Catholic bishops issue strongly worded statement denouncing Government’s decision about abortion
Bishops say new legislation would pave the way for direct and intentional killing of unborn children
Published Friday, December 21, 2012, 7:37 AM
Updated Friday, December 21, 2012, 7:37 AM
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Cardinal Sean Brady
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In a strongly worded statement Irish bishops have warned that legislating for abortion would lead to "the direct and intentional killing of unborn children.”
In response to the Government’s announcement concerning their intention to introduce new abortion legislation, the Catholic archbishops said the lives of untold numbers of unborn children now depend on the choices that will be made by public representatives.
Cardinal Seán Brady of Armagh, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, Dermot Clifford of Cashel and Emly, and Michael Neary of Tuam all signed the joint statement.
The statement said: “The unavoidable choice that now faces all our public representatives is: will I chose to defend and vindicate the equal right to life of a mother and the child in her womb in all circumstances, or will I chose to licence the direct and intentional killing of the innocent baby in the womb?”
Read More: Historic move as Irish government drafts abortion legislation for 2013 vote
“It would pave the way for the direct and intentional killing of unborn children. This can never be morally justified in any circumstances.
“The dignity of the human person and the common good of humanity depend on our respect for the right to life of every person from the moment of conception to natural death.
“The right to life is the most fundamental of all rights. It is the very basis for every other right we enjoy as persons,” the statement continued.
Read More: Irish bishops reacts to abortion report - say it is “gravely immoral”
The Bishops said the decision of the Supreme Court in the X case overturned the pro-life intention of the people in Ireland as laid out in the Constitution.
In response to the statement, Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte said he was taken aback by the vigor of the language used. He said he was surprised by the intervention by the Catholic Church considering the legislation had not yet been published.
Speaking to RTE’s Morning Ireland program Bishop of Kilmore Leo O'Reilly called on politicians to be free to vote on moral and ethical grounds on any legislation which legalises abortion.
"This would be a radical change in the culture of life that we have had here in this country - and let's not make any mistake about it - it would be an irrevocable change, there would not be any going back,” he told the program.
"And that, we believe, would be the first step on the way to what Pope John Paul has called a culture of death."
32 Comments
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jacersagain | Dec 27, 2012, 11:26 AM EST
To answer “Nameless” poster Dec 23, 10.47pm (has no name on my screen)– My answer to Seano equally applies to your post. The Bishops of Ireland have just as much right to speak out on matters of moral concern where Irish legislation is concerned and is in no way interference in public affairs. If anything, it is full participation in public affairs which is their right - not just as church leaders but as voting citizens with their own rights to speak out. If doctors, midwives and nurses who actually carry out life terminations of the unborn can speak out on the subject, as they do publicly on radio, TV, newspapers and in "Letters to the Editor", why not the bishops?
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jacersagain | Dec 27, 2012, 11:15 AM EST
Sorry Seano (hope you had a good Christmas) but I didn’t miss a point at all. I made a forceful point – that the Bishops of Ireland have a God-given right (more a Jesus- given task I’d say) to speak out on public and private matters of faith and morals - which right most RC bashers here refuse to acknowledge and instead twist it to suit their own church-bashing agenda on issues that are entirely separate. Let’s not forget that Bishops also have the right to cast public votes as citizens. Oh... and Sean... No need to remind me of the Arabs praying… I listened to the minaret calls to prayer five times a day, every day while there. I too used to say Christian prayers every time they blared out!!
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seanomelb | Dec 25, 2012, 02:43 AM EST
Missed the point as usual jacer I never denied the Bishops right to have an opinion.BTW Saudi Arabia is full of God fearing people,they pray to the same God that you pray to.
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| Dec 23, 2012, 10:47 PM EST
Jacersagain, The statement by the Bishops is interference in public affairs. What if the government made statements insisting the Roman Catholic Church male priests all be married? (To females of course) My family (wife, children, nieces, nephews etc. are Roman Catholic and it has been a severe blow to witness the deceit and denial by the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy to the detriment of the faithful parishioners. Don’t you feel the sting when someone discovers you are Catholic and you are looked at differently. If you do not feel betrayed by the RC Church hierarchy, then you probably don't have much of a feeling of family within the church. Although the Pope has publicly condemned the raping of children by the pedophile priests, he has done little to rid the church of the cardinals, bishops, and other church officials who knowingly shielded the priests by moving them to other parishes, cajoling and threatening the victims and their families, and even after the abuse was widely known, did nothing to comfort the victims and made financial decisions to prevent victims from receiving monetary compensation for the criminal acts of the priests. No one is questioning the good works the church does, but questions about the evil actions are valid. I am not attacking our church for its beliefs; I am questioning the sanctimonious attitude in spouting beliefs in an effort to affect non-Catholics when the church hierarchy have been involved with criminal activities that is still causing great pain for parishioners. The Catholic Church still maintains its affairs are private and are not obligated to inform the authorities of past "sins" but feel they have the right to interfere in public affairs. Still disgusted !!!
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jacersagain | Dec 23, 2012, 09:52 PM EST
Thanks to eiriamach for saying that I’m way out on the boondocks, (says me, after me previous doting dotty comments about her. Good on ya, eiriamach!). At last, she’s recognising what it must have been like for the Apostles of Christ and His followers, ones like Mary Magdalene and Sarah and Philomena and Thecla and Lazarus when they all started out on the road that so many like eiriamach and others try to block. It’s like she’s finally, blessed by the Holy Spirit, learning how to find out truth. I’d gladly die out on the boondocks for our shared and sharing Messiah. I nearly did, once, in heathen Saudi Arabia. But God, by his Own powers, deemed I should not die that day, perhaps in order to live long enough to answer arguments and tell secular “all-knows” on Irish Central that they’ve got it all wrong. It’s a hard task, I’ll tell you, but someone, somewhere gets it, eventually….
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jacersagain | Dec 23, 2012, 09:46 PM EST
Erm Seano... pls re-read the headline article again. It has everthing to do with the Bishops that you abhor having a right to speak on matters that affect us all.
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seanomelb | Dec 23, 2012, 06:37 PM EST
Jacer and his cohorts use the same old hackneyed fall back position whenevr the bishops are castigated for their outspokeness on public policy. Catholic charity or spreading the gospel have nothing to do with the debate.
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eiriamach | Dec 23, 2012, 05:33 PM EST
But jacers, this article is not about the Irish Catholic bishops spreading Christ's Gospel. It's about the bishops pushing their political agenda into Irish law. You should expect some kickback from those of us who disagree with the bishops' politics, especially when they are so oppressive to women. The imputed holiness of churchmen is no reason for any citizen (or interested Americans like me) to be silent on a political issue. You're way out in the boondocks on this one.
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jacersagain | Dec 23, 2012, 03:59 PM EST
Before people like The Commentator come back at my post below, spouting on about Child Abuse by a tiny fraction of priests within the world-wide Catholic Church, or goes on and on about a Church alleged, but unproven, by them to be rich, they should take note of facts… Every church-basher loves to home in on faults which the RCC and other Christian Churches equally have but conveniently ignore child abuse by their relations and neighbours within their own communities. By far much more worthily notable is that the RCC, through its members, is the biggest contributor to charity and charitable works world-wide than any other organisation in the world, outreaching the United Nations’ own charitable works. Vatican City, a tiny state within the vast country of Italy and the vastness of Europe, even of the vastness of our globe, is also on record as having been “in the red” consistently in recent years. It has millions of visitors to St. Peter's Basilica but doesn't charge a cent of anyonw wishing to enter it. And before anyone shouts that the Vatican should sell its priceless art, remember this… it is just that… priceless, like every single committed Christian is. You can’t ever buy them off.
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jacersagain | Dec 23, 2012, 03:54 PM EST
Commentator is entitled to his/her views like anyone else is. But The Commentator (sounds too much like a bullying Commander name) fails to respect the work being done by Christians following the instruction that the risen Christ gave to his Apostles to “Go! Tell everyone!” The Catholic Church and all other Christian Churches are quite rightly upholding its mission to do as Christ instructed them to. The Commentator is off the wall to basically tell them to shut up and keep it within their own ranks. That’s not what their mission is: it’s actually to go out and shout it from the roof tops. If anyone rejects what the members of Christian Churches (including ordinary priests, nuns and laity in parishes all over the world) are saying, that is their sad choice, one which Saint Paul exhorted us who believe to “kick the dust off our sandals” and move on to those who will accept and fully enjoy the blessings and rewards of Christ’s message. It is quite ironic that non-believers like The Commentator constantly stick their noses into discussions on matters that they don’t believe in. Well, I like that… it means they haven’t actually given up, are still searching for a reason not to reject Christ’s message. May their day of discovery and recognition of what the RCC and other Christian Churches are really all about come sooner rather than later and, most certainly, before it’s too late.
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The Commentator | Dec 23, 2012, 01:59 AM EST
I believe that the Catholic hierarchy should keep their views among their own flock. Why would they interfere in non Catholics business when they can't mange their own house. They should spend their time and effort on internal affairs and ridding the Catholic Church of the pedophiles in their midst. Once they have achieved that goal then they should work on equality for women within their ranks and become a church of the people, not a church of the Vatican men. I fail to understand why the bishops would bring attention to the Catholic Church when they should be laying low and be going quietly about their business of making money.
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jacersagain | Dec 22, 2012, 09:19 PM EST
I’m amazed at the ignorance of some of the posters below and especially that of the ICentral editor who sanctioned Cathy Hayes' headline of her article above. I don’t agree that the Catholic Bishops of Ireland have issued a “strongly-worded statement denouncing the Irish Government’s decision”. In fact, they have issued a carefully-worded statement, of factually-provable, by past histories in other countries, of probable future events in Ireland (like abortion-on-demand). Would you like unintended undesirable “incidents of life” to happen to your children? No, you wouldn’t. Would you encourage or support your daughter to abort and kill off a human being like me (oh, yes, it’s true that, like youze all privileged to be reading this, I was once a “being”, called a gamete zygote - that developed into an embryo, later into a baby and now a full-blown ICentral adult contributor - in my and your mother’s wombs). No, you wouldn’t. There are calls to support a woman’s (female’s) rights to choose on a decision in this abortion debate… would you deny any female in the female womb-inhabiting zygote’s (future woman’s) right to live? Get good, common sense in here please…. They used to, and still do, talk about the deliberate killing fields in war-torn countries. The deliberate killing of the unborn (like I could have been before I was born) has to stop (how many millions more will Ireland’s proposed legislation contribute to that? The thought is unbearable...) The Bishops got it right, ICentral and Cathy Hayes got it incredibly, stupidly wrong.
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seanomelb | Dec 22, 2012, 05:48 PM EST
Misneac are trying to say the Catholic church "
giveth with one hand and takes away with the other". The bishops have a right to speak,but they do not represent the majority.
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RichardP | Dec 22, 2012, 03:09 PM EST
I suppose it should not be that difficult to imagine the Catholic Bishops thinking they have the right to condemn things; it's just a pity they never condemn their own evil deeds. Moral authority is not an attribute to which they can lay claim anymore.
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