An Evangelical pastor has told Premier he will hold a second socially-distanced service in Phoenix Park, Dublin this weekend, despite religious services being outlawed in Ireland.

On Sunday, Pastor John Ahern of the All Nations Church, preached in front of around 100 worshippers at the foot of the park’s papal cross and said he will hold another service on Sunday 2nd May.

Health Minister Stephan Donnelly signed a regulation earlier this month making in-person services temporarily a criminal offence and only allowing religious services to take place virtually. Ireland’s four Catholic archbishops, Eamon Martin, the archbishop of Armagh and primate of all-Ireland, Dermot Farrell of Dublin, Michael Neary of Tuam and Kieran O’Reilly of Cashel and Emly said they would be taking legal advice following the move which they described as “a breach of trust” and “a potential infringement of religious freedom and constitutional rights.”

On Sunday, Pastor John urged those gathered to socially distance: “We are not here today to be dangerous and reckless. But how is it dangerous to stand here, but not to walk into a Tesco or an Aldi. I believe it is a human right to worship Jesus, our Lord and Saviour,” Aherne told the gathered worshippers.

“If the Gardai turn up I don’t want anybody to say anything to them. We are children of God let’s act like it,” he said.

A Gardai car passed by but no officers approached the event.

“Ireland it’s time to rise from the ashes of this season of despair,” he added. “People have lost their jobs, they’ve seen their businesses closed and some may never open again. And yet you hear these glib little phrases, like, we’re all in this together, by people who are on huge money and haven’t had their money cut. And I think that is the height of hypocrisy.”

“There is something sacred about public worship, and that is why no government has the right to close churches. No government has the right to say you can’t gather for public worship.” When they criminalised worship, the government stepped over a line. Governments do not have the right to close churches.” he continued.

Following the signing of the regulation by Health Minister Stephan Donnelly, making in-person services temporarily a criminal offence, Pastor John told Premier that he’d made a decision to go back “to pastoring my people.”

“If gathering to worship is a criminal act all I can say is, I hope the government have plenty of prison space, because there’s going to be a lot of ministers who will be willing to go to prison over this,” he said.

The penalty for breaches of the new law are a fine or up to six months behind bars. The Irish government is set to review worship restrictions on May 4.

Source: premierchristian.news

Cancel culture’ and ‘no-platforming’ are to be challenged on university campuses with sanctions against institutions that fail to uphold freedom of speech.

A commission of Catholic bishops has warned religious freedom is threatened in the European Union, as restrictive laws are imposed in the wake of Covid-19.

Some governments in Europe have “unquestionably reduced and diminished” religious freedom during the pandemic in disproportionate ways, the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union, or COMECE, said this week.

“It is important not to send out a message that Christians, or more generally believers, are being persecuted inside the EU. However, not overdramatising does not mean ignoring these disturbing trends.

“There is a lack of understanding and, in some cases, a lack of interest as to what religion is, and what it means for millions of people in the EU,” COMECE said in a statement to Catholic News Service.

The COMECE media office’s statement came following a recent online bishops’ plenary, which included talks with Margaritis Schinas, Greek vice president of the EU’s governing commission.

“The EU rightly considers itself a beacon of fundamental rights – this also entails a responsibility to uphold high standards in protecting freedom of religion,” COMECE said.

“Freedom of religion can be limited under certain conditions, and this is allowed by international human rights standards. As a Church, however, we have to be firm on how, when and up to which point we are ready to accept limitations on church life.”

The commission said Pope Francis had warned against viewing “the spiritual and moral dimension of the human person” as “less important than physical health,” and seeing religious freedom as just “a corollary of freedom of assembly.”

In a statement earlier this year, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, COMECE president, said he feared “a broader, increasing trend” toward neglecting fundamental rights protected under the 1950 European Convention and the EU’s 2000 Charter of Fundamental Rights.

In its recent statement, COMECE said the talks with Schinas – which took place under treaty provisions requiring the EU to maintain an “open, transparent and regular dialogue” with churches – had been “frank, constructive and forward-looking,” but said it feared religion was being turned into a “subculture,” and “lost in a large area devoted to culture and sports.”

“Quite often initiatives aimed at curbing radical strains of Islam end up having a harsh and invasive impact on all churches and religious communities which do not pose any threat to democracy or fundamental rights,” COMECE said.

“We need to overcome tendencies undermining the interdependence of human rights and selectively placing rights in a hierarchy, with freedom of religion neglected rather than promoted. This vision endangers the entire architecture of human rights.”

COMECE said talks with Schinas had also covered a “fair and just approach” to migrants and asylum-seekers in the 27-country EU, as well as post-pandemic recovery, vaccine distribution and surveillance.

Picture: A woman wearing protective gloves and a mask is pictured in a file photo praying in a nearly empty church in Bilbao, Spain, during the Covid-19 pandemic. (CNS photo/Vincent West, Reuters).

Source: thecatholicuniverse.com

ELYSSA KOREN , DIRECTOR OF UNITED NATIONS ADVOCACY, ADF INTERNATIONAL
ON 3/22/21 AT 7:00 AM EDT

Persons with disabilities face enormous and tragic discrimination that infringes upon their most basic right to life. The coronavirus pandemic has brought to light these many added threats. Evidence that persons with Down Syndrome are significantly more at risk for death from COVID-19 has generated intense controversy regarding societal obligations to protect the most vulnerable. This year, World Down Syndrome Day, commemorated on March 21st, affords the opportunity to call attention to one of the greatest, and largely unseen, human rights abuses of our time: abortion on the basis of disability.

In many parts of the world, a Down Syndrome diagnosis is an effective death sentence. Mothers carrying babies with this and other chromosomal conditions face immense pressure to abort, resulting in dramatically reduced numbers of persons with Down Syndrome being born each year. The United Kingdom, for example, which allows for abortion up to birth for babies with disabilities including Down Syndrome, cleft lip and club foot, has reported a 42 percent increase in abortions due to Down Syndrome over the last decade.

As improved prenatal screening technologies contribute to what has been euphemistically termed Down Syndrome “eradication,” there has been an accompanying surge in protections for persons with disabilities in the womb. Just this week, a bill in Northern Ireland passed the second stage on its way to banning late-term abortions of babies with disabilities—potentially the start of an international trend to protect the lives of persons with disabilities. The United States is at the forefront of this movement with Arizona, Florida and South Dakota in the process of enacting legislative bans, joining the ranks of eight other states that already prohibit abortion due to disability.

While some argue that abortion on the grounds of disability is a woman’s right, the discriminatory emphasis on the abortion of babies with Down Syndrome and other genetic conditions has an impossibly tragic implication. It is not hard to imagine how one could conclude from this practice that it is preferable to never live, rather than to live with these conditions. It must be made clear that, in accordance with international law, abortion on the basis of Down Syndrome and similar diagnoses is an overt violation of the human rights of persons with disabilities.
Although often motivated by a natural, and completely relatable, apprehension about caring for a child with a disability, abortion on the basis of a prenatal diagnosis of disability fundamentally undercuts the equal and inalienable rights that every human being possesses. And discrimination in the womb inevitably perpetuates further discrimination out in the world.

Real equality can never be achieved until the right to life of persons with disabilities is safeguarded.

As the United States grapples with state-level legislation to protect babies with Down Syndrome and other detectable disabilities, opponents of such laws claim they are just another undue restriction on “sexual and reproductive health care,” interfering with “people’s personal health care decisions.” However, the merits of arguments for unfettered “reproductive freedom” must be weighed against the hugely discriminatory outcomes for persons with disabilities.
Prenatal discrimination in no way corresponds with authentic freedom for women; quite the opposite. Evidence shows that women are often coerced by societal and familial pressures to abort babies with genetic disorders—an alarming reality that reveals a deep-seated cultural rejection of persons with disabilities. What these women and families really need is access to support and resources. After all, what does it say about the value that our society attributes to persons with disabilities if we are unable, at minimum, to legally mandate the equal treatment of the most vulnerable in the womb and provide for them once they are born?

Since 2006, the United Nations has celebrated World Down Syndrome Day—this year with a focus on increasing the connectivity of persons living with the condition. In addition to laudable attempts to improve the quality of life of persons with disabilities, it is time that the international community turn its attention to stopping the mass-scale human rights tragedy of prenatal discrimination on the basis of disability, which results in the death of more prenatally tested Down Syndrome babies than are born.

Leading advocates for persons with Down Syndrome at the Jerome LeJeune Foundation brought this conversation to the UN Human Rights Council last week. In an event entitled “Down syndrome: let’s talk more… and better,” the advocacy group united a broad coalition of ambassadors and other government and civil society representatives from every region of the globe to address the issue of discrimination on the basis of disability, before and after birth. This event inspires great hope that governments can recommit to their international legal obligations to guarantee the human rights of all persons—shifting the focus toward the eradication of discriminatory practices, and away from vile efforts to eradicate persons with Down Syndrome and other disabilities.

Elyssa Koren is the director of United Nations advocacy in New York City for ADF International. Elyssa can be found on Twitter:@Elyssa_ADFIntl.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.

Source: newsweek.com