The National Gender Service (NGS) has estimated that as many as 90pc of the people who used its service in 2022 may be autistic.

Each year, the NGS carries out an audit of its service users. A spokesman for the Ireland East Hospital Group said: “Based on these audits the NGS has seen an increase in the number of people attending their service with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD).

“This number was as low as 3pc in 2014. The last time a full-service audit looking at the prevalence of ASD was in 2019. At that stage, the number was 34pc. A repeat audit is ongoing and the expectation for 2022 is that figure will increase significantly and may reach as high as 90pc. This will be confirmed at the end of this year when the audit is finalised.”

The Scottish Catholic Church has labelled as “absurd and alarming” comments by Scotland’s chief legal officer regarding the alleged dangers of praying outside abortion clinics.

Addressing the UK’s Supreme Court about abortion facilities in Northern Ireland, Dorothy Bain KC said that prayer vigils outside facilities offering abortion could be “far more damaging” than verbal protest, and “standing in judgment” may be “just as psychologically damaging” for women.

She was making the case for prayer vigils to be included in so-called ‘buffer zones’ outside abortion clinics – areas where certain types of activity are banned such as protesting or handing out leaflets. A similar law has been proposed by the Irish Government.

Peter Kearny, spokesperson for the Catholic Church in Scotland, told Premier Radio they have condemned her comments “in defence of religious freedom and practice.”

“For people to be told they can’t stand silently in prayer, in this case, outside an abortion clinic or a hospital that carries out abortions is really, frankly, chilling and extremely worrying.”

“The job really, I think, for all churches, and not just for Christians, but for people of all religious beliefs is to raise concerns about the destruction of, what I would describe as the ‘sledge hammer’, that is being taken to our civil liberties.”

“This is something that is part of the fabric of our society and one of our fundamental rights and it would be appalling if it was to be removed,” Kearny continued.

Church leaders have adopted new measures to ensure that those teaching religion in Catholic schools will have a good grounding in Catholic theology and belief.

The hierarchy decided at a recent meeting in Maynooth that “any graduate seeking employment as a religion teacher in a Catholic secondary school from 2023 must have a qualification” based on a thorough understanding of magisterial teaching.

It comes after the State body which regulates the teaching profession lowered the level of understanding of Catholicism necessary to be employed to teach religious studies at second level.

According to a document seen by The Irish Catholic and circulated to Catholic school leaders the Bishops are now insisting on new minimum requirements.

These are meant to ensure that an authentically Catholic Faith is taught in the schools and that candidates for employment in such roles will have a solid grounding in the Faith.

Church moves to protect quality of Catholic teaching in schools 

Better care of the elderly must be included in public policy, according to the Bishop of Elphin, Kevin Doran.

He was speaking at the Day for Life, the Church’s special day dedicated to celebrating the dignity of life from conception to natural death. This year’s theme was Caring for the Older Person and Bishop Doran addressed a homily on the subject yesterday.

“It is important that we don’t forget the lessons of the recent pandemic, when older people, especially those in nursing homes, were exposed to greater risk, because they were not adequately factored into public policy”, said the chairman of the Council for Life of the Irish Bishops’ Conference.

“Some older people do, of course, need more care, whether they live at home or in a nursing home.  Even when people are frail due to old age, we should be slow to suggest that they have nothing to contribute.  Even then, they have a mission.  So many of our older people bear witness to the Gospel by their presence, their prayer and their patience in the face of suffering or reduced mobility,” he added.

The European Court of Human Rights is set to rule tomorrow on a landmark euthanasia case.

Tom Mortier, son of Godelieva de Troyer, brought the case after his mother was put to death by lethal injection in 2012, aged 64. Mortier claims that Belgium violated the European Convention on Human Rights when it failed to properly protect the right to life of his mother -especially in light of the circumstances surrounding her death.

“My mother suffered from severe mental difficulties, and coped with depression throughout her life. She was treated for years by psychiatrists, and sadly, she and I lost contact for some time. It was during this time that she died by way of lethal injection. Never could I have imagined that we would be parted forever,” said Tom Mortier.

“The big problem in our society is that apparently we have lost the meaning of taking care of each other,” Mortier continued.

The case highlights the dangers of legalising euthanasia, and demonstrates that so-called ‘safeguards’ cannot make safe the practice of intentionally ending a life.

Drugs used to induce abortions continue to be seized by Irish authorities even as abortion has been widely and legally available since 2019.

According to the Health Product Regulatory Authority (HPRA), 42 abortion tablets were confiscated between January and July of this year. In 2021, a total of 89 tablets were seized. The figure is down from 277 in 2020, and 288 in 2019.

The drugs contain misoprostol and mifepristone which are taken in two separate doses to induce a miscarriage.

Because of the risk of adverse consequences for the mother, the HSE says women more than 9 weeks pregnant must attend a hospital to take the abortion pills.

They should not be taken if a woman is more than 12 weeks pregnant.

The Tánaiste has told an Oireachtas Committee that there should be a third gender option on the census along with female and male.

Leo Varadkar told the Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality that it is “definitely something the Government is open to”.

The Tánaiste was responding to Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan who said that there were people who wanted to identify as non-binary in the census and were unable to do so.

He said that “there should be a third option”, adding that he would have to consult “statisticians and the CSO [Central Statistics Office] as to how best to do that”.

Mr Varadkar was appearing before the Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality today to discuss the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality regarding pay and workplace conditions.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega blasted Catholic leaders as a “gang of murderers,” in comments amping up persecution of the church and scorning Pope Francis’ call for dialogue in the Central American country.

Catholic clergy in Nicaragua have remained mostly silent as Ortega — who won elections in 2021 after disqualifying and imprisoning opposition candidates — has persecuted priests and bishops speaking out on issues of human rights and democratic deterioration. The government also has closed church-run charitable and education initiatives, along with Catholic radio stations, and expelled priests and nuns, including the Missionaries of Charity.

In a fiery address, Ortega took aim at Nicaragua’s Catholic bishops for promoting democracy as an exit from the country’s political crisis, alleging without proof that they called on protesters to kill him during the 2018 protests — which his regime violently repressed.

The comments come as Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa remains under house arrest after being taken by force from the diocesan curia Aug. 19. The priests arrested with him in the pre-dawn raid are still being held in the notorious El Chipote prison, where the regime keeps its political prisoners.

An expansion of the free contraception scheme for women and funding to help people access IVF treatments have been announced as part of Budget 2023.

The expansion comes despite previous Government advice that free contraception would probably be ineffective and a waste of public funds.

Earlier this month, women aged 17-25 became eligible for free contraception, however the Government has confirmed the initiative will be extended from September 1st next year to include those aged 16-30.

The €107.1 million of additional funding allocated to the Department of Health as part of the cost-of-living package also includes measures which will help those undergoing IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation) treatment.

Meanwhile, the Irish Times reports today on new research from the New York University Langone Fertility Center which found most women who tried to become pregnant after freezing their eggs did not succeed.

Dr Marcelle Cedars says the data is “sobering” and “should give women pause”, adding that many women “are overly optimistic” about their chances of having a baby when they freeze their eggs. Extracting eggs is extremely expensive as is thawing them, fertilizing them, and then trying to implant them successfully in a woman’s womb. The procedure is often not a success.

A church that was funded and largely built from within the Romanian community to serve more than 1,200 worshippers at any one time was officially opened in Dublin on Sunday morning.

The Betania Church in Tyrellstown Dublin 15 which serves Pentecostal Christians, has bucked the trend of recent times that has seen places of worship significantly scaled back and it now stands as one of the largest in Ireland.

It was funded by the community to the tune of around €8 million and almost entirely built by the Romanian faithful, often at weekends and late evenings.

While it opened its doors several months ago, its official ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Sunday with local TD and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, the mayor of Fingal Howard Mahony, Romanian government officials and the Romanian ambassador in Ireland Laurenţiu-Mihai Ştefan in attendance.

“Our mission is to spread God’s love to all nations” said pastors Valerian Jurjea, Calin Onitiu and Avram Hadarau. “This was the motivating force behind the project.”