11, 2019 / 05:45 am (CNA).- Before St. Benedict left for Subiaco, he studied in Rome, where today there is a little-known chapel built on the site believed to be his former residence.

Locals are celebrating St. Benedict’s July 1… […]

Reims, France, Jul 11, 2019 / 03:34 am (CNA).- Vincent Lambert, a 42 year-old quadriplegic man, died in a French hospital Thursday morning, 9 days after doctors withdrew his food and water.

“Vincent died at 8:24 this morning,” Lambert’s nephew, Francois Lambert, told AFP News Agency.

Lambert died July 11 at University Hospital in the northern French city of Reims, where doctors had withdrawn his water and feeding tubes more than one week before. Lambert had been under what his doctors called “profound and continuous sedation” since then.

The Vatican issued a statement Thursday, noting sadness over the news of Lambert’s death.

“We pray that the Lord will welcome him into his house and we express closeness to his loved ones and to those who, up to the last, have committed themselves to assist him with love and dedication,” said Alessandro Gisotti, interim director of the Holy See press office.

Gisotti also recalled the April 2018 words of Pope Francis, when in reference to Lambert’s case, he said: “God is the only master of life from the beginning to the natural end and it is our duty to always guard it and not yield to the culture of waste.”

Vincent Lambert was a quadriplegic and severely disabled for more than 10 years, after he sustained severe head injuries in a 2008 traffic accident.

After the accident, Lambert became the center of a protracted court battle over whether to have his food and hydration removed. Lambert’s wife and six of his eight siblings supported the removal of life support, while his parents, reported to be devout Catholics, fought against it. His wife said Lambert had told her he would not want to be kept alive if in a “vegetative state,” but this was never put in writing.

Several media outlets reported that Lambert “wept” when his family informed him of the doctors’ intentions to remove food and water last week.

“It’s murder in disguise, it’s euthanasia,” Lambert’s father told French media Monday.

Euthanasia is illegal in France. However, a 2005 law allows physicians to refrain from using “disproportionate” treatments “with no other effect than maintaining life artificially.”

In 2015, the European Court of Human Rights approved the removal of Lambert’s life support, arguing in a 12-5 decision that the choice to stop his intravenous feeding did not violate European rights laws.

On June 28, The Court of Cassation ruled that a lower court did not have the legal competence to order his feeding tubes be reinserted. On July 2, doctors informed Lambert’s family via email that they would withdraw food and water.

Archbishop of Paris, Michel Aupetit, has consistently advocated for Lambert and his family. He wrote a letter July 9 asking the priests of his archdiocese to offer Mass for Lambert.

“Dear brothers,” he wrote, “it is now the time for contemplation, for compassion, and for prayer for Mr. Vincent Lambert. Either today or tomorrow I suggest that you celebrate Mass for his intention and entrusting him to the Lord, the God of mercy. This intention can also be extended to all of his relatives.”

Also on July 9, Pope Francis tweeted a prayer in apparent reference to Lambert’s case.

“We pray for the sick who are abandoned and left to die,” the pope wrote. “A society is human if it protects life, every life, from its beginning to its natural end, with which is worthy to live or who is not.”

“Doctors should serve life, not take it away.”

This story was updated with the Vatican statement.

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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.

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Paris, France, Jul 10, 2019 / 08:16 am (CNA).- The Archbishop of Paris, Michael Aupetit, has asked priests of his archdiocese to offer Mass for the intention of Vincent Lambert, the 42 year-old quadriplegic man nearing death in a French hospital after doctors withdrew food and water on Sunday.

“Dear brothers,” the archbishop wrote July 9, “it is now the time for contemplation, for compassion, and for prayer for Mr. Vincent Lambert. Either today or tomorrow I suggest that you celebrate Mass for his intention and entrusting him to the Lord, the God of mercy. This intention can also be extended to all of his relatives.”

Aupetit’s request to the clergy of Paris comes three days after doctors withdrew water and feeding tubes from Lambert on Sunday. Since then, Lambert has been under what his doctors are calling “profound and continuous sedation.”

Several media outlets have reported the Lambert “wept” when his family informed him of the doctors’ intentions.

Lambert’s parents have said that his death is now inevitable and the withdrawal of food and water has produced “medically irreversible” consequences.

“It’s murder in disguise, it’s euthanasia,” Lambert’s father told French media on Monday.

Euthanasia is illegal in France. However, a 2005 law allows physicians to refrain from using “disproportionate” treatments “with no other effect than maintaining life artificially.”

In 2015, the European Court of Human Rights approved the removal of Lambert’s life support, arguing in a 12-5 decision that the choice to stop his intravenous feeding did not violate European rights laws.

Vincent Lambert, 42, has been a quadriplegic and severely disabled for more than 10 years, after he sustained severe head injuries in a 2008 traffic accident.

Since then, Lambert has been at the center of a protracted court battle over whether to have his food and hydration removed. Lambert’s wife and six of his eight siblings have supported the removal of life support, while his parents, reported to be devout Catholics, have fought against it. His wife said Lambert had told her he would not want to be kept alive if in a “vegetative state,” but this was never put in writing.

On June 28, The Court of Cassation ruled that a lower court did not have the legal competence to order his feeding tubes be reinserted. On July 2, doctors informed Lambert’s family via email that they would withdraw food and water.

Archbishop Aupetit has consistently advocated for Lambert and his family. In May, the archbishop compared Lamberts case to that of former F1 racing champion Michael Schumacher, who sustained similar injuries to Lambert after a skiing accident in 2013.

“Despite the celebrity of this Formula 1 champion, the media have not seized his medical case and he can enjoy highly specialized care in a private environment,” Aupetit said.

“Today there is a very clear choice facing civilization: either we consider human beings as functional robots that can be eliminated or scrapped when they are no longer useful, or we consider that the essence of humanity is based, not on the utility of a life, but on the quality of relationships between people which witness to love.”

Also on July 9, Pope Francis tweeted a prayer in apparent reference to Lambert’s case.

“We pray for the sick who are abandoned and left to die,” the pope wrote. “A society is human if it protects life, every life, from its beginning to its natural end, with which is worthy to live or who is not.”

“Doctors should serve life, not take it away.”

[…]

Armagh, Northern Ireland, Jul 10, 2019 / 12:18 am (CNA).- An archbishop in Northern Ireland has called for the reigniting of a “temperance movement” to address the problem of alcohol and drugs, in the wake of increasing gang violence in the country.

“We see how addictions like this can devastate family life and social life…There is no future in a life of crime associated with drugs,” Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, primate of all Ireland, told the Irish Independent on Sunday.

His comments were prompted in part by a spate of violence in Drogheda, a town 30 miles north of Dublin, which has included shootings and arson attacks, the most recent being a gasoline bomb attack on a house Tuesday morning. The attacks are thought to be the result of a feud between rival gangs.

Drogheda has seen around 80 violent incidents in recent months, including gasoline bombings, shootings and assaults in the town linked to the gang violence, the Irish Independent reports.

The archbishop spoke after Mass at St. Peter’s Church in Drogheda to honor the martyred Irish saint Oliver Plunkett, who was hung, drawn and quartered on July 1, 1681 in England. St. Oliver gave up alcohol over concerns that it was damaging the priestly life of the clergy, Martin noted.

Martin said he has been discussing the problems of drugs and violence with priests and community leaders in Drogheda, and said many of them are “quietly working on the ground” to encourage peace.

In addition to gang violence, several arson attacks on Catholic churches have taken place in Northern Ireland in recent months. Sacred Heart Church in Ballyclare, about 13 miles north of Belfast, was desecrated with paint in the early hours of Easter Sunday morning April 21. Police arrested a 26 year-old man related to the “criminal damage.”

A group of young people started a fire in a shed on the parish property of Holy Family parish in Derry the night of May 24. No one was harmed, but both the church and parochial house were damaged.

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London, England, Jul 9, 2019 / 04:01 pm (CNA).- The mother of a 4 year-old with Down syndrome is suing the National Health Service of the United Kingdom for what she claims was a failure to offer her a prenatal test for the disability.

Edyta Mordel, 33, claims that if she had known that her son, Aleksander, had Down syndrome in the womb, she would have aborted the pregnancy.

With the lawsuit, Mordel has said that she is seeking £200,000 ($249,000) compensation for the rising costs of care for Aleksander due to his disability. Mordel is originally from Poland but now lives in the U.K. with her son and his father, Lukasz Cieciura.

Lawyers representing the NHS have argued that hospital records show that Mordel declined a prenatal test for Down syndrome, The Telegraph reported. Mordel is being represented by Clodagh Bradley QC.

According to the lawsuit, records from the Royal Berkshire Hospital indicate that Mordel declined the prenatal test for Down syndrome in 2014 when she was 12 weeks pregnant. In their arguments, the NHS claimed that Mordel decided to decline it after learning that the procedure carries with it a slight risk of miscarriage.

Mordel’s lawyers have argued that the hospital sonographer was mistaken in recording that Mordel declined the test.

“If she would ask me if I wanted any test for Down’s syndrome, I would say ‘yes,’” Mordel said in court proceedings, according to The Telegraph.

“I knew from the start that I would agree on the Down’s syndrome screening and I would not make any other decision,” she said.

A decision on the case has not yet been made.

Down syndrome is caused by a person having an extra chromosome. The condition causes people with Down syndrome to have distinct features such as almond-shaped eyes and poor muscle definition in some areas, as well as a shorter height in adulthood.

According to Mayo Clinic, the condition is associated with a higher risk of heart and gastrointestinal problems, immune disorders, leukemia, and some other medical problems. It also causes learning and development delays and disabilities in most individuals, though the severity of these varies widely from person to person.

The current life expectancy for a person with Down syndrome is 60 or more years. According to Mayo Clinic, individuals with Down syndrome with access to early interventions and routine medical care can live full and healthy lives.

The ethics of testing for Down syndrome in the womb have been debated by many in the pro-life and disability communities, because these tests have led to widespread abortions of unborn children who test positive for the disability.

In 2018, the states of Utah and Pennsylvania considered legislation that would have banned abortions solely due to a prenatal Down syndrome diagnosis, in an effort to protect babies with disabilities from discrimination.

In 2017, Iceland claimed to have nearly “eradicated” Down syndrome, due to abortions of unborn children who tested positive for the disability.

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Sheffield, England, Jul 9, 2019 / 11:58 am (CNA).- A UK appeals court has ruled in favor of a Christian man who was removed from a university course in 2016 for posting online that homosexuality is sinful.

Felix Ngole had been taking a postgraduate course in social work at the University of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England.

During a Facebook debate about Kim Davis, a county clerk in Kentucky who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, Ngole posted that “the Bible and God identify homosexuality as a sin” and that “same-sex marriage is a sin whether we like it or not. It is God’s words and man’s sentiments would not change His words,” the Guardian reported.

An anonymous complaint was filed with the university, and officials held a “fitness to practice” hearing, determining that the comments Ngole had made could negatively affect gay people he may encounter as a social worker, according to the BBC.

After being removed from the class, Ngole challenged the decision, arguing that he had been expressing a traditional Christian belief and that his rights of free speech and thought under the European Convention on Human Rights had been violated by the university.

Deputy high court judge Rowena Collins Rice ruled against Ngole in 2017, agreeing that the university had acted within its rights in removing him from the class.

The appeals court, however, disagreed. In a July 3 ruling, a three-judge panel overturned the previous court decision, saying the university hearing was “flawed and unfair,” the BBC reported.

Lord Justice Irwin, Lord Justice Haddon-Cave and Sir Jack Beatson instructed the university to hold a new hearing to consider Ngole’s case.

The University of Sheffield is considering its response to the ruling. The BBC cited a spokesperson for the university, who said that while it supports students’ right to a range of beliefs, “we have a responsibility to look at how any concerns raised could impact a student’s fitness to practise once registered.”

Ngole said the ruling is “great news, not only for me and my family, but for everyone who cares about freedom of speech, especially for those working in or studying for caring professions.”

“As Christians we are called to serve others and to care for everyone, yet publicly and privately we must also be free to express our beliefs and what the Bible says without fear of losing our livelihoods,” he said, according to The Guardian.

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