The National Secular Society welcomes the decision of the Charity Commission to refuse the application by Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds) to continue discriminating against homosexual prospective adopters.

A hospital Trust’s proposal to scrap the provision of Gideon Bibles in bedside lockers as a precaution against superbugs is being supported by the National Secular Society.

MEPs have today approved proposals to introduce mandatory labelling of ritually slaughtered meat.

The National Secular Society has spoken out about the lack of transparency in the decision by the Office of Judicial Complaints to absolve Cherie Blair (Ms Booth QC) from any wrong-doing when she gave a suspended sentence rather than a prison sentence to a defendant reportedly on the basis that he was a “religious man”.

News of the spiralling cost of the Pope’s visit to Britain in September has alarmed secularists who are demanding that the Government does not use any more taxpayers’ money to rescue the event.

“We are not being told the truth about the real cost of this event,” said Terry Sanderson. “The taxpayer should not be put in the position of having to rescue the Church from its own profligacy. This event is not necessary, hospitals, schools and social services are.”

Note for editors: Earlier this year the National Secular Society delivered a 28,000 name petition to Downing Street calling on the Government not to fund the papal visit.

The Protest the Pope campaign is planning a series of protest events during the Pope’s visit www.protest-the-pope.org.uk/

In a development that almost defies belief, the Vatican has appointed Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, the former leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, to head an abuse inquiry in Ireland.

The National Secular Society is to launch a legal challenge against a local Council’s practice of starting its meetings with prayers.

The sentencing of Harry Taylor to six months in prison (suspended for two years) for leaving anti-religious cartoons in an airport prayer room has been condemned by the National Secular Society as “creating a new blasphemy law that will open the way for every religious extremist to persecute and prosecute their critics.”

The Pope’s and the embattled Vatican’s record on child abuse will be challenged at the UN on Monday (15 March 2010).