Postal workers in Jersey refused to deliver audio recordings of St Mark’s Gospel after deeming it “offensive material”. Several churches clubbed together to pay for 45,000 CDs to be produced to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. A copy of the recording was due to be delivered to every household on the Channel Island of Jersey. But church leaders were left reeling after Jersey Post claimed that the CDs could offend people and refused to deliver them.
A reparative therapy conference, which aims to help people who struggle with same sex attraction, was denied to use of the Medical School Foundation (UM) facilities in Poznan, Poland. The conference, featuring psychologist Dr. Joseph Nicolosi of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), received criticisms from Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, and it was after them that UM decided not to host the event. Gazeta Wyborcza highlighted that the American Psychological Association (APA) has concerns about the effects of treatment for same-sex attraction.
Volker Beck, member of the German Bundestag (parliament) and speaker on human rights issues of the Green party, has launched an initiative to engage the German Medical Association against the German Union of Catholic Physicians (BKÄ). On their website, the BKÄ provides informations about therapeutic options in case of unwanted same-sex attraction.
The media group Premier Christian Radio's advertizment on the marginalization of Christians in the workplace was banned by the Radio Advertising Clearance Centre (RACC) for being “politically motivated”. Even though the ad was modified and redone several times, RACC upheld the ban.
In Freiburg, the Agency for Public Order restricted access around the entrance area of Pro Familia (an organisation which offers pregnancy conflict counseling including the option of abortion) for counsellors of the faith-based nonprofit association „Centre of Life - Helpers of God’s Precious Infants“ (Lebenszentrum - Helfer für Gottes kostbare Kinder e.V.) The aim of the associaton is to encourage and support expecting mothers in conflict to give birth to their child by offering differents kinds of support.
The local authorities in Munich (Kreisverwaltungsreferat, KVR) have prohibited all pro life activity in front of Germany’s biggest abortion clinic (Dr. Friedrich Stapf, 4000 abortions per year) and called the so-called side-walk counselling a serious impropriety („grobe Ungehörigkeit“) to be punished by a fine of 500 €.
The campaign “Calling the Pope to Account” sued Pope Benedict XVI at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for crimes against humanity. The charges are: “the preservation and leadership of a worldwide totalitarian regime of coercion, which subjugates its members with terrifying and health-endangering threats; the adherence to a fatal forbiddance of the use of condoms, even when the danger of HIV-AIDS infection exists; and the establishment and maintenance of a worldwide system of cover-up of the sexual crimes committed by Catholic priests and their preferential treatment, which aids and abets ever new crimes”. The campaign is supported by posters and a book publication.
A French history teacher was permanently dismissed for showing his students a video on abortion and talking about French abortion law.
Apple suppresses diversity of belief by shutting down two Christian iPhone applications claiming that the were “offensive to large groups of people”, and the support of traditional marriage, family, and life “expose[d] a group to harm” and delivered “hate speech”.
An Italian school from Genova, Pertini-Diaz, rejected Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco’s visit. The spokesperson for Pertini-Diaz expressed concerns about the pastoral purpose of the visit, and the security staff that the cardinal would bring along with him. The Pertini-Diaz school would however welcome a non-pastoral visit.