Marriage has been linked with better overall health as a new study has been published specifically linking it to healthy blood-sugar levels.

The research, which analysed the blood-sugar levels and relationship status of thousands of people aged over 50, concluded that “marital relationships, regardless of the quality of the relationship, are associated with lower HbA1c [blood sugar] values for male and female adults aged over 50 years”.

“Overall, our results suggested that marital/cohabitating relationships were inversely related to HbA1c levels regardless of dimensions of spousal support or strain. Likewise, these relationships appeared to have a protective effect against HbA1c levels above the pre-diabetes threshold,” it said.

Citing previous research elsewhere, those behind the study said “marital relationships have been extensively associated with positive health effects”.

A Vatican cardinal told Europe’s synodal continental assembly yesterday that the biblical vision of man and woman created in the image of God should serve as a “precious beacon for our debates and discernments.” He said it as voices within the Church, including in Ireland, insist Catholic teaching on marriage and sexuality has to change and diverge from what Jesus taught.

Speaking on the third day of the week-long gathering in Prague, the outgoing prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, said that between God and the human person there is a resemblance that sets him apart from all other creatures on earth.

While this resemblance had been understood in spiritual terms, now the relational dimension is highlighted which recovers “the mediation of the body and its fundamental role in the life of the couple”.

He also warned against changing Church teaching on marriage.

As a result of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, at least 494 religious buildings, theological institutions, and sacred places were wholly destroyed, damaged, or looted by the Russian military.

The Ukrainian Institute for Religious Freedom presented this updated data on the impact of the war during the Summit on International Religious Freedom (IRF Summit 2023) held in Washington, D.C.

According to the IRF Ukraine, since the presentation at last year’s IRF Summit, in July 2022, the number of religious infrastructure facilities in Ukraine affected by Russian aggression has more than doubled.

The Institute for Religious Freedom also documented many cases of seizure of religious buildings in Ukraine and their further use as Russian military bases or to conceal the firing positions of Russian troops. This tactic of the Russian military provokes an increase in the scale of destruction of religious sites in Ukraine.

Also documented were targeted attacks on religious figures and believers by the Russian military and intelligence services, primarily in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

Sharp divisions over gender identity and the use of pronouns in schools are revealed in submissions to the State body updating how sex education is taught.

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) is finalising a new Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum for Junior Cycle, 12-15 year olds. This incorporates Relationships and Sexuality Education.

It attempts to address issues such as gender identity, pornography and sexual consent. Gender theory is extremely controversial and says your biological sex is irrelevant to whether you identify as male or female or gender non-binary.

Newly disclosed submissions show several parents groups have complained about the “promotion of transgender ideology” to young students, while a number of Catholic bodies have insisted that schools must be allowed to teach any updated syllabus only in accordance with their ethos.

By contrast, State-funded NGOs have welcomed the focus of the draft specification on gender identity, with one arguing that use of pronouns should be specifically included and the term “biological sex” removed, as it is used to “demonise the trans community”.

The Children’s Rights Alliance said explicit inclusion of the concepts of gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation as being “core to our human identity” was “extremely positive and vitally important to ensuring an inclusive curriculum”.

A Charity volunteer who was arrested for praying near an abortion clinic is seeking a clear verdict in court after prosecution dropped charges, but suggested further proceedings.

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, who was seen in a viral video being arrested and searched by three police officers after saying that she “might be” praying inside her head, was criminally charged with “protesting and engaging in an act that is intimidating to service users” in an exclusion zone around an abortion facility in Birmingham. This was despite her stating clearly that she was not protesting, and despite the clinic being closed, meaning no service users were in the vicinity while she prayed.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have now communicated that they have discontinued the charges against Vaughan-Spruce, yet also have made clear that the charges “may well start again” subject to further evidential review. This is a warning prosecutors can issue when they expect that further evidence will be received.

However, Vaughan-Spruce has now made known her intention to pursue a verdict in court.

An EU initiative granting automatic cross-border recognition of ‘parenthood’ may impinge on the local surrogacy laws of member nations.

That’s according to the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe.

The European Commission say the initiative will not change the law on marriage of EU Member-States. “Yet – commented the President of FAFCE, Vincenzo Bassi – the introduction of a new legal category, ‘parenthood’, which goes beyond the current terminology of ‘filiation’, does have an impact on family domestic law.”

Indeed, if approved, the initiative would automatically extend the legal effects of filiation to all types of ‘parenthood’ legally acquired in one Member State, including through surrogacy, to all other EU Member-States uniformly.

“Beyond the declared intention of not interfering with Member States’ family law, this scenario would put the Commission’s proposal in contradiction with Art. 9 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, stating that “The right to marry and the right to found a family shall be guaranteed in accordance with the national laws governing the exercise of these rights”, he concluded.

Beijing’s “all-out assault on religion” amid a broader effort to block the Chinese people from enjoying fundamental freedoms and human rights has been denounced by Taiwan’s top legislative leader who was in Washington DC thanking the U.S. for its support.

The visit came just days before Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to China in an attempt to improve relations.

You Si-kun, who serves as the speaker of Taiwan’s Parliament blamed Chinese President Xi Jinping for ushering in a new era of religious persecution, starting in 2014, which includes the detention and forced labor of more than a million Uyghurs, as well as the decades-long repression of Tibetans and members of the Falun Gong, and efforts to stop millions of Christians from worshipping in underground churches.

The UK’s Secretary of State for Education has praised the work of faith schools across the nation.

Speaking at the Church of England’s education conference, Gillian Kegan described the Church of England as one of the department’s “most valued partners”.

“I want you to know how much I really value the role the Church of England plays in educating our children. Its reputation for excellence in schools speaks for itself,” Keegan said.

“You are transforming lives and you should be really proud of the work you do. And on behalf of the children you teach, I am eternally grateful. Put simply, without the Church of England, pupils across the country will be learning less and doing worse.”

The Cabinet Minister also reflected on the impact faith schools had on her own upbringing. After listing all the Catholic schools she attended, she admitted they left a mark on her life.

“All of those faith schools, which were fantastic schools, they got me where I am today. But they also instilled faith in me. And it’s a core part of who I am today.”

Portugal’s Constitutional Court has rejected, for the second time, a law facilitating euthanasia, pointing to an “intolerable vagueness” in its wording and sending the text back to parliament.

The Court concluded that the text was not in line with the Basic Law because it failed to clearly define the “suffering of great intensity” that could lead to “medically assisted death,” its judges announced in a statement read out to the press.

The Portuguese parliament has been trying to legislate in favour of euthanasia for almost three years.

The Constitutional Court had already rejected this law in March 2021, judging at the time that it used terms that were too imprecise.

Parliament will now be able to redraft the text and resubmit it for promulgation by the President of the Republic, conservative Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who had referred the matter to the Constitutional Court in early January.

The UK’s House of Lords has backed a national roll out of buffer zones around abortion clinics in a move which could turn private and silent prayer within them into a ‘thought crime’.

Peers voted in favour a move to criminalise activity that seeks to “influence” the decision of women booked in for abortions to go ahead with the procedure.

After a Report Stage debate, they also rejected an amendment tabled to the Public Order Bill to investigate the evidence that would justify so-called exclusion zones and the corresponding denial of the recognised human rights of association, conscience, freedom of expression and freedom of religion.

They supported Amendment 45, tabled by Conservative peer Baroness Sugg of Coldharbour, to make it a crime to influence “any person’s decision to access, provide or facilitate the provision of abortion services”.

Referring to recent cases of people being charged after praying near abortion clinics, Lord Jackson of Peterborough, said: “These cases further highlight the dangers to free expression and belief inherent in these buffer zones. They demonstrate how quickly the position could be that the specific act that turns someone into a criminal is whether they had particular thoughts in their head while in a buffer zone area.”