Two Russian Orthodox priests are on trial on criminal charges for their opposition to Russia’s war in Ukraine. If convicted, they could be imprisoned or have to pay massive fines. They are the first members of the clergy known to be facing criminal prosecution for protesting against the war from a religious perspective.
Both priests are members of a branch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) which did not join the Moscow Patriarchate with other parts of ROCOR in 2007.
Fr Ioann Kurmoyarov is being prosecuted for videos he posted on his YouTube channel in which he criticises the Moscow Patriarchate’s support for the war, suggests the “aggressors” will not go to heaven, and argues that “Every condemnation of this aggression, this war on Ukraine, is a spiritual matter. All Christians should do it on principle”.
Fr Ioann has been in detention in St Petersburg’s Kresty-2 Prison since early June and will remain there throughout his trial.
The vast scale of abortion in Ireland and the lack of support for positive alternatives was raised by the leader of Aontu at the party’s Ard Fheis on Sunday.
Meath-West TD, Peadar Toibin said the new abortion law “has ended the lives of 23,000 children north and south. That’s 900 classrooms of children who would be here with us today are not, directly due to these laws”.
“I ask you if you can’t trust a politician in relation to these lives what can you trust them on?”
Looking to tackle of the causes of abortion, Mr Toibin said his party “seek an Irish society built on compassion, empathy and kindness, where the most vulnerable are the most protected. We will support mothers, economically and socially so that they have the confidence to raise their children to their full potential. We seek to protect children with disabilities, from low income families and baby girls from the discrimination of abortion. We will support them not just up until the day that they are born, but through their whole lives”.
People who self-identify as ‘liberal’, especially women, are significantly less likely to be happy with their lives or satisfied with their “mental health”, compared to their conservative peers aged from 18-55.
That’s according to the 2022 American Family Survey, from YouGov and the Deseret News, which found that liberals are about 15 percentage points less likely to be “completely satisfied” with their lives.
The survey goes on to find that liberals are about 18 percentage points less likely to be “completely satisfied” with their “mental health” than conservatives.
The problem appears to be especially acute for liberal women, who register the lowest levels of satisfaction with their lives and mental health. Indeed, only 15% of liberal women in the age group surveyed are “completely satisfied” with their lives, compared to 31% of conservative women; likewise, only 15% of liberal women are “completely satisfied” with their mental health, compared to 36% of conservative women.
Commenting on the findings, sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox said two family factors appear to have a lot to do with this ideological gap: marital status and family satisfaction.
“Given that conservatives aged 18-55 are about 20 percentage points more likely to be married, as well as 18 percentage points more likely to be satisfied with their families, the lesson here is obvious. Marriage and family are strongly linked to happiness and to personal mental health in particular”.
He said, “The problem facing liberals, then, is that too many of them have embraced the false narrative that the path to happiness runs counter to marriage and family life, not towards it.”
A bereaved father and his three children lost their challenge to a law under which he was refused a widower’s contributory pension because he and his partner of more than 20 years were not married.
Johnny O’Meara’s partner, Michelle Batey, was aged in her 40s when she died from Covid-19 early last year. The couple had planned to marry after her recovery from breast cancer in 2020.
Their case was rejected by Mr Justice Mark Heslin on Friday for reasons including that the relevant law was not contrary to the Constitution’s guarantee of equality.
He said he could not interfere with the aim of the legislation to support and promote marriage.
He disagreed with the applicants the reason for the WCP is to protect the family, which includes the children. That is not the reason for, or the aim of the WCP, and nor was this case about families or this particular family, he said.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties has raised serious concerns about the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill saying the definition of harmful online content is “hazardously vague”.
“It empowers a State-appointed body, the media commission, to ultimately decide what can and cannot be said online by deciding what is and is not harmful; enables a Minister to expand the definition of harmful online content; decide what entities fall under the scope of ‘designated online service providers’; and regulates their compliance with binding codes created by the commission,” the civil liberties body says.
Elsewhere, the Bill says a broadcaster or a provider of an audiovisual on-demand media service, such as the RTÉ Player, will not broadcast anything that may “reasonably be regarded as causing harm or offence”.
They also raised concerns about another piece of legislation dealing with hate crimes and other forms of hate speech which is due to be published in coming weeks by the Department of Justice.
A prominent Irish theologian has warned that the legacy of Irish religious could be “betrayed” by the gifting of third-level Catholic institutions to the State.
The Vatican must investigate several deals made by the Church in Ireland to hand over Catholic colleges in recent years, Prof. Eamonn Conway told The Irish Catholic.
The founder and until recently Head of Theology and Religious Studies at Mary Immaculate College said there needs to be a “formal evaluation” of the deals by the relevant Vatican bodies, such as the Dicastery for Culture and Catholic Education.
Prof. Conway questioned what the Church has received in return for the gifts of the Catholic institutions “in terms of safeguarding resources for the Church’s mission in Ireland”.
“It is important that the sacrifice of previous generations of Catholics who proudly and generously founded and built up these colleges, and that of the many religious sisters and brothers who worked selflessly over the years to provide a free education, is neither forgotten nor betrayed,” Prof. Conway said.
The Pro Life Campaign has blasted a call to introduce prison time for people engaged in pro-life activity within a hundred metres of abortion-providing facilities. Very few countries have laws of this kind.
Spokesperson Eilís Mulroy was responding to a proposal by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission that legislation to enact so-called “safe access zones” should include criminal penalties, rather than merely civil remedies.
Ms Mulroy branded the proposal “an excessively authoritarian suggestion”.
She said it was “inherently discriminatory”, because “it singles out a particular ideological and moral worldview for punishment”.
She added legislation to combat ‘intimidation’ and ‘harassment’ was not required, as these were already offences under public order laws.
“Nonetheless, the excessive measures which would have the impact of banning the optional provision of pro-life literature and even quiet and reflective prayer are being railroaded through the Oireachtas,” she stated.
Ireland ranks last of 38 developed countries when it comes to public family policies and second last on parental leave, a new study indicates.
The research by price comparison website confused.com found the average parental leave package across Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) states stands at 32.73 weeks for mothers and 4.73 for fathers.
However, Ireland was second from bottom with 7.6 weeks for mothers and just 0.5 weeks for fathers. Only the US, which has no paid parental leave, ranked lower. Romania came top for parental leave with 92.40 weeks for mothers and 4.70 for fathers.
The survey, which is based on figures from the OECD Family Database, also ranked Ireland worst of all OECD countries for “public family policies”, with the State scoring just 1.05 out of 10 when it came to spending on items such as family benefits and education.
Australian Rules coaches have been accused of pressuring a player to have his partner’s child aborted so he could concentrate on football.
The allegation was first reported by the Australian broadcaster ABC.
An independent review commissioned by the Hawthorn club of the period 2010 to 2016 recounts the story of one indigenous player whose partner became pregnant. When he told coaches the news, they allegedly ushered him into an office, urged him to have the pregnancy terminated, ‘get rid’ of his partner and move into the home of an assistant coach.
“It was so intimidating, confusing and upsetting,” the former player is quoted as saying. “Clarkson [one of the coaches] just leaned over me and demanded that I needed to get rid of my unborn child and my partner. I was then manipulated and convinced to remove my SIM card from my phone, so there was no further contact between my family and me. They told me I’d be living with one of the other coaches from that night onwards’.
The report states the player “felt he had no choice. ‘He told me to kill my unborn kid.’”
The continued incarceration of a secondary school teacher for contempt of court after a row over transgender policy in his school has been described as “heavy handed” by the leader of Fianna Fail in the Seanad.
Lisa Chambers (pictured) addressed the situation of Enoch Burke yesterday after Senator Ronan Mullen raised the possibility that he may remain imprisoned until Christmas.
Senator Chambers agreed with his concerns and expressed her surprise that Mr Burke ,“ended up in Mountjoy Prison, which is usually home to some more serious offenders”.
“I think the matter should be expedited. Having spoken to the governor of Mountjoy previously on a visit, he would be of the view that there are many people in that prison who should not be there and would be better served with other solutions, and I believe Enoch Burke is one of those people”.
She added, “The charge against him in terms of contempt of court was correct and he does need to come forward on that front, but I do take the Senator’s point that it seems a very heavy-handed outcome in terms of the actual offence”.
Meanwhile, Mr Burke himself returned to the High Court on Tuesday asking that an injunction against him be lifted. He did not appeal the Court’s orders committing him to prison for contempt, nor did he purge his contempt.
He has been behind bars at Mountjoy Prison since early September.
