A Labour MP who has just died was a Roman Catholic and a
strong supporter of pro-life issues and traditional marriage. Jim Dobbin had
been an MP for 17 years; he was co-chairman of the All-Parliamentary Pro-Life
Group. Labour leader Ed Milliband has said that he will “miss Jim’s friendship
and decency.”
Malta, the last European country to outlaw all abortion, has
a new (Labour party) president. When asked about abortion by a pro-life
umbrella group, Marie Preca said that she was “personally dead set against”
abortion and that she would never sign legislation to legalise it. Malta has,
however, had significantly reduced attendances at Mass over the past 10 years,
and with widespread use of contraception and significant numbers of women
travelling abroad for abortions, the fertility rate has fallen to an average of
1.45 births per woman, which is low enough for the government to be concerned
about maintaining the population. A government spokeswoman said, “We know that
we’re up against a change in lifestyle that is promoting the Culture of Death
instead of the culture of life.”
The Government is pressing ahead with plans to allow genetic
engineers to create three-parent embryos, despite a recent poll finding that
only 18% of people supported such procedures (46% were opposed). A Labour MP
said, “The Government is pushing this through on the entirely false notion that
these [procedures] are cures for mitochondrial disease. Worse, they making
those concerned about safety feel as if they somehow want to see people with
the disease suffer.”
After Guinness and other organisations withdrew support from
last year’s St Patrick’s Day parade in New York because it refused to allow gay
groups to participate (despite the Irish Prime Minister participating because
he said “the parade is about Irishness, not about special interest groups”),
the organisers have decided to allow a gay group to march under its own banner
in next year’s parade. Now criticism is being directed at the Catholic Cardinal
of New York, Timothy Dolan, for saying that the organisers had his “confidence
and support” in making the change, and in agreeing to act as grand marshal of
the parade. A blog post by Monsignor Charles Pope read, “It’s time to cancel
the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and the Al Smith Dinner and all the other
‘Catholic’ traditions that have been hijacked by the world.”
Two “Christian” films due to be released this year are
coming under different types of pressure. “Unbroken”, directed by Angelina Jolie,
tells the true life story of an American Olympic athlete who has an incredible
story of survival during World War Two – but Jolie is apparently minimising his
Christian conversion after the war, which led him on a mission to forgive the Japanese POW guards who had hurt him. And “Saving Christmas,” starring regular
Christian film actor Kirk Cameron, has had its website hacked by a militant
Islamic group.
In sports news, Northern Ireland are top of their Euro 2016
qualifying group. Admittedly only one match has been played, but the result was
a surprise 2-1 away win for the Irish in Hungary. The Republic of Ireland also
obtained a 2-1 win against Georgia, and England beat Switzerland 2-0, but
Scotland slipped to a 2-1 defeat against World Cup winners Germany.
In technology news, Dyson have released a robot vacuum
cleaner that includes a camera allowing the robot to see where it’s going and
where it’s been. James Dyson describes the Eye 360 as “the first robot vacuum
cleaner worthy of the name.”
And finally, a former Apple employee called Sam Sung decided
to auction his former business card, security pass and uniform for charity.
Bidding on Ebay has reached $80,100.
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