Founded in 1997, and headquartered in Brussels, the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe (FAFCE) represents 33 national and local associations. It holds a participatory status with the Council of Europe since 2001 and is a member of the Fundamental Rights Platform of the European Union.
Their advocacy work ranges from drawing attention to plunging birth rates, to work-family balance, protection of children, the harms of pornography, and matters of life and human dignity.
Hungarian MEP, Kinga Gál, deplored the move saying FAFCE is “being punished simply for defending family as the fundamental unit of society”, a view which is now treated as “unacceptable” in Brussels due to “gender ideology”.
Separately, the well known World Youth Alliance (WYA) saw their funding rejected on the basis of their pro-life views. The WYA campaigns for human dignity “from conception till natural death” and has been advocating on behalf of life at major United Nations events since 1999.
A Danish donor whose sperm was used to create at least 197 children across 14 countries in Europe, passed a cancer-causing gene to them, a major investigation has found.
Many of the children developed cancer, with some dying at a very early age.
The donor’s sperm was also sold to Ireland, though records do not show any children having been born from it.
The case highlights the lack of controls over the number of children one donor can procreate, and the danger of using eggs and sperm bought on a commercial market without full knowledge of its genetic heritage.
Sperm from Donor 7069, alias ‘Kjeld’, was made available by the European Sperm Bank (ESB) to 67 clinics between 2006 and 2023, when it was blocked from the market.
‘Kjeld’ was a student in 2005 when he started donating at the Copenhagen branch of the ESB after passing all medical tests.
In 2023, however, a gene mutation which dramatically increases the risk of cancer was discovered in a portion of his sperm cells, after doctors reported seeing children he fathered with the TP53 mutation.
It led to the issuing of an international alert to health authorities and fertility clinics.
A ruling by the European Court of Justice requiring member states to recognise same-sex marriages completed in other EU nations has been criticised by Catholic leaders.
In a statement, the presidency of the Commission of the Episcopates of the European Union (COMECE) said the ruling contradicts EU guarantees of the autonomy of national judiciaries to determine their own policies on matters such as marriage and family life.
They said it also opens the door to further skepticism and hostility toward Europe at a time when the continent’s role in global affairs is facing unprecedented challenges.
“We note with worry the trend to apply provisions that should protect sensitive components of national legal systems in a way that impoverishes their meaning,” COMECE said following a meeting on the matter.
The ruling is problematic because it imposes acceptance of same-sex marriage, even on more traditional member states, for many of whom “the definition of marriage forms part of their national identity.”
The head of the HSE has issued an “unequivocal” apology and said an independent review will take place into the case of a couple who agreed to have an abortion after being wrongly advised that their healthy unborn baby had a so-called ‘fatal foetal abnormality’.
Rebecca Price and Pat Kiely were told that a blood test when Ms Price was 12 weeks’ pregnant with their first child in early 2019 was positive for Trisomy 18, a serious and rare genetic disorder, also known as Edwards’ Syndrome.
A further rapid result polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test carried out in a Glasgow laboratory also showed Trisomy 18 had been detected.
Ms Price and Mr Kiely said they followed the advice of their consultant and terminated the unborn child’s life in March 2019.
The results of a full cell culture test, however, showed that the baby did not have the condition.
In 2021, the couple settled High Court actions with medical consultants operating at the Merrion Fetal Health Clinic, the National Maternity Hospital and a Glasgow laboratory admitting full liability.
A retired pastor is being prosecuted in Northern Ireland under abortion buffer zone laws for an open-air sermon on God’s love for humanity, even though abortion was never mentioned.
76-year-old, Clive Johnston, a former President of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland, is facing two charges for holding a Sunday service on the fringes of a buffer zone on the other side of a dual carriageway from Coleraine’s Causeway Hospital on 7 July last year.
According to the Act, it is now a criminal offence for people to be “impeded, recorded, influenced or to be caused harassment, alarm or distress” within 100-150m of hospitals or clinics that offer abortions.
The Pastor spoke on John 3:16, a famous Bible verse that states, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”.
Crucially, it is not alleged that he even mentioned abortion. Nor were there any abortion placards or banners.
If convicted, the grandfather of seven, who has never been in trouble with the police, faces a criminal record and maximum fines totalling thousands of pounds.
This is an 84% increase compared to the year ending 31 March 2021, when there were 1,574 abortions.
There was a 103% increase in late abortions at 13 weeks and over, with 154 abortions occurring at 13 weeks and over, up from 76 for the year ending 31 March 2024.
The statistics show that there was also a 19% increase in disability-selective abortions for ‘non-fatal disabilities’ from the year ending 31 March 2022. Under ground E of the 2020 Regulations, babies with Down’s syndrome, cleft lip and club foot can be aborted right through to birth.
There was also a 61% increase in abortions for girls under 18 years old from the year ending 31 March 2021.
A proposed bill to intensify a crackdown on public displays of religion, including prayer, would radically infringe the rights and freedoms of the people of Quebec, according to the province’s Catholic Bishops.
Bill 9, introduced by the governing Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) on Thursday, bans prayer in public institutions, including in colleges and universities. It also bans communal prayer on public roads and in parks, with the threat of large fines for groups in contravention of the prohibition.
Short public events will require prior approval to be exempt.
“This latter point is particularly worrying, as we have long considered that secularism concerns not relations within society, but the relationship between the state and religions”.
Committed secularists who oppose Christianity in schools fail to see their own principles depend in large part on wisdom born of the faith.
That’s according to the Bishop of Down and Connor, Alan McGuickian.
Bishop McGuickian was commenting on a recent ruling of the UK Supreme Court that state schools in Northern Ireland should not be teaching Christianity ‘as true’.
Bishop McGuckian, however, said he wanted to challenge the principle that Christianity should be given no priority at all in schools, saying it, “is simply ungrounded, unreasonable and illogical.”
“Those who seek to have Christianity sidelined in our shared society are cutting off their noses to spite their face. The very values and principles on which they base their case are rooted in western civilisation which owes a great debt to the teachings of Christianity.”
“The idea of the rights of the individual to be free from coercion, all the freedoms contained in the various charters of human rights, are based on and stem from the biblical teaching that every single person is created ‘in the image and likeness of God’.
The UK’s National Trust has refused a documentary-maker permission to film at a historic site in Northumberland associated with the life and legacy of St Cuthbert due to the filmmaker’s “religious affiliation”.
Christian Holden, who specialises in documentary and promotional work with Christian themes, was commissioned earlier this year to produce a work exploring the Way of St Cuthbert.
He sought permission from the National Trust, a charity dedicated to preserving the UK’s historic cultural legacy, to film at St Cuthbert’s Cave, traditionally believed to be the place where St Cuthbert’s body was laid in 875 AD.
However, the National Trust declined the request, citing a policy against filming with “religious affiliation”. The Trust also expressed disapproval of Holden’s website, saintant.com, because of its religious themes.
The refusal comes in the wake of criticism of the Trust for sidelining Christian heritage in its public programming and internal culture. The shift risks marginalising the country’s foundational Christian history, which has significantly shaped Britain’s culture, architecture and national identity.
The Catholic Bishops of England and Wales have welcomed the UK government’s decision to scrap the two-child cap on allowances and tax credits for children.
Bishop Richard Moth said that the policy, instituted by the Conservative Government in 2017 directly pushed many families into poverty and created anxiety for low-income, working families who had no choice but to claim social welfare [Universal Credit] as a result of job loss or the onset of disability.
“Repealing this policy, although overdue, comes at a significant cost to the government and we applaud that decision”, he added.
“Large families are a blessing rather than a burden. We must consider how, in a variety of ways, we can support the flourishing of families which are necessary to secure the future of our society.“
