In The Media

Christian leaders have urged the Welsh Government to not close churches during the firebreak lockdown.

Largs & Milport Weekly News

Proposed new laws to introduce assisted dying in Scotland will come before MSPs in the next Scottish Parliament after May's election, campaigners have said.

The Scotsman

Women are being pushed into putting their health and confidentiality at risk when seeking emergency contraception due to being forced to answer highly personal questions in front of other customers in the wake of the pandemic.

The Independent

A gay retired teacher who was abused and murdered by a churchwarden was "vulnerable to exploitation" because of the church's anti-gay policies, an independent investigation found.

Pink News

Same-sex relationships are still considered 'deviant behaviour' under the current Catholic doctrine, says Grace Walsh.

iNews

A Mexican broadcast company says Francis made the comments to its correspondent more than a year ago, and people close to the company say the Vatican then edited them out.

The New York Times

France recalled its ambassador on Saturday after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said his counterpart Emmanuel Macron needed mental help over his attitude towards Muslims.

Reuters

France has urged Middle Eastern countries to end calls for a boycott of its goods in protest at President Emmanuel Macron's defence of the right to show cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

BBC

In a secular society, no faith can or should be immunised from criticism, satire or mockery, says a letter to the editor

Jewish News

Thousands of activists disrupted church services across Poland on Sunday, chanting during mass and spraying slogans on walls to protest against a court ruling that amounts to a near-total ban on abortion.

Reuters

Ten of world's 20 worst countries for women sign declaration organised by Trump administration.

The Independent

Scotland's justice secretary Humza Yousaf has confirmed his U-turn on the controversial Hate Crime Bill by outlining changes he wants to make to the proposed legislation.

The Scotsman

Church officials mishandled allegations from late 1970s until 2012, says report.

The Independent

A third of women in Northern Ireland have no access to abortion services amid a postcode lottery, human rights campaigners have warned.

The Independent

More than 1,000 same-sex couples will be able to convert their civil partnerships to marriage.

The Irish News

Stormont minister Edwin Poots has denied linking the spread of Covid-19 to religion, accusing rivals of "twisting and distorting" his comments on infection rates in nationalist areas.

Shropshire Star

An extremist who made a "chilling" video of London's Royal Festival Hall with the message "Attack, attack" has been found guilty of encouraging terrorism.

Ilford Recorder

Cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad were projected onto government buildings in France as part of a tribute to history teacher Samuel Paty, who was murdered by an Islamist terrorist last week.

The Independent

The brazen intimidation of free expression and the innocent blood being shed is evidence of a severe problem within the Islamic faith that requires criticism, says Brian Stewart.

Quillette

Protests gathered across Poland after the Constitutional Tribunal ruled on Thursday that abortion due to foetal defects was unconstitutional, banning the most common of the few legal grounds for ending a pregnancy in the largely Catholic country.

Reuters

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday asked the country's National Assembly to discuss same-sex marriage during its next term beginning in January, citing Pope Francis' comments this week supporting civil unions for same-sex couples.

Reuters

The president of the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, Joko Widodo, has called for Indonesia not to rush the rollout of vaccines, citing concerns over public awareness about whether they were halal.

Reuters

Almost 3,000 girls from the Kuria community have undergone female genital mutilation in recent weeks, despite crackdown

The Guardian

A secretive 2018 agreement between Beijing and the Vatican is on the brink of renewal, despite strident US condemnation and warnings from underground Chinese priests loyal to Rome that they have only become more marginalised since it was signed.

AFP

A Christian NGO says China appears to be strengthening its censorship controls over Christian religious publications that are approved for distribution by the state.

Voice of America

Pope Francis has given his most explicit support to same-sex civil unions in a move that is likely to further enrage his conservative opponents in the Catholic church.

Guardian

A Florida teacher has been fired from his job at a Christian school after speaking publicly about his experiences as a gay foster carer.

Pink News

A new survey has found that 1 in 5 Catholic likely voters say they accept everything the Church teaches, with young adults being more likely than older generations to say they agree with Catholic doctrine.

Catholic Herald

Conservative peer Lord Sarfraz calls on the UK to redouble its humanitarian support for the Rohingyas – who have been described by the UN "as the most persecuted minority in the world."

The Times (£)

Conservative MP Rehman Chishti will introduce a Bill to the House of Commons today to bring about legal recognition of humanist marriages in England and Wales.

Humanists UK

Boris Johnson should move to disestablish the Church of England if controversy over its clergy's political interventions continues, a leading Conservative MP has said.

The Times (£)

The Archbishop of Cardiff has expressed his "disappointment" that churches in Wales will have to close for three weekends under the coronavirus "circuit break" lockdown.

The Tablet

Samuel Paty, the 47-year old history teacher beheaded last week by a suspected Islamist, will be posthumously given France's highest award, the Legion d'Honneur, the education minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, has said.

The Guardian

It is impossible to separate the killing of Samuel Paty with the Islamic blasphemy laws that are in place around the world, says Kunwar Khuldune Shahid.

The Spectator

France deserves unqualified support in confronting Islamist terrorism.

The Times (£)

Two Muslim women were 'stabbed repeatedly' under the Eiffel Tower amid rising tensions in Paris after the beheading of a teacher last week.

Mail Online

Ireland's four Catholic archbishops have jointly written to the Taoiseach Micheál Martin requesting a "constructive discussion" over the suspension of public worship under new restrictions aimed at curbing the rise in Covid-19 cases.

The Tablet

The move comes after Poland shuttered most gyms and pools in an effort to curb a recent surge in COVID-19 infections. Church services are still allowed.

New York Post

A young woman has been arrested in central Iran for "insulting the Islamic hijab", state media said on Tuesday, after a video appeared to show her cycling without a veil.

The Guardian

The Sunni majority is using blasphemy laws to target and murder those they call 'heretics'.

The Guardian

The head of the national schools inspectorate has told Britain's strictly Orthodox Jewish community that there is nothing more she can do to be flexible, in an interview about sex and relationship education.

Jewish News

Catholics wait nearly twice as long to be housed than their Protestant counterparts in Northern Ireland, according to official statistics.

Belfast Telegraph

The most senior police officer on duty before the Manchester Arena attack had taken an "unacceptable" two-hour break before the bombing, the inquiry heard.

BBC

A German man who came to the UK in search of work was found sharing ISIS propaganda videos of horrific beheadings, a court heard.

Mail Online

French police have raided the homes of dozens of suspected Islamic radicals following the beheading of a teacher who showed cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad to his pupils.

BBC

Prosecutors said they detained two men, one the father of a pupil at the school and another on the radar of intelligence services, who they said had used social media to turn a dispute over the civics class into a campaign against the teacher.

Reuters

Samuel Paty, slaughtered for a lesson in tolerance, has become a martyr for the Republic, says John Lichfield

Unherd

The 40-year-old doctor, who left Lebanon for Germany in 2002, said he had promised his wife he would not shake another woman's hand, and that he was prevented from doing so for religious reasons.

The Independent