Category Gender

Opus Dei accused of lobbying to prevent Irish abortion reform

The Guardian reports:
Leading doctor and politician John Crown says secret Catholic sect is trying to prevent limited abortion being made legal

Public support for abortion reform has grown in Ireland since Savita Halappanavar died from blood poisoning after a Galway hospital refused to terminate her pregnancy. Photograph: Peter Muhly/AFP/Getty Images
The secret ultra-conservative Catholic sect Opus Dei is mobilising within the Irish professions to stop the republic reforming its abortion laws, one of the country’s most prominent doctors has warned.
John Crown, a leading cancer specialist and member of parliament, accused the powerful organisation of trying to exercise influence on the medical profession and politicians to prevent limited abortion being made legal for the first time in Ireland.

Why burqas / niqabs are controversial

Burqas are back on the agenda in the UK. This is because there was a recent furore within the British legal aystem. A Muslim woman was barred from serving on a jury because she refused to remove her veil. In a controversial ruling, a judge said she could not sit on an attempted murder trial because her full face covering (niqab) concealed her expressions.

Is there a gender schism in heaven?

Here is a great question I saw in the Guardian which raises a whole set of other questions, like all good questions do:

Are Christian souls in the afterlife as segregated by gender as we are on earth?

Souls. What are they, and do they engender gender, so to speak?

Church of England general synod votes against women bishops

The general synod of the Church of England has voted against the appointment of women as bishops.
The decision came at the end of a day of debate by supporters and opponents – and a 12-year legislative process.
The measure was passed by the synod’s houses of bishops and clergy but was rejected by the house of laity.
Controversy had centred on the provisions for parishes opposed to women bishops to request supervision by a stand-in male bishop.