麻豆社

Earlier this month, 26 women wrote to Pope Francis, asking him to make priestly celibacy in the Catholic Church optional. When the Pope was asked about the issue earlier this week, he said that while he sees celibacy as 鈥渁 gift to the church鈥�, he feels that 鈥渢he door is always open鈥� to change. According to Advent, the support group for men and women and their partners who have left the active ministry, in the last 50 years some 10,000 men in England and Wales have left the priesthood in order to marry. So could celibacy ever be optional in the Catholic Church? Jenni is joined by Alex Walker, who left the priesthood to marry 25 years ago and now runs Advent, and Madeleine Teahan, Associate Editor of the Catholic Herald.

There鈥檚 been a lot of discussion in American papers in recent weeks about who may run for President in the 2016 US elections. It鈥檚 rumoured that Hillary Clinton may again be put forward as the Democratic candidate. Of course if she was to win she would be the first woman ever to do so - but she鈥檚 certainly not the first woman ever to have made a bid for it. Back in 1872 American women鈥檚 rights campaigner Victoria Claflin was the first woman ever to run for President, with former slave and civil rights activist Frederick Douglass as her running mate. She and her sister Tennie were also the first women in America to open a brokerage on Wall Street, and ran a weekly newspaper where they published articles on women鈥檚 suffrage, the labour market, and civil rights. They also advocated 鈥渇ree love鈥� 鈥� women鈥檚 right to take lovers without being married 鈥� and as a result were embroiled in one of America鈥檚 biggest sex scandals of the day. The Scarlett Sisters: Sex, Suffrage and Scandal in the Gilded Age charts Victoria and Tennie鈥檚 lives, from humble beginnings to eventually marrying two of the richest men in England. The author Myra MacPherson joins Jenni. 聽 聽聽

Last week, at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, governments reviewed the Every Newborn Action Plan. It鈥檚 the first time there has been a global plan that targets the preventable deaths of newborn babies and mothers within a generation, and UNICEF and the World Health Organisation launch it in June. Targets include the promotion of breastfeeding, neonatal resuscitation, kangaroo mother care for preterm babies, and the prevention and treatment of infections, all that must be achieved by 2030. But are the targets achievable and how will they be funded?

Jenni speaks to Dr Hannah Blencowe, one of the authors of the Lancet Every Newborn series which contributed evidence to the Every Newborn Action Plan, and to Professor Nynke van den Broek, Head of the Centre for Maternal and Newborn Health at the Liverpool School of tropical medicine.

Margaret and Kathleen Wright are twins and they were seven when they left their parents in Southend to live with Joyce Johnson and her father in Derbyshire.聽 Margaret and Kathleen are now 81 and Joyce is 95 but they are still in touch after all these years. Bob Walker went to one of their reunions at Joyce's house.