"I am struck to say something about the new law that is coming into place on 1st April (2024).

I'm not sure that it's a good thing at all, it seems to take away some of the important things that are good for our society: the ability to speak honestly, to speak kindly, to speak clearly, to have a reasonable debate about all sorts of important matters, and I for one wouldn’t like to see us closing down debate on important topics.

One of those topics for us is the topic of life and of the freedom that God's gift of life gives to all of us.

Of course we want people to debate with charity, always with charity, but there always needs to be an honesty about what is said in our exchanges with people, and I hope and pray that that will continue.

I mention this because of the context that we find ourselves in praying for life and for a respect for life, and for a greater love and charity towards those who feel the urge or the wish, or who feel under pressure to have their children aborted and for the children themselves.

And it remains a concern for Christians since the very first times, the very earliest times, and so we include that in our prayers.

And it's also a good time to talk about it during Lent and as we prepare for Easter, because Easter is to some great extent, about freedom, it’s about freedom from sin, freedom from death and it's also about a freedom that allows us to do something more.

Freedom is not the ability to do whatever we want. Freedom is really about serving God and about being able to do what the Lord wills for us.

And it seems that sometimes this is overlooked or forgotten and I would like us to be able to pray for a renewed sense of the true purpose of our freedom and that is to serve God, to love each other and to be happy with him in Paradise."