On Friday June 24th a public hearing was held in the National Chamber of Deputies to promote a popular initiative to repeal the dictatorial regulations that economically and symbolically benefit the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church. The activity was organised by OLA (Organizaciones Laicistas de Argentina), a group of approximately 50 Read more…
Fifty years after Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court of the United States rules abortion out of constitutional rights In a case between an abortion clinic and the State of Mississippi1, of which a recent law prohibits the carrying out of abortions after the fifteenth week of amenorrhea, and following Read more…
In May 1942, 80 years ago, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in France sent a leaflet to the entire population about World War II. The leaflet which follows, unearthed by International Association of Freethinkers’ spokesperson Keith Porteous Wood, commanded allegiance to Marshall Pétain, a puppet of Hitler and the Nazis. Read more…
By Keith Porteous WOOD* The French bishops have announced, belatedly, that the Church will bear compensation for victims of clerical sexual abuse<https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/france-catholic-church-abuse-victims-b1954021.html>, and that it will be proportionate, as the French Commission CIASE recommended. It estimated that at least a third of a million minors were victims of abuse in Read more…
By Keith Porteous Wood – October 8, 2021 An inquiry commissioned by the Catholic Church into clerical abuse in France has just concluded that victims of both clerics and laicity (teachers, for example) totalled around a third of a million since 1950. In no country in the world has such Read more…
Keith Porteous Wood, spokesperson of IAFT and President of the National Secular Society (UK) cites numerous examples of clerics seemingly not being subjected to French law for failing to report suspected clerical abuse of minors, as has been required since 2000. He argues that fundamental changes are needed for victims Read more…
Keith Porteous Wood, spokesperson of IAFT and President of the National Secular Society (UK) considers the contradictions of the French courts’ final ruling on Cardinal Barbarin’s failure to report suspected clerical abuse of minors and its troubling consequences France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, ruled on 14 April that Read more…
Argentina, 22 February 2021 Dear Friends: First of all, we would like to salute the organizations that are fighting for secularism in Argentina. We invite you (groups with or without legal status) to join OLA (Organizaciones Laicistas Argentinas) whose objective is to articulate actions aimed at demanding equal treatment of Read more…
The publication of the list of immatriculated goods by the Catholic Church, between 1998 and 2015, as a result of a legal breach that has allowed the registration in the name of the Catholic Church of the historical heritage of religious origin has been accompanied by a shameful government report Read more…
by Keith Porteous Wood President of the National Secular Society (NSS) and spoke-person of the International Association of Freethought Fri, 05 Feb 2021 The misery which women and children faced for decades highlights the damage that can be done when states leave religious authority unchecked, says NSS president Keith Porteous Read more…