Irish Abortion Bill Passed…

Irish Abortion Bill Passed…

 Update – article submitted by blogger Leo…

For He must reign, until He hath put all His enemies under His feet – 1 Corinthians 15:25

“With God and Jesus Christ excluded from political life, with authority derived not from God but from man, the very basis of that authority has been taken away, because the chief reason of the distinction between ruler and subject has been eliminated. The result is that human society is tottering to its fall.” – Pope Pius XI, Quas Primus, 1925

July 12 2013 will surely enter Irish history as a day of unsurpassed treachery and shame. On that day, one of the last remaining sanctuaries in the western world to protect the inalienable right to life of the unborn was breeched by the battering rams of the kingdom of satan. The cackles from hell can almost be heard. On that day, the democratically elected Irish parliament voted to permit the direct, intentional killing of unborn children up to birth; children created by God to know, love and serve Him, and, by means of His sanctifying grace, one day enjoy the Beatific Vision. This descent into the barbarism which permits the unspeakably reality of abortion, a crime which cries out to Heaven, can only be described as demonic.

Indeed, the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking who he may devour. – 1 Peter 5:8

The term, “banality of evil” springs readily to mind, given the public discourse that has taken place in recent months. Out of 158 members of parliament to vote, just 25 were prepared to stand in front of the abortionists’ tanks.

Thou shalt not follow the multitude to do evil: neither shalt thou yield in judgement to the opinion of the most part (majority) to stray from the truth. – Exodus 23:2

The forces of the international abortion industry have certainly been screeching through the keyhole for decades. That does nothing to lessen the shame and bitterness at this time. A generation ago, the prospect of unborn children being butchered in Irish hospitals would have been considered unthinkable by the vast majority of the populace. It would most certainly have been considered unthinkable by our ancestors would rose in the middle of the night to attend the Holy Sacrifice offered by a hunted priest at a Mass rock in woods and glens, and on windswept hillsides.

The sixteenth century chieftain Shane O’Neill proclaimed that the Irish people bow to no one but God. Well, the Fine Gael Party, by far the largest partner in the governing coalition, have certainly bowed to lucifer’s minions in the abortion industry. This is a party that made assiduous efforts to court the pro-life before the last election, efforts that included a formal assurance not to legislate for abortion.

Within months, there were grounds for suspecting deception, when the State’s health service funded a so-called “masterclass” entitled “Termination of a pregnancy: A lawful choice”. The deceit and obfuscation has accompanied the carefully orchestrated assault against the rights of the unborn ever since. Amidst an actively campaigning media, the voices of those standing up for the unborn in the public square have been almost drowned out. Over the last year, law of God that is written in men’s hearts has been battered on an almost daily basis by the servants of the father of lies. The assault against truth culminated in the naming of the legislation, the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill; surely an outrageous distortion of language of which Joseph Goebbels would have been proud.

Lies and totalitarianism make comfortable companions of course. Those Fine Gael members of parliament who stood for the unborn, are, at the time of writing being threatened with de-selection at the next election, for doing exactly what they undertook before the electorate to do.

The plotters’ attention to detail and the totalitarian nature of this legislation is demonstrated in a very significant provision that has received very little public attention, namely the fact that Catholic hospitals will now be compelled to kill unborn children under threat of losing their public funding. This is how “liberated” and “tolerant”, and hostile to divine law 21st century Ireland has become.

None of this should come as surprise in view of this government’s kulturkampf agenda. Two years ago Enda Kenny infamously misled parliament and the whole country in an unsubstantiated tirade against the Church and a truly scurrilous attack against Pope Benedict in particular. Since then his government has closed Ireland’s embassy to the Vatican, has carried a children’s rights referendum, which provides for the state’s supplanting of the place of parents, and is attempting to gradually push the Church out of education. Further attack on the family in the form of so-called same sex “marriage” is very likely to be on agenda before long.

In May,Enda Kenny, who claims to be a practising Catholic, reportedly gave us the following example of the endemic confusion and aversion to reason found amongst post Vatican II Catholics:

“Everybody’s entitled to their opinion here but as explained to the Cardinal and members of the church my book is the constitution and the constitution is determined by the people. That’s the people’s book. We live in a Republic and I have a duty and responsibility as head of Government to legislate in respect of what the people’s wishes are.”

Kenny and his supporters need to read the Irish Constitution. It opens with the following lines:

“In the name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred.

We, the people of Eire,

Humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained our fathers through centuries of trial.”

The writings of Father Denis Fahey, an Irish Holy Ghost priest who died sixty years ago tell us much about the Church’s traditional teaching on the Social Kingship of Christ. In his foreword to Grand Orient Freemasonry Unmasked, by Monsignor George Dillon, Father Fahey summarized the French Revolution’s Declaration of the Rights of Man (“a Masonic production”) as a formal renunciation of allegiance to Christ the King, of the supernatural life, and of membership in Christ’s Mystical Body:

“The French State thereby officially declared that it no longer acknowledged any duty to God through Our Lord Jesus Christ, and no longer recognized the dignity of membership of Christ in its citizens. It thus inaugurated the attack on the organization of society under Christ the King which has continued down to the present day.”

Father Fahey must be turning in his grave to see how the dark workshops have set about his own land, a land where in 1936 Mullingar cathedral was the first one in the world dedicated to Christ the King, following Pope Pius XI’s 1925 encyclical, Quas Primas. The current rulers of Ireland, whether or not they are taking instruction from unseen forces, are openly rebelling reign of Christ over Society. Church teaching leaves no doubt on the matter.

“For since God is the source of all goodness and justice, it is absolutely ridiculous that the State should pay no attention to these laws or render them abortive by contrary enactments.”- Pope Leo XIII, in Libertas Praestantissimum, #18

“…Civil society must acknowledge God as its Founder and Parent, and must obey and reverence His power and authority. Justice therefore forbids, and reason itself forbids, the State to be godless…” ibid, #21

“That the State must be separated from the Church is a thesis absolutely false, a most pernicious error…” – Pope Saint Pius X, Vehementer Nos, #3

“Once the authority of God and the sway of His law are denied in this way, the civil authority as an inevitable result tends to attribute to itself that absolute autonomy which belongs exclusively to the Supreme Maker. It puts itself in the place of the Almighty and elevates the State or group into the last end of life, the supreme criterion of the moral and juridical order, and therefore forbids every appeal to the principles of natural reason and of the Christian conscience.” – Pope Pius XII, Summi Pontificatus, #53

And yet can we really be surprised by the imposition of the demonic killing of unborn children on Ireland? Over the course of a middle aged lifetime the ever increasing apostasy has become less and less silent. Who would argue about the withdrawal of graces in the face of the dwindling practice of saying the family rosary, or the fact that the number of times that the Mass which Saint Patrick brought to Ireland was offered, was but a tiny fraction of that in times of vicious persecution?

Who can deny the role that the Vatican II innovations of ecumenism, religious liberty and collegiality have played?

Ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue has surely inculcated the mindset that everyone has their own version of the truth, with no such thing as one, God-given truth that is not up for discussion. The mantra about respecting the great god child of moral relativism, “choice” is given a constant hearing in the abortion debate.

Since the Conciliar novelty of religious liberty, we no longer hear Prelates talk about the State’s duty to promote and protect the one true religion and enact laws in accordance with the law of God. Again, the bitter fruits of a “neutral” state in matters of morality, the exultation of individual conscience, and the accordance of rights to error are obvious to everyone when it comes to the horrors of abortion.

“…the city cannot be built otherwise than as God has built it; society cannot be set up unless the Church lay the foundations and supervises the work; no, civilisation is not something yet to be found, nor is the New City to be built on hazy notions; it has been in existence and still is: it is the Christian civilisation, it the Catholic city.” – Pope Saint Pius X, Our Apostolic Mandate, #11

Vatican II’s program of collegiality and its undermining of the hierarchical structure of Christ’s Church appears to have played a very significant part in the Church in Ireland failing to mount a vigorous, effective battle against the forces of satan and the supreme example of child abuse, abortion.

Constant talk of the merits of anti-clericalism and democratization, and the Church as the “people of God” can’t but lead Catholics into the temptation of believing that doctrine is not immutable, and is almost a matter of public opinion. A passing familiarity with the outpourings of the press, both Catholic and secular, is sufficient to understand the grave dangers.

The Church in Ireland now appears to have the combative strength of the French Army in early June 1940. Instead of the Church Militant and Catholic Action we now have the Church discussing and proposing a point of view. Instead of proclaiming the law of God we hear talk of persuasion and freedom of conscience.

Without being privy to episcopal discussions on the matter, there are grounds for very serious concerns on the matter of collegiality and refusing Holy Communion to politicians described by Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin on 10 July as being guilty of “co-operation in evil”.

In May, Archbishop Martin, who succeeds Cardinal Sean Brady next year, said that legislators who supported abortion were excommunicating themselves.

“You cannot regard yourself as a person of faith and support abortion,” he told the ‘Sunday Times’. “If a legislator comes to me and says, ‘Can I be a faithful Catholic and support abortion?’ I would say no. Your communion is ruptured if you support abortion.

“You are excommunicating yourself. Any legislator who clearly and publicly states this should not approach looking for communion.”

Well, collegiality appears to have scuppered any intentions by the Irish bishops to issue a united, unequivocal warning to politicians on this issue. Before the vote there was no such “collegial” warning. Truly lamentable, but not exactly surprising, given that earlier in May, Cardinal Brady stated publicly that amongst the bishops, “there would be a great reluctance to politicize the Eucharist.”  Click here to read this report in full 

Ignorance or lack of instruction can’t be offered as an excuse for this gross dereliction. In March, Pope Francis gave written support to the Argentine Bishops’ instruction that legislators, heads of government, and health professionals “cannot receive Holy Communion and at the same time act with deeds or words against the commandments, particularly when abortion, euthanasia, and other grave crimes against life and family are encouraged.” Cardinal Ratzinger spelt everything out to the US bishops in 2004, and earlier this year Cardinal Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s highest legal tribunal, came to the aid of any bishops whom might be suffering from amnesia.

Are Saint Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 11:27 to mean anything at all in Ireland? Is human respect to outweigh concern to avert sacrilege? Say a prayer for those good and faithful priests who will be faced with the outstretched hands of pro-abortion politicians who approach them for Holy Communion.

How many Irish politicians would have had their consciences awoken to oppose this legislation if the bishops had been willing to speak the words of one of the Church’s great champions in the battle against hostile secular powers?

“He who asserts that he cannot be bound by the Church’s bonds, confesses that he cannot be loosed by her authority. And he who makes such an assertion, separates himself wholly from Christ.” – Pope Saint Gregory VII, Letter to Bishop Hermann of Metz, 1076 AD

Anyone still inclined to illusion about the “New Springtime” ought to come and see the devastation wrought in Ireland by the modernist frenzy of self-destruction otherwise known as Conciliar kenosis. Cromwell was a total failure in comparison. Come and look in the eye the broken hearted and despairing parents and grandparents of apostates and tell them this is all the work of the Holy Ghost.

So, what now for the “freedom and exultation of the Church” in Ireland? Will we be faced with a hitherto unthinkable prospect of some kind of Erastian, national Church as in Tudor England? Will there some sort of Constitutional clergy, loyal to the revolt of man against God, as in France little more than two centuries ago?

The words of Pope Pius XI in his 1937 condemnation of Nazism in Mit Brennender Sorge bear repetition at this time of temptation to despair:

“…the enemies of the Church, who think that their time has come, will see that their joy was premature, and that they may close the grave they had dug.”- #42

The battle to protect the mothers and children of Ireland from the scourge of abortion will go on for as long as necessary, as will the task of restoring the Social Kingship of Christ. The Catholic remnant in Ireland now look to our ancestors who clung to the Faith through dungeon, fire and sword, and who through the Penal Laws and starvation refused to consider apostasy. We look to our martyrs for the faith, in the coming times of white persecution; those martyrs such as Saint Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh, Bishop Dermot O’Hurley of Cashel, and Margaret Ball protector of hunted priests. We call on the help of Saint Patrick, Saint Brigid and all our evangelizing saints.

But if doing well you suffer patiently; this is thankworthy before God.  1 Peter 2:21

The furnace trieth the potter’s vessels, and the trial of affliction just men. Ecclesiasticus 27:6

In the face of the “spirits of wickedness in the high places” (Ephesians 6:12) all those who hold to the faith handed down to us must implore the intercession of Saint Joseph, guardian of the Holy Family: “Aid us from on high, most valiant defender, in this conflict with the powers of darkness.”

Amidst the dark clouds overshadowing the island of Ireland, we cling to our rosaries, as did the dead generations, and pray with absolute confidence in Mary, Mother of God and Mediatrix of all graces. We pray with certain knowledge that in the end Her Immaculate Heart will triumph.

Our Lady of Knock, ora pro nobis.

Original Report…

Lawmakers in the Republic of Ireland have voted to allow abortion under certain conditions for the first time, following a marathon debate.

In a 127-31 vote, they backed allowing a termination when doctors deemed that a woman was at risk of taking her life.

The debate revealed deep splits over the issue in the predominantly Catholic country, with a government minister resigning earlier.

Anti-abortion activists say the measure could lead to more widespread abortion..  Read more

Laughably, one report described Kenny as “privately a devout Catholic” – yeah right.

Will Canon Law # 915 be applied to this scoundrel?  A man now personally responsible, on the passing of this evil law, for the murder of countless innocent lives?  Or is it more “charitable” not to “pass judgment” on him at the moment of receiving Holy Communion?  Of course… why not just ignore those terrifying words in Scripture about the damning (literally) consequences of eating and drinking the Lord’s Body and Blood unworthily? 

Tell us your thoughts on this unbelievable legislation being passed by  “Catholic” politicians in a once great and truly Catholic country. I look forward to reading your comments – mine are unprintable.

Comments (35)

  • spiritustempore

    Sadly, abortion is big business and there’s a lot of money to be made from it. Politicians, being the world’s second oldest profession, have an awful lot in common with the profession that came first: no morals and a love of money.

    Abortion in the UK started in exactly the same way. Lots of well-meaning nothing-speak about saving women from back-street abortionists and suicide prevention….very few women would need abortions…..etc., etc.

    Last year, 200,000 babies were aborted in the UK: near enough the equivalent to the population of Edinburgh. Public health “experts” are now advancing arguments for post-natal terminations, whereby disabled children could be murdered after birth.

    I’m so sorry to see Ireland going down the same road to Hell as the UK. Perhaps the Irish will be more steadfast in resisting this iniquitous law than we were.

    July 12, 2013 at 12:17 am
  • spiritustempore

    http://www.naturalnews.com/035276_Pepsi_fetal_cells_business_operations.html

    Back in January, Oklahoma Senator Ralph Shortey proposed legislation to ban the production of aborted fetal cell-derived flavor chemicals in his home state. If passed, S.B. 1418 would also reportedly ban the sale of any products that contain flavor chemicals derived from human fetal tissue, which includes Pepsi products as well as products produced by Kraft and Nestle

    […]

    The Obama Administration has given its blessing to PepsiCo to continue utilizing the services of a company that produces flavor chemicals for the beverage giant using aborted human fetal tissue. LifeSiteNews.com reports that the Obama Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) has decided that PepsiCo’s arrangement with San Diego, Cal.-based Senomyx, which produces flavor enhancing chemicals for Pepsi using human embryonic kidney tissue, simply constitutes “ordinary business operations.”

    July 12, 2013 at 12:21 am
    • firmiter

      Thank you for this information. I know that it’s illogical of me given the times, but I was utterly shocked by this.

      July 13, 2013 at 7:14 am
      • spiritustempore

        I was too, firmiter.

        I doubt that many women considering abortion would realise that they’re oiling the wheels of major corporations when they exercise their “right to choose”.

        There are entrenched vested interests in favour of continuing abortion, and they have an awful lot of money to throw at politicians and shaping public opinion to accept it.

        July 15, 2013 at 12:41 pm
  • editor

    spiritustempore

    It’s just unbelievable news. I am staggered that the Irish Parliament has passed this law. What a scandal. Kenny is an utter scoundrel and if his priest and bishop do not tell him and the entire world that he must not approach for Holy Communion then I truly fear for their souls.

    Have they actually SEEN an abortion, or even an small part of what happens? Nobody who has seen those tiny arms and legs being pulled from the baby’s body and watched the blood dripping, could legalise such evil, blatant murder – whatever the motive.

    God (literally) help Ireland. We’ve said it before and we’ll no doubt say it again, though for not too much longer methinks – things are moving fast, hurtling towards the final stages of the divine chastisement warned of at Fatima. Someone asked me recently if I thought the newsletter would be continuing after 2017, the 100th anniversary of the Fatima apparitions. My reply? I doubt any of us will be sitting at our computers after 13 May, 2017. I truly doubt it.

    July 12, 2013 at 12:23 am
  • spiritustempore

    Fetal-Free
    New Product Label Needed

    Introduction

    Consumers like to know their products. Either they buy trusted brand-names, or they read labels to ensure that what they are buying meets their standards. Ingredient lists inform if an undesired chemical or product is used. Statements or symbols assure a conscientious consumer that no animal testing was done, or that the product is free of peanuts, or that something is certified organic or kosher.

    But nowhere is there a label to warn of the newest, most disturbing ingredient being used in the manufacture of goods ranging from coffee, to face cream to baby shampoo. This ingredient is human fetal cells……It is conservatively estimated that each fetus is worth several thousand dollars if its parts are sold a la carte.

    Given the approximately 55 million abortions performed annually worldwide, the profits of this ghastly business are staggering.

    I haven’t linked to the article as it goes into a fair degree of written detail which is upsetting to read. The excerpts above show the commercial interests that have an interest in the Irish Parliament’s decision.

    July 12, 2013 at 12:52 am
  • spiritustempore

    Editor, it’s just hellish. There is no other word for it. If the Catholic Church in Ireland does nothing about this, then they may as well hang up their cassocks. Shame on all of them.

    July 12, 2013 at 12:55 am
    • editor

      I agree spiritustempore about the clergy and hierarchy hanging up their cassocks – and thanks for all the detail in your posts about the consumer “choice” now available thanks to the use of aborted babies. Incredible.

      July 12, 2013 at 8:21 am
  • crofterlady

    This is so tragic that words fail me. How could it come to this in the once land of saints and scholars? Besides the general degradation of society at all levels, I think the rot started in Ireland in the early seventies following the laxity brought about by the aftermath of the council. It was slower there. When the discipline went, filth and abuse of minors blossomed, followed by a public outcry orchestrated by the media. The Church was thus emasculated and lost her authority and we see the consequences this morning.

    July 12, 2013 at 8:18 am
    • editor

      CrofterLady,

      Nolite Timere answered your posts on the General Discussion thread. Unfortunately, as I was out all day yesterday, I didn’t see this reply in the moderation queue (don’t know why it went there, mystery!) but I released it late last night – in case you miss it, thought I’d alert you here. To help you trawl, he has a great new avatar, the keys of Peter which will help you find it more quickly, I hope.

      On topic

      Agree completely with you – the loss of discipline in the Church has far wide-reaching effects and the abortion bill in Ireland is one such example. The impression is now abroad that no matter what anyone does, their place in Heaven in secure. Even the Archbishop of Dublin, who never replies to letters of concern or criticism, who will not apply Canon 915 (from what I’m told to date) will go straight to Heaven, just you wait and see!

      July 12, 2013 at 8:25 am
    • firmiter

      Crofter Lady,

      I don’t think getting sentimental is going to get us very far. Ireland is, and probably never has been, no more a land of saints and scholars any more than England–surely a pioneer in immorality by any standard–is Our Lady’s Dowry.

      The saddest aspect of this woeful tale is that the exercise of the Church’s prophetical office has fallen on deaf ears because of the clergy sex abuse scandals. I seem to recall reading somewhere about what happens if salt loses its favour …

      I don’t know about anyone else on this blog, but I am fast coming to the conclusion that ourvWestern democracies are at the end of the road. They appear to be leading in one direction only: totalitarianism.

      July 13, 2013 at 7:29 am
      • editor

        Love your avatar, (I think) Firmiter! Says “fighting talk” to me!

        Although not sure I agree with your comments about Ireland/England in terms of their past reputations for strong Catholic Faith. In recent history, yes, both have lost any right to claim to be Catholic, but I don’t think we can wipe out, altogether, the glorious Catholic past (notwithstanding the personal sin of individuals of course) of both nations.

        I do absolutely agree that the clergy sex abuse scandals have changed things dramatically in Ireland and that the Church has lost much of her moral authority. That still doesn’t excuse the bishops from doing their duty. They need to remember that it’s Canon Law, not Murphy’s Law that they must dutifully enforce, whether or not many (but by no means all) of their clergy have been humiliatingly exposed as being less than fit for office, to put it mildly.

        And I absolutely ABSOLUTELY agree that we are now post-democracy-into-totalitarianism. That we face prison for saying “the wrong thing” or “thinking the wrong thing” in politically correct terms, is but one sign of this totalitarianism. We’re still to feel the full force of its weight, but it’s here, already, I would say, Firmiter. It’s here already.

        Off out to the sun for a bit. For those of you living in far flung places where it might be raining, we’re enjoying a spell of glorious sunshine here in the UK. So, without further ado…

        ‘Bye for now!

        July 13, 2013 at 1:57 pm
  • liberanos

    I have emailed the Irish Bishops conference , saying I trusted that all ” Catholic” politicians who voted for this evil would be excommunicated publicly. Though I am not holding my breath.
    [email protected]

    July 12, 2013 at 12:53 pm
  • liberanos

    Everyone please email the Irish Bishops and demand that these “Catholic” politicians be excommunicated forthwith.
    [email protected]

    July 12, 2013 at 12:56 pm
    • editor

      Liberanos,

      Firstly, an apology for the delay in getting your posts online. As has happened before, your posts went into the SPAM folder, presumably because there’s two of them. Anyway, better late than never, and much appreciated, thank you for your exhortation.

      Oddly enough, I had a telephone call from a journalist today (Telegraph) asking about our “campaign” to have politicians who voted for same sex marriage excommunicated. He thought we were Scottish Catholic Truth Society, so not sure what was going on there, not a group I’ve ever heard of, although there is, I discovered on Googling, a webpage dedicated to a group by that name. Anyway, I pointed him to our (pathetic) online petition about Canon Law 915, wondering if someone had told him about that and there had ensued some confusion. He thought that quite likely. Who knows.

      Anyway, I certainly think it’s a good idea to ask the Irish Bishops to tell their priests to enforce Canon 915. That, at least, confronts them with their duty – and highlights their own negligence. So, let’s get to it, folks.

      July 12, 2013 at 9:48 pm
  • crofterlady

    Leo, that’s a powerful update on the situation in Ireland. Why don’t you try and get it published in one of the newspapers over there?

    July 12, 2013 at 3:28 pm
    • editor

      CrofterLady,

      You have my unqualified permission to send the link to this thread to every Irish newspaper, with permission to reprint. That should keep you out of my hair for a while!

      July 12, 2013 at 3:41 pm
    • Margaret Mary

      I agree with CrofterLady, that post by Leo is marvellous and very powerful indeed.

      How can it be that such a Catholic nation as Ireland could legalise the murder of unborn babies, and even up to birth? I am stunned.

      July 12, 2013 at 10:22 pm
  • Athanasius

    First, my congratulations to Leo for producing one of the most thought provoking articles I’ve read to date. Tragic as it is, and it is the worst of all tragedies happening in Ireland right now, the authorities in the Catholic Church are entirely to blame for it. Mr. Kenny need fear no public censure from them, and he knows it.

    So much for Vatican II’s opening up of the Church to embrace the world! The Church militant has been silenced, there is no longer zeal for God’s glory, no more love of souls and no hatred of evil in the bishops. The despots of the world are now free to introduce any kind of Godless legislation knowing that they will not be challenged by the one institution that previously terrified them, the Catholic Church with her divine mandate and powerful universal moral voice. This is where the problem really lies. Our Lady of Quito spoke of this when she said that at the time when the Masonic forces take control and set out to destroy marriage by evil legislation, those who should speak out (the bishops) will fall silent.

    Enda Kenny has already excommunicated himself from the Church by this barbaric legislation, even if our cowardly bishops never actually pronounce it in public, for his is the crime of Herod, the slaughter of the innocents recycled with a modern name. God have mercy on him, for this so-called Catholic appears to have no conception of the eternity that awaits him if he goes to his judgment with such a huge crime against God and humanity on his soul. Let us call Enda Kenny what he is – an apostate.

    We hear much these days about the sexual abuse of children in Ireland and elsewhere, a great evil that robs God’s little ones of their innocence. But what about robbing the innocents of their right to life? How evil is that? Can we really distinguish between these evils committed against the little ones? I can’t.

    I think things are now so bad that God will soon intervene directly to punish the world for its crimes, as Our Lady of Fatima prophesied. The governments of the nations are now in open revolt against their Creator while the successors of the Apostles hide in the upper room for fear. God will not be mocked in this way, as history shows. We need to pray hard to Our Lady that she might intercede to mitigate the divine punishment predicted for these times, and surely now iminent.

    July 13, 2013 at 5:30 pm
  • Petrus

    Athanasius,

    First of all, I agree with you entirely. Leo’s article is first class. I’m lost for words that the land of the forefathers – the land that sent missionaries all over the world spreading the gospel – has fallen so far from grace. This open rebellion against Our Lord is truly terrifying.

    I also agree that surely we are hurtling towards the punishment of God almighty. However, surely we should have great hope. Isn’t it said that when the Sacrament of Marriage is almost completely distorted Our Lady will intervene and intervene suddenly?

    The pope himself has the power to halt this madness. All he has to do is peform a very simple consecration and DEMAND that all the bishops of the world join with him. Then Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart will triumph. However, I think there’s a strong case that not enough of us, myself included, are practising what is required of us. If only we were more zealous.

    July 13, 2013 at 7:27 pm
  • Athanasius

    Petrus,

    Yes, the Pope could end this nightmare by consecrating Russia to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart. It’s amazing to think how simple the solution is, yet they won’t do it. Of course we do know that Our Lady will triumph and that her triumph will come at the moment when evil believes it has succeeded, so there is huge hope. But that does not diminish the very real possibility that a chastisement on the world will precede heaven’s victory and the time of peace. I can’t see the nations turning back to God of their own accord, the world now being almost in complete rebellion against Him.

    July 13, 2013 at 9:04 pm
  • Miles Immaculatae

    The majority of victims of abortion in developed countries are the children of the poor (I am not a champion researcher so I don’t have the stats, hopefully someone can back me up). Women from socio-economically deprived and minority ethnic groups are more likely to have abortions. And of course, being a foetus with a disability is a form of poverty.

    This is a Nietzschean project to make society better by killing off the poor. It is not just murder, it is oppression of the poor (if we understand an unborn child is in a state of utter dependence and poverty). Both murder and oppression of the poor are sins that cry out to heaven for vengeance.

    It is interesting how the gay lobby seek every possible civil/legal right for themselves and have got it. The disabled and those with mental health problems are still fighting for their rights in our society, indeed a great number of babies screened with disability, for example Down syndrome are aborted. This is eugenics, although this is denied by secular humanists.

    Ireland has forgotten that social justice begins in the womb, and consequently no kind of justice in Irish society can now be guaranteed.

    July 13, 2013 at 10:17 pm
  • Petrus

    Athanasius,

    I couldn’t agree more. I hope we who cling to the Rosary and Scapular will be spared!!!

    July 13, 2013 at 11:15 pm
  • Leo

    Thank you CrofterLady, Athanasius, and Petrus for your very flattering words.

    I most certainly don’t have the scribbling talents to express the full shame and treachery of this demonic legislation. Maybe a lot people outside this apostasy blighted land are not massively interested in this subject, but what’s happening here in Ireland is really a microcosm of what has been happening in the world and the Church for over five decades.

    The fact that this has been like a slow motion train crash over the last year, doesn’t lessen the sense of nightmare over the last few days. Ireland will now permit the killing of unborn children up to birth, on grounds of threatened suicide, with some of the killing rooms to be located in Catholic hospitals.

    This might seem like strong tobacco, but how on earth can the Irish today stand in judgement on the German people of the 1930s? Make no mistake, Ireland has just signed up to be part of the worldwide abortion holocaust. The “banality of evil” is an unavoidable phrase when talking of the conduct of antichrist politicians and media channels in their relentless defiance of divine and natural law, medical and psychiatric evidence, facts from every country that has legalised abortion, and reason itself. The scale of the campaign of pertinacious deception that has gone on is hard to convey.

    “The issue is now quite clear: it is between light and darkness and everyone must choose his side.” – G K Chesterton, a few hours before he died.

    The Fine Gael parliamentary party and their dead consciences are a stain on this country. I’m not sure if anyone will be surprised that one of them is actually an EMHC, while I was told yesterday that another is a lay reader in his local church.

    God bless the five Fine Gael members of parliament out of a total of seventy six, Lucinda Creighton, Terence Flanagan, Brian Walsh, Billy Timmons and Peter Matthews who stood for the unborn, against Kenny’s thugs and bullies. They are due a great deal of appreciation and gratitude. But make no mistake, Kenny and his reprobate accomplices will, like Pharoah and his army, one day fall into the water.

    On a positive note, hundreds of people, led by good and faithful priests, prayed Rosaries almost constantly for over 48 hours outside the Irish parliament; 50 yards from the main masonic hall in Ireland, by the way. By late Thursday however, as the end approached it was almost like a wake. There was even a lone piper playing.

    The battle isn’t over, and won’t ever be over until those willing to fight for the unborn say it’s over. Those Rosaries have certainly been heard and won’t go unanswered. On a natural level, this legislation will certainly be challenged in the courts.

    The secular resistance to the forces of evil has suffered a defeat, no doubt. It’s all the more important then, to make use of the machine guns that are our rosaries- weapons of mass reconstruction. Public prayer is now absolutely essential in answer to public evil. A small start was made with a Rosary rally in the main thoroughfare of Dublin this afternoon, with a large statue of Our Lady of Fatima and a banner proclaiming that Ireland needs to pray to Her. It was very noticeable just how many people stopped and looked at the statue and took photographs, with no blasphemy or mockery.

    A nationwide Rosary Crusade, led by the bishops, really is in order now. I almost despair, however, of anything resembling strong leadership coming from their Lordships. In the hour of supreme peril to the unborn, the words “wholly inadequate” and “gross dereliction” came to mind. Two bishops, not Archbishops, were even photographed fraternising with Kenny at ribbon cutting ceremonies over the last couple of months.

    “In our time more than ever before, the chief strength of the wicked, lies in the cowardice and weakness of good men…All the strength of satan’s reign is due to the easy-going weakness of Catholics.”

    Never were the above words of Pope Saint Pius X more apposite. Being brainwashed by the media is absolutely no excuse for the general population. The apathy over the last eight or nine months has been really, really shocking. Pay cuts, household charges, and corrupt bankers excite a lot of passion in Ireland, but it looks like the butchering of unborn babies comes fairly low down the list of peoples’ priorities. Indeed, I think people are more interested in talking about their next holiday, the price of property, or televised sport.

    The US Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor, who described herself as a “hillbilly Thomist”, and who died in 1964, once wrote that “the moral sense has been bred out of certain sections of the population, like the wings that have been bred off certain chickens to produce more white meat on them”.

    I fear Ireland now houses a great many plump, inactive chickens, ready for processing by the demons of hell.

    The following link is, I think, a suitable note on which to end:

    July 14, 2013 at 12:16 am
  • editor

    Leo,

    Another powerful post – and a truly magnificently appropriate video ending, to highlight the sad truth that Ireland is now a tragic figure, even by the standards of the diabolically disoriented world in which we now live.

    St Patrick & all the saints of Ireland, pray for us!

    July 16, 2013 at 8:03 pm
  • Crossraguel

    From Zenit:

    Pope Sends Message to Catholics in Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales

    Expresses Hope that Human Life Receives Protection That It Is Due

    By Junno Arocho Esteves

    VATICAN CITY, July 17, 2013 (Zenit.org) – Pope Francis sent a message today to the Catholics in Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales on the occasion of the Day for Life. The event will be celebrated in Scotland, England and Wales on July 28th and in Ireland on October 6th.
    The Pope’s message which was sent by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, was published today in a press release sent by the Catholic Bishops Conference of England in Wales (CBCEW.

    Referencing the teachings of Saint Irenaeus which states that “glory of God is seen in a living human being,” Cardinal Bertone stated that Pope Francis encourages all Catholics in the region to “let the light of that glory shine so brightly that everyone may come to recognize the inestimable value of all human life.”

    “Even the weakest and most vulnerable, the sick, the old, the unborn and the poor, are masterpieces of God’s creation, made in his own image, destined to live for ever, and deserving of the utmost reverence and respect,” the message stated.

    Cardinal Bertone also assured the Holy Father’s prayers for the Day for Life, expressing his that they “will help to ensure that human life always receives the protection that is its due, so that ‘everything that breathes may praise the Lord.”

    Life is Worth It

    According to the CBCEW, over half-a-million leaflets on the Day for Life have been distributed to parishes in preparation for the event. The theme, “Care for Life – Its Worth It” was taken from a homily by then Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 2005 to mark the feast of Saint Raymond Nonnatus, “the protector of Pregnant Women.”

    “All of us must care for life, cherish life, with tenderness, warmth…to give life is to open (our) heart, and to care for life is to (give oneself) in tenderness and warmth for others, to have concern in my heart for others,” the future Pope said in 2005.

    “Caring for life from the beginning to the end. What a simple thing, what a beautiful thing… So, go forth and don’t be discouraged. Care for life. It’s worth it.”

    The Catholic Bishops Conference stated that “this year’s Day for Life focuses on care for unborn children and their mothers; care for people who are elderly and care for those who are suicidal and their families.”

    July 17, 2013 at 3:51 pm
  • editor

    Foreign national living in Ireland, who travelled to England for an abortion, dies in London taxi – so much for “safe” abortions. They were never safe for the babies, but here’s yet more evidence that they’re not at all safe for the mothers-to-be either. Talk about “take the hint”…

    July 23, 2013 at 11:12 am
    • crofterlady

      Get a load of this:

      http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/conscience-a-last-bulwark-against-totalitarianism-1.1472764

      July 25, 2013 at 8:54 pm
  • editor

    CrofterLady emailed the following two articles saying the system would not let her post. I think one of them is linked above, in her post dated 25 July, so perhaps the problem is with trying to post too much (?) text? I’m as puzzled as anyone else, but when I get to know the system these problems will, I hope, be ironed out. Anyway, here’s what CrofterLady sent by email:

    Conscience, a last bulwark against totalitarianism

    Vincent Twomey / Last Updated: Wednesday, July 24, 2013, 10:21

    The passing of the abortion Bill in the Dáil, it was said, marked the end of the old cosy church-State relations. But is this true? One of the main reasons, it seems, why many senior priests and bishops were personally silent on the Bill is the fact that many clerics and their families have long histories of being supporters of Fine Gael. Another reason for the lukewarm support of the bishops’ position was theological in nature.

    The kind of fundamental moral theology taught in seminaries in recent decades is one that, contrary to church teaching, denies there are any moral actions, even abortion, that are intrinsically wrong. The moral evaluation of an action depends rather on motive and circumstance. Such a theology also distinguishes between the moral and legal/political spheres, allowing Catholic politicians to put politics above their “private” moral convictions. This theology, though widespread, is radically at variance with church teaching.

    Moral quagmire

    The apparent “neutral” stance on the Bill taken by the leadership of the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) illustrates the moral quagmire caused by this kind of fundamental moral theology. The ACP leadership refused to take a formal position. One member, Fr PJ Madden, stated his personal belief that “there is no need for legislation on abortion”. Two other leadership members, Fr Tony Flannery and Fr Brendan Hoban, when asked, would not state their positions. But the ACP website did publish an article by Margaret Lee in which she wrote: “I believe that a woman is entitled to choose termination when the foetus has no chance of surviving outside the womb.” In other words, abortion is in principle allowed in certain circumstances.

    This kind of moral theology undermines conscience, reducing morality to a “personal belief”, a private conviction. Conscience is regarded as a subjective conviction, rather than something objective, namely our capacity to recognise what we ought to do, especially when we are not inclined to do so.
    Jerry Buttimer TD, chairman of the Oireachtas committee on the Bill, played a central role in getting the Bill passed. As a seminarian at Maynooth, he was exposed to the kind of fundamental moral theology that denies moral absolutes, such as direct abortion, and places politics superior to (supposedly private) moral convictions.

    Whatever the rationalisations used, the net effect of all this was the attempt by the Taoiseach, Minister for Health and chief whip to put pressure on anti-abortion colleagues to vote for legislation they knew to be wrong. Legislators, in a word, were forced to act against their conscience. That itself is gravely immoral.

    Attempted suppression

    The neutering of the legislature by the executive has been a feature of Irish democracy for many years, but the attempted suppression of parliamentary dissent on a matter of fundamental moral significance marks a new low.

    One senior party figure offered it as his view “that Enda Kenny showed personal courage and political skill”. I see a lot of evidence of political manipulation but . . . of personal courage?
    The Taoiseach had nothing to lose. His Government had not only a huge majority, supported by Labour (the real motivating force behind the Bill), but there was no concerted opposition from any other political party. Fine Gael TDs knew that the price for following their conscience would be expulsion from their party.

    The imposition of the whip in such a debate on life and death crushes the small voice of conscience more effectively than any torture chamber. The fact that five TDs defied the whip is what gives cause for hope that our present greatly enfeebled legislature might, one day, mature into a real democratic parliament.

    It is well to remember that, in the aftermath of totalitarianism, the German people in 1949 wrote the primacy of the conscience of elected representatives into their constitution. Those representatives are expressly instructed that they are not bound by orders or instructions; they are answerable only to their conscience. Conscience is the last bulwark against totalitarianism.

    It is not without significance that the Government parties want to get rid of the Upper House, the only chamber they cannot completely control. This week Senators were given an opportunity to demonstrate to the nation their limited but indispensible role in Irish democracy – provided they are true to their conscience.
    © 2013 irishtimes.com

    Brutal description of abortion necessary in sanitised debate of half-truths
    Jim Walsh / Last Updated: Friday, July 26, 2013, 21:30

    Given how the abortion debate has developed in recent months, I was not surprised by the reaction to aspects of my speech in the Seanad last week.

    The vast majority of media commentary has simply repeated the Government spin that its abortion legislation is “extremely restrictive” and has written off any contrary position as scaremongering.
    Few in the media seem to consider for a second the distinct possibility that the new law could, over time, lead to wide-ranging abortion.

    Some commentators and parliamentarians may genuinely believe the legislation is strictly confined to life-saving interventions to safeguard the lives of pregnant women. However, deep down, many must know the reality will be quite different.

    I knew my speech would be criticised but chose to make it because the debate has been dominated by sanitised half-truths and comforting fictions. One of these fictions is that the Bill is “restrictive”. The unborn have neither a voice nor a vote, so if those of a pro-life ethos do not articulate the protection of their innocent, vulnerable status, their cause is conceded, to the shame of humanity.
    Abortion on demand.

    A look at the experience of jurisdictions from California to New Zealand shows that laws almost identical to the one the Government is introducing have led to abortion on request.

    This is why the Labour Party has campaigned so hard for 21 years for legislation based on the X case. Its spokespeople, from Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn to Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, have been quite clear they see the Bill as a stepping stone to abortion on request.

    I make no apology for using graphic descriptions of abortion during the committee stage in the Seanad. The context in which I did so was seeking to ascertain what precise methods of abortion will be used under the new law.

    The answers the Minister for Health gave were far from reassuring. Inexcusably, he was unable to confirm what abortion procedures will be allowed. All we know is the law he is bringing in permits terminations that are life-ending not life-saving. Indeed the abortion procedure is not in any way circumscribed.
    If my descriptions were horrific and “disgusting”, what does that say about the procedure itself, a procedure that we are set to legalise?

    I was mindful of trying not to add to the heartbreak of women who have been through the experience. I met with women from groups such as Women Hurt who pleaded with members of the Oireachtas to speak out about the devastating consequences of abortion and help end the spiral of silence about its brutality and what it inflicts on an innocent unborn child.

    It’s perfectly legitimate for commentators and others to attack my speech. In a democracy, you expect that. But democracy functions better when all sides are scrutinised and criticised equally. That isn’t what is happening here.

    Selective outrage

    When a Senator last week described babies with a fatal foetal abnormality as “a cluster of cells which will develop into a large piece of tissue that will have no head, no brain, no spinal cord”, where was the outrage and condemnation from any newspaper? Where was the demand to correct this misleading description or to apologise to the families of babies who were born with this condition and loved for as long as they lived?

    With the Government set to introduce abortion disguised as medical interventions, I believe that it is an appropriate time to describe the reality of what is being proposed.

    Jim Walsh is a Fianna Fáil Senator
    © 2013 irishtimes.com

    July 27, 2013 at 3:57 pm
  • Athanasius

    I note from Zenit News Agency that the Bishops of Ireland (all of them) will gather at Knock on August 15 to consecrate Ireland to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart. This is fantastic news which I am sure will put an end to the evils that have afflicted that once-Catholic country since Vatican II. What a response to Enda Kenny’s recent legislation!

    This is the second time in as many months that the Bishops of a country have gathered to consecrate their nation to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart. The Bishops of the Philippines did the same on June 8. Are we beginning to see a trend appearing? I hope so. This could be a sign that Our Lady is taking control of matters. Now all we need is for the Pope to ask the Bishops of the world to join with him in a public and solemn consecration of Russia to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart.

    July 27, 2013 at 8:20 pm
  • Margaret Mary

    Athanasius,

    I agree that it is a very hopeful sign. Maybe Our Lady is taking control, right enough. It’s a bit like locking the stable door, though, it would have made more sense for the Irish bishops to do the consecration before the abortion law was passed. Still, I suppose we can only see good come out of it.

    July 27, 2013 at 10:09 pm
  • crofterlady

    Mater Hospital’s principled position on abortion defines the cultural divide

    John Waters

    Last Updated: Thursday, August 8, 2013, 19:15
    Were a government to punish a medical institution for declining to implement a law repugnant to its ethos – by, for example, withdrawing State subventions or tax breaks – wouldn’t citizens who shared that institution’s ethical outlook have a moral right to withhold their taxes until such bullying ceased?

    In other words, Mater hospital board member Fr Kevin Doran may have raised more than one provocative hare in suggesting the hospital “cannot comply” with the provision of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act because its ethos forbids abortions. The hospital, part-owned by the Sisters of Mercy and managed independently of the Health Service Executive by its own board of governors, is one of 25 named in the legislation as “appropriate institutions” where abortions “may” take place.

    This is being presented in the media as, yet again, a power struggle between church and State. But this is a secondary aspect, since the principle at stake may conceivably extend to other categories of ethos. Moreover, it is not Catholicism that defines the cultural divide about abortion but something far deeper.

    St Vincent’s hospital, another “Catholic” hospital listed as an “appropriate institution” in the legislation, has said it will “as always, be following the law of the land”. But the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act is no ordinary law. What it proposes is not, for example, like changing the maximum speed limit. It introduces something fundamentally repugnant to the thinking of many Irish people, including many who are not Catholic.

    For any sentient person, the abortion question is central to the perception of what a human life is and is worth. Even many who disagree with the pro-choice position accept the integrity of someone who supports “abortion rights” on the basis of a certain view of when human life begins. Pro-life advocates decide the question otherwise but I have never encountered anyone who decided simply on account of being a Catholic.

    Catholic teaching holds essentially that abortion amounts to the killing of a human life, although this may in certain circumstances be unavoidable and therefore permissible as the lesser of evils. (The Mater will continue to extend care on this basis.) But the Catholic position is the distillation of a fundamental moral perception: a repugnance of killing. It is not, for example, the statement of an ideological tenet or some arbitrary and arcane rule to which the church demands adherence.

    Eminently reasonable position
    Liberal agitators present the Catholic standpoint as unreasonable, reactionary and incoherent. But opposition to abortion is an eminently reasonable position, with the same entitlement to he heard as such as, for example, opposition to the death penalty, which liberals regard as self-evidently reasonable.

    Fr Doran has raised the issue in the context of a Catholic hospital defending its specific ethos. Really, though, what’s at stake is the right to hold in conscience a different view, to dissent from even the majority on an issue fundamental to the understanding of human reality at the most essential level. An obligation to obey “the law of the land”, then, cannot be the end of the matter.

    The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill was, in effect, an ideological “present” by Fine Gael to its junior coalition partner, the Labour Party. The legislation had no context in any urgent public need and was not canvassed before the electorate. Public representatives were denied freedom of conscience to oppose it, and those who persisted in their dissent were ruthlessly punished. Its passage was effected with the assistance of assiduous media bullying and cultural intimidation. It is a law, therefore, that has been railroaded into place, over the heads of at least a sizeable minority of the population, citizens who have every right to claim they have been disenfranchised.

    In other contexts we have seen instances of radical new provisions which go against the most basic instincts of human beings being pushed through in a similar bullying fashion by regimes brooking no dissent to their ideological agendas. There have been numerous instances in other jurisdictions of public officials who disagreed fundamentally with homosexual marriages or adoptions by homosexual couples being forced to comply with such innovations or lose their employment. I know of a university in the United States that fears the imminent introduction of homosexual marriage will mean it will be forced to allow such marriages to take place in its on-campus cathedral or lose state funding and tax concessions.

    This will very likely be the next stage of the abortion wars here also, with hospital and doctors informed that, whatever their personal principles they must obey the “law of the land”. But this will raise the issue of the moral entitlement of those whose most fundamental outlooks on human reality are now being ignored and overridden by the reigning ideologues. For who in conscience would pay taxes to support the deliberate killing of innocent human beings?

    © 2013 irishtimes.com

    August 9, 2013 at 9:14 pm
  • crofterlady

    Heart and soul of Mater at risk from legislation

    DAVID QUINN – 09 AUGUST 2013

    The Church and the State are on another collision course. Anyone who is interested in a genuinely liberal and pluralist society should be backing the church for once. At one level the clash is over abortion. But at another level it is about the right of an institution to receive public funds and still have an ethos of its own.
    ALSO IN THIS SECTION
    Why won’t Pat Rabbitte do more to help parents protect children?Legislating for X Case is just beginning of this sagaFrom a liberal point of view, therefore, the question is not so much about abortion as it is about whether the State should be allowed to use public funds to bend every institution in receipt of those funds to its will.

    The newly passed Protection of LifeDuring Pregnancy Act names 25 different hospitals around the country and requires each of them to perform abortions under the terms of the new law. One of them is the Mater in Dublin, a Catholic hospital part-owned by its founder, the Sisters of Mercy.

    Fr Kevin Doran, a medical ethicist and member of the board of directors and the board of governors of the Mater has said: “The Mater can’t carry out abortions because it goes against its ethos. I would be very concerned that the Minister (James Reilly) sees fit to make it impossible for hospitals to have their own ethos.”

    The Mater is an excellent hospital and its ethos currently requires it to save both mother and child. The new law will severely compromise that ethos. Under certain circumstances the new law will require the Mater to kill an unborn child even when the hospital believes this will not save the mother.

    Let’s look at the sort of scenario that could pit the ethos of the Mater against the new law.

    Let’s imagine that a pregnant woman in the psychiatric unit of the Mater hospital is deemed to be suicidal, in need of an abortion to save her life, and the hospital management does not agree on both practical and moral grounds.

    The practical ground would be that there is no evidence that abortion will help a suicidal woman. The moral ground is that it is wrong in itself to directly kill a pre-born child.

    However, under the new law, it would have to perform the abortion if the HSE ordered it to do so.

    Mr Reilly has previously insisted that any hospital in receipt of public funds and that is named in the new Act must perform abortions under the terms of the Act.

    He has said: “We could not have a situation where a service funded by the taxpayer could deprive a citizen of their rights.” This is where we get to the essential illiberalism of the government position. The State has ordained that a woman must be allowed to receive a ‘life-saving’ abortion even when a given hospital believes it will not save her life at all, but will only kill her baby.

    This is bad enough. But what happens if tomorrow the State decides that women have a ‘right’ to an abortion on wider grounds than the law currently allows?

    Suppose it decides a woman also has a ‘right’ to an abortion where her baby is severely handicapped? Will a future James Reilly then insist: “We could not have a situation where a service funded by the taxpayer could deprive a citizen of their rights”?

    When the State takes this sort of absolutist approach to rights, then beware because the freedom of the rest of society to take a different view will shrink and shrink.

    Some will say that the Mater can take the view of Fr Kevin Doran, but if so then it should lose public funds. But that would force it to close down altogether or else become a non-Catholic hospital.

    Running a hospital is a very expensive business. The Mater Public wants to be exactly that, public not private. There is already a Mater Private.

    Running a public hospital with private funds only would be completely beyond it.

    The main reason for this is that the State takes away so much from us in the form of tax. That makes it very hard for ordinary citizens to support as expensive a venture as a public hospital out of what they have left after tax and making ends meet.

    Thus the State has an institution like the Mater in a double bind. It has passed a law that will force it to violate its ethos. It has also told it, in effect, that the only way to avoid this law is to refuse public funds or stop being a Catholic hospital.

    In a truly liberal and pluralist society, the autonomy of civil society is respected by the State. It doesn’t simply use its vast power to force every institution that has become dependent on public funds to bend to its will in the name of a particular view of ‘rights’.

    I hope the Mater works up the nerve to mount a constitutional challenge in defence of its ethos. Not only will it be defending itself, it will also be defending the independence of civil society, and that is why genuine liberals should be supporting the Church this time around and should put aside their traditional dislike of it.

    Irish Independent

    August 9, 2013 at 9:15 pm
    • editor

      Crofterlady,

      Many thanks for the above two articles updating us on the situation in Ireland post-legislation on abortion. Fr Doran is a very brave priest. Let’s hope he is fully supported by the bishops and all right-thinking people.

      August 9, 2013 at 10:22 pm
  • Arkenaten

    Comment removed

    August 9, 2013 at 11:35 pm

Comments are closed.


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