A cross-party Commons select committee on women and equalities has described Northern Ireland’s abortion laws as “unacceptable”.
The committee’s report said the uncertainty around whether doctors in Northern Ireland can refer patients to free abortion services in Britain was creating confusion, fear and inequality.
Committee chair Maria Miller (pictured), a former Tory minister, urged the Government to bring forward a law allowing for abortion in the case of foetal anomaly. Pro-life groups have expressed dismay over the report’s findings. Precious Life claimed it did not include a “compelling body of evidence and lived experiences” on the pro-life side.
The 1967 Abortion Act does not extend to Northern Ireland, where abortion is only permitted if a woman’s life is at risk or if there is a risk of permanent and serious damage to her mental or physical health.
Speaking to the BBC, Christian Action Research and Education (Care) said abortion was a devolved matter for Northern Ireland and the report was suggesting that devolution should be “bypassed”.
Westminster Abbey was due to celebrate a day-long festival dedicated to Our Lady of Walsingham today (4 May). The 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. festival was to open with a Eucharist celebrated by the Bishop of Burnley, Philip North, followed by a lecture by Catholic author and historian Eamon Duffy, then Marian devotions. Archbishop Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation, was due to preach at Evensong.
Irish Church leaders in Armagh and Dublin expressed solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka in the wake of the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks in which more than 250 people were killed, saying, “men and women of violence betray the deep desire of humanity the world over for a future of peace.”
At St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral in Dublin, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said the tragedies seen in recent days in both Ireland and in Sri Lanka (see pages 24 and 28) “result from groups who take it upon themselves to decide the narrow type of society they feel is the right one and to impose it on all”.
He told the congregation, which included President Michael D. Higgins and members of Sri Lanka’s 3,000-strong community in Ireland: “We were all shocked at the terrible violence that hit the Sri Lankan nation.”
Both Sri Lanka and Ireland, he said, have known the horror of violence and have experienced the joy of an emerging peace.
In Armagh, Archbishop Eamon Martin said it was “heart-breaking” that Sri Lankan Catholics were unable to gather for Mass on Sunday because of the risk to their lives.
In Christchurch Cathedral in Dublin, the Chair of the Irish Muslim Peace & Integration Council, Shaykh Dr Umar Al-Qadri, told the congregation that those responsible for the Sri Lanka attacks had “trampled upon the fundamental teachings of Islam”.
The leader of Ireland’s main opposition party, Fianna Fáil, has called for a referendum on gay marriage in Northern Ireland as a way to break the political impasse and restore devolution. In the wake of the killing of journalist Lyra McKee (pictured) in Derry, the Irish and British governments announced a new round of talks aimed at getting the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly running again.
Stormont collapsed more than two years ago in a row over a renewable heat scheme overseen by the DUP’s Arlene Foster. Efforts to get Sinn Féin and the DUP to work together have since failed due to disagreement over an Irish Language Act for Northern Ireland and same-sex marriage.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has now suggested that an immediate commitment to a referendum on same-sex marriage might be a way to break the logjam. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where there is a ban on same-sex marriage. Any same-sex marriages conducted abroad or in the rest of the UK are treated as civil partnerships.
The overseas aid agency of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, Cafod, is to publish a new questions and answers (FAQ) document on non-violent direct action, after it received a number of enquiries following the Extinction Rebellion demonstrations. Cafod has also called on Catholics to join a protest at Westminster on 26 June in support of political action on climate change.
Nun killed in road accident
Muslims and Christians have paid tribute to Sr Ita Keane, a Sister of Mercy from St Mary’s Convent in Handsworth, Birmingham, who was killed while crossing a road in the Aston area last week. Citizens UK Birmingham, an alliance of civil society organisations, described Sr Ita as “our rock and a dedicated organiser, building the power of poor families in the city”. Councillor Khalid Mahmood, of Perry Barr, said she had worked “tirelessly and beyond her duty” for local children and their families.
An 87-year-old Glasgow man has received the Knighthood of St Gregory for services to Catholic music in Scotland. Noel Donnelly, a former teacher who continues to write music, composed items for the visits of popes St John Paul II and Benedict XVI. He is credited with many psalm arrangements used in Scottish churches. He described his shock at being given the award, which was presented on Palm Sunday at St Leo the Great Church, saying he thought there had been “a mistake in the Vatican offices”.
Tolkien biopic snub
The estate of Catholic author J.R.R.Tolkien has refused to endorse a forthcoming biopic about his life that will centre on his school years leading up to the start of the First World War. In a statement, the estate said that it did not endorse the film, which stars Nicholas Hoult (pictured) as the young Tolkien, “in any way”. The comment came as The Observer reported that, in a tape-recording, Fr John Tolkien, son of J.R.R.Tolkien, alleges that he was abused as a child by one of his father’s friends.
The recording was made in 1994 by Christopher Carrie, a Birmingham man who told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse that Fr Tolkien had abused him twice. In it, Fr Tolkien says that, as a child, he was surrounded by friends and colleagues of his father whom he alleged would often stay the night and share his bed.
He said: “Well, let’s say things had gone on in the night ... If you wake up with your pyjamas off and they were on when you went to sleep you would wonder, wouldn’t you?” The Tolkien family declined to comment.
Bishops to receive safeguarding training during plenary
The Bishops of England and Wales are to focus on safeguarding and on their response as leaders to abuse during this week’s plenary in Spain, writes Liz Dodd.
The bishops will gather for their biannual retreat at Valladolid, Spain, between 3 and 9 May. Along with briefings on bishops’ conference business, they will spend some days receiving in-service training on how to handle abuse.
Baroness Sheila Hollins, a former member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, who moderated the safeguarding session at the World Meeting of Families 2018, will join the bishops for part of their retreat to lead training in how to handle abuse and support victims. A number of victims will be present at the training sessions. Ahead of their Ad Limina meeting in Rome in September 2018, the conference said each bishop would set aside time to meet the victims and survivors of clerical abuse.
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