Former government minister and sitting Finnish parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen will stand trial a third time for her Bible-verse tweet, the Supreme Court of Finland has confirmed. The State prosecutor appealed the case despite the Christian grandmother of 11 being acquitted unanimously of “hate speech” charges before both the Helsinki District Court, and the Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear that appeal on a date to be set in the future. Räsänen, who previously served as Finland’s Minister of the Interior, stands criminally charged for sharing her faith-based views on marriag ..read more

Suspected Fulani Islamist militants carried out on a three-day massacre in Pankshin Diocese in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, killing 29 Christians, injuring a further two, and burning down churches and houses. The attacks took place across the villages of Kopnanle, Mandung, Bokkos Town and the Mbar district of Bokkos. Speaking to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the Catholic charity for persecuted Christians, Father Andrew Dewan, director of communications in Pankshin Diocese, gave exclusive details about the attack. He said: “The attacks started on Friday and carried on right through Saturday and in ..read more

THE UK Parliament has heard from a leading Catholic charity how the victims of the worst atrocity against Christians in Pakistan are still anxiously waiting for justice eight months on. The address from John Pontifex of Aid to the Church in Need UK, the Catholic charity for persecuted Christians, was given at a panel discussion hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Freedom of Religion or Belief in the House of Commons, Westminster. DUP MP for Strangford Jim Shannon chaired the event, and in attendance was Fleur Anderson, the Labour MP for Putney, Roehampton and Southfields, as well a ..read more

I met George Farmer, entrepreneur, former CEO of Parler, and husband to US media personality and commentator Candace Owens, after the Good Friday Passion at the Brompton Oratory. We were introduced through mutual friends, and he was keen to meet in person to discuss a potential interview. “I have prayed on it, and I am going to do it,” he said, allowing me to relax into our appropriately dull Good Friday soft drink-based session. Farmer had previously made a commitment to staying out of the media, so the decision was not made lightly. “Besides, the Herald is my favourite magazine,” he added, a ..read more

Young women are leaving US Churches in “unprecedented numbers”, according to a new survey from the American Enterprise Institute. It demonstrates, argues Carmel Richardson in The American Conservative, what some have already begun to speculate: that as young women move politically left as a group, they also become more irreligious. AEI’s survey of some 5,500 Americans of various ages examined the sexed breakdown of which Americans are leaving churches of every denomination due to being “disaffiliated”. According to the survey, older generations, such as Millennials, Generation Xers ..read more

As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank hold their Spring meeting, a leading Catholic international aid group says the world is sinking “deeper into a global sovereign debt crisis”. The world’s two leading financial behemoths are meeting in Washington, DC, from 15-20 April. But while their respective representatives and experts meet and confer to supposedly crunch the numbers on our behalf and for the world’s benefit, critics point to IMF policies as hurting efforts to end the global economic crisis. Maria Finnerty, Economic Justice Policy Lead at CAFOD – the official aid ..read more

Last month Netflix aired its latest production to do with the British royal family; no, not another series of The Crown, but a drama “based on real events, fictionalised for dramatic purposes” – plus ca change, then – of the bombshell Newsnight interview Emily Maitlis famously conducted with Prince Andrew on 16 November 2019, concerning his long friendship with the convicted sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein. The drama, directed by Philip Martin (also of The Crown, interestingly), is based on the first three chapters of a book by Sam McAlister, Newsnight’s then-booker ..read more

At the funeral this week of Italian mother Azzurra Carnelos, who died last week after refusing cancer treatment in order to save the life of her unborn son, she was hailed for her courageous sacrifice and for her love of life. Speaking at Carnelos’s 17 April funeral, Father Massimo Rocchi, director of the Brandolini Rota Institute in the northern Italian town of Oderzo, noted that she would have turned 34 the next day, telling her family: “She will celebrate heaven and you will celebrate here on earth.” “Live in this light: a light of courage, a light of strength, a light of love. There is no ..read more

The Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has given its seal of approval on a new Lectionary proposed by the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. The Lectionary, which includes the scripture readings for Mass and the sacraments, will come into use in parishes in England, Wales and Scotland from Advent 2024. Published by the Catholic Truth Society (CTS), the new lectionary will be using the English Standard Version – Catholic Edition of the Bible and the Abbey Psalter. The Lectionary is changing as part of the continuing process of revising liturgical ..read more

Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso is encouraging the US Congress to create more avenues to legal employment authorisation for those with pending asylum claims, arguing that communities across the United States would “grind to a standstill” without the labour of undocumented immigrants. “Without their contributions, American communities would grind to a standstill,” Seitz said in a 15 April statement. “Not only are they working in some of the most arduous conditions but frequently with limited legal protections, and they are more susceptible to human trafficking and other forms of exploitation.” The ..read more