The Catholic Archbishops of Chicago and New York have issued a joint statement affirming that Catholic hospitals welcome patients who identify as transgender while also declining to perform sex-altering procedures.

It comes in reaction to a newly-proposed Government rule which would force Catholic health care facilities to offer gender-reassignment surgery.

In a statement published by America Magazine, Cardinals Blase Cupich of Chicago and Timothy Dolan of New York affirm their wholehearted support that all people, irrespective of age, sex, racial or ethnic background “without exception, receives the best health care that is their due” and this includes “people who identify as transgender”.

At the same time, the two Cardinals said that under the HHS-proposed rule “it would be considered discrimination for a health care facility or worker to object to performing gender transition procedures, regardless of whether that objection is a matter of sincerely held religious belief or clinical judgment”.

“Such a mandate threatens the conscience rights of all health care providers and workers who have discerned that participating in, or facilitating, gender transition procedures is contrary to their own beliefs”.

Armed men kidnapped more than 80 Christians last week in attacks on two separate churches in north-central and northwest Nigeria, reported Morning Star News.

Morning Star News, a news service that covers the persecution of Christians worldwide, identified some of the attackers as Fulani herdsmen based on reports from witnesses.

Only days before the attack in Suleja, “suspected Fulani herdsmen and other terrorists” kidnapped at least 57 Christians during another all-night prayer vigil held at another Cherubim and Seraphim Church located in Kasuwan Magani in Nigeria’s Kaduna state, sources told Morning Star News.

More than a dozen escaped and 43 remain captive, said the Rev. John Joseph Hayab, Kaduna state chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria. The terrorists have demanded a ransom of 200 million Naira, or over $450,000, according to the report.

The majority of submissions to RTE in response to Liveline discussions featuring ‘gender-critical’ views of transgender issues was positive, while no formal complaints were made to the BAI, according to RTÉ’s head of editorial standards.

In a letter to the chair of the Oireachtas joint committee on media, Brian Dowling said: “RTÉ received approximately 110 contacts (emails and phone calls) regarding the three programmes and around two-thirds were positive and one-third negative. RTÉ responded comprehensively to nine formal complaints concerning the Liveline programmes.”

He added that none of the nine complainants referred their grievances to industry watchdog, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI).

Dowling said RTÉ rejected all the complaints about three Liveline shows on 9th, 10th and 13th June, and insisted the station was “fully compliant with all the broadcast statutory and regulatory obligations”.

Moreover, he confirmed that Dublin Pride did not make any broadcast complaint regarding any of the three Liveline programmes.

In its letter to Ms Smyth, RTÉ contradicted a claim relating to campaign group Uplift, which reportedly stated their members had made over 1,000 complaints to RTÉ. The broadcaster said it had not received any complaints from people who said they were members or supporters of Uplift.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said the European Union would closely follow the respect of certain human rights and values, and cited women’s access to abortion in particular, as she responded to Italy’s election result. This is despite abortion not being mentioned in any EU law.

“In Europe, we have certain values and, obviously, we will be vigilant”, Borne told RMC Radio and BFM TV.

The Pro Life Campaign has called for reorienting Ireland’s social welfare system to promote a pro-child ethos, ensuring positive alternatives are provided to women in unplanned pregnancy, and guaranteeing that pregnant women and struggling families are prioritised in housing policy.

The recommendations were made in a Pre-Budget Submission to the Department of Finance.

PLC spokesperson Eilís Mulroy said the reforms aim at protecting vulnerable women and their babies. “There is a strong correlation between having a state policy which prioritises support for families and a decrease in the number of abortions.

“We have consistently pointed out that since 2019 there has been virtually no effort by the government to provide women in unplanned pregnancies with information about options besides abortion. The HSE My Options hotline has consistently failed to live up to this task and requires an urgent overhaul, ensuring its staff are trained and mandated to offer information about options and supports other than abortion for women seeking help for an unplanned pregnancy.

“As the hardships associated with the cost of living crisis continue to mount, it is vital that the government take serious steps to provide greater supports to the most vulnerable in Irish society. This must include pregnant women and struggling families. The proposals contained in the PLC’s Pre-Budget Submission 2023 provide several important pro-family and pro-women recommendations which have seen successful implementation elsewhere and should be considered by the Irish government.”

A Mexican University has rejected a petition to revoke the degree of a student finding that claims put forward by professors to sanction him were “unfounded”.

Graduating top of his class at the Autonomous University of Baja California’s School of Medicine and Psychology, Christian Cortez Pérez, earned the right to deliver the commencement address at his graduation ceremony on 27 June 2022. In his speech, he voiced his deeply held moral convictions regarding the state of the world today on many issues, including the importance of the family and the value of unborn life.

In response, a group of professors published a “manifesto,” calling for an effective ban on Christian’s professional practice as a psychologist. The University followed by initiating formal proceedings to: 1) withhold his professional license, 2) withdraw his merit award, and 3) alert psychology associations across Mexico about his statements.

In its ruling, issued on 21 September 2022, the University Council held that, “the arguments presented by the aggrieved party are unfounded, as well as the sanctions requested, for which reason the appeal filed is dismissed”.

Women religious in Ireland have lamented their “constant battering” by the media in a submission to the Irish synodal process.

Media reporting is “happy to use women religious as scapegoats for Irish Church and society”, the Irish women religious say in their submission.

“When we feel that it’s ending it comes back again and again like a niggling sore,” the submission reads.

The women religious add that they feel invisible and there is “a sense of being silenced”.

“But silence is seen as condoning the accusations and giving an impression that ‘we’re all guilty’,” the submission continues.

“We are partly to blame for our own invisibility as we appear to have gone underground,” the religious admit.

However, they say it is difficult for women religious to respond, as “any religious who speaks up would be shut down.”

Comments made by Irish MEP Mick Wallace about a bishop detained by the Nicaraguan regime have been dubbed “inexcusable” and “reckless” by an Irish missionary.

The European Parliament motion on Nicaragua, which decried the arrest of Bishop Rolando Álvarez and the “repression” of the Church in the country under authoritarian leader Daniel Ortega, passed by more than 500 votes.

Mr Wallace was one of the few MEPs who voted against the motion. In the debate he alleged that Bishop Álvarez – a hugely popular critic of repression by the regime – was “heavily involved” in what he claimed was a CIA-backed coup in Nicaragua in 2018 which led to “death and destruction”.

However, Jesuit missionary Fr Kevin O’Higgins SJ – who spent decades in Central America working for justice and has been working to highlight the crisis in Nicaragua – challenged Mr Wallace to produce “any kind of evidence” for the assertion, and added that he thought the intervention was “embarrassing”.

People across the United Kingdom stopped for a minute of silence today to commemorate ten million lives lost to abortion in England, Wales and Scotland since its widespread legalisation in 1967.

It is projected that the ten millionth baby had their life ended at 11:41am today.

In 2021, more than one baby was lost to abortion every two and a half minutes; 26 lives were ended every hour.

The number of abortions in England and Wales reached a record high of 214,869 last year, while 13,758 were performed in Scotland.

Opinion polls repeatedly show that the public wants increased protections for unborn babies and the number of abortions reduced, rather than the wholesale removal of legal safeguards around abortion.

Census 2021 results show that 46pc of the population are now Catholic, while 43pc are Protestant or another Christian religion. The number who say they belong to no religion is now 9.3pc.

The 2011 Census recorded 48pc of the population as being either Protestant or brought up Protestant, down five percentage points on 2001. The Catholic population stood at 45pc in the last census, which itself was up one percentage point on 2001.