MANCHESTER (CNS): British foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said in a July 8 news conference in London said the government would commit itself to a robust defense of persecuted Christians following a new report into their plight.
 
He said the report would lead to a “sea change in our approach” to the global persecution of Christians.
 

MANCHESTER (CNS): “If notice can be given by just one party that they wish to leave the marriage without any recourse for the party that has been left, the equality and validity of that contract, and the trust and commitment vital for its success will be undermined at the outset,” The introduction of “no-fault” divorces in the United Kingdom (UK) will undermine marriages from the outset, said Bishop Peter Doyle of Northampton, speaking on behalf of the Catholic bishops of England and Wales on April 9.
 

YORK (CNS): Members of Ealing Council, west of London, the United Kingdom (UK), voted on April 10 to establish a public space protection order, banning public prayer and offers of assistance to women within 100 metres of an abortion clinic run by Marie Stopes UK.
 

LONDON (CNS): The archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Cardinal Nichols, said in a congratulatory note to the new prime minister of Britain, Theresa May, that he is delighted at her appointment, because of the commitment she has shown in the fight against human trafficking.

May took over as leader of the ruling Conservative Party on July 13 after David Cameron formally resigned and has now moved into 10 Downing Street as the prime minister.

OXFORD (SE): While Church leaders in the United Kingdom (UK) expressed concern over the possible fallout from the 52 to 48 per cent vote to quit the European Union, bishops on the continent pointed out that the decision runs directly in the face of the call of the modern world for unity.

LIVERPOOL (CNS): Catholic people throughout the world truly do support those in even far-flung places who are suffering from oppression and other forms of persecution, the archbishop of Yangon in the Union of Myanmar, Charles Cardinal Maung Bo, told a gathering in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King in Liverpool, the United Kingdom, on May 22.

MANCHESTER (CNS): Vincent Cardinal Nichols, from Westminster, the United Kingdom (UK), welcomed a U-turn by the British government over the resettlement of child refugees.

HONG KONG (UCAN): Sitting members of the Conservative government attacked their own party during question time in the British parliament on October 22, voicing fears that rights and religious freedoms were being forfeited during negotiations with the visiting president of China, Xi Jinping, in the name of closer business ties.

HONG KONG (SE): With the passing of same-sex marriage legislation in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom (UK) and what has been already passed in the state senate of Illinois in the United States of America (US), Catholics have been asking what implications this has for the Church, which has persistently opposed the law.


The Church did not invent marriage, nor did it define it as a union between a man and a woman, the tradition precedes the foundation of the Church, which has always considered marriage as something coming from nature.