So the Catholic bishops have spoken on the
heads of the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013, published by
the Government last week.
So?
They are entitled to their opinion. Just as any other citizen or group of citizens. That’s democracy.
However, what’s involved here is more than the expression of an opinion.
The tone of the language in their statement
last Friday was an echo of other days. Back when the Republic was a
Catholic State for a Catholic people, where the beliefs of others were
ignored in its laws.
In a statement that was a mixture of high
dudgeon and threat, the bishops warned our politicians that “the Bill as
outlined represents a dramatic and morally unacceptable change to Irish
law and is unnecessary to ensure that women receive the life-saving
treatment they need during pregnancy”.
It represented, they said, a “tragic moment for
Irish society”. We’ve had many of those where our major church is
concerned over recent years.
In weekend interviews it was indicated that
legal action against the Bill might be initiated.
That would surprise
many as the bishops have many times expressed less than faith in our
judiciary as regards abortion law. The legal path now seems less
likely.
Repeatedly, for instance, they have criticised as “flawed” the 1992 Supreme Court judgment in the X case, “parent” of the Bill announced by the Government last week.
What is most galling, though, is that they want
their beliefs to remain part of civil law in the Republic regardless of
what other churches and faiths think.
But then they don’t have a good
record when it comes to supporting the right of others to have their
beliefs respected in Irish law.
We saw that repeatedly down the decades in, for
instance, their utter opposition to making artificial means of
contraception legally available.
We saw it in their determined
resistance to divorce. We have seen it again and again in their fierce
opposition to abortion and despite the fact they are alone in this view.
Last January Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin Michael Jackson
told the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children that his church
opposed abortion on principle but acknowledged there were cases of
“strict and undeniable medical necessity” where it was and should be an
option.
Rev Dr Trevor Morrow,
minister at Lucan Presbyterian Church in Dublin, said: “It is wrong to
allow a mother to die. It is wrong to take the life of a child, but in
some circumstances it may be necessary to choose what is least wrong
...”
Heidi Good of the Methodist Church in Ireland
said her church believed a termination was permissible where the
mother’s life was at risk and where there was risk of grave injury to
the physical or mental health of the mother.
Representing Ireland’s Muslims, Dr Ali Selim
of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland in Dublin told the committee
that “in the unlikely event when a group of competent trustworthy
physicians confirm that the continuity of pregnancy jeopardises the
mother’s life, abortion could be conducted as the last and only
alternative to protect the mother’s life”.
Representing Ireland’s Jews, Rabbi Zalman Lent of the Dublin Hebrew Congregation
said Jewish law permitted abortion in certain cases, “primarily when
carrying the unborn to term would cause danger and risk to the mother’s
life”.
The Catholic Church was represented at the Oireachtas Committee hearings by Bishop Christopher Jones and Fr Timothy Bartlett.
Bishop Jones said what was needed were “appropriate guidelines which
continue to exclude the direct and intentional killing of the unborn, or
a referendum to overturn the X case judgment”.
That 1992 Supreme Court
judgment he described as “morally unacceptable”.
According to our Catholic bishops, then, the
judiciary, the Government, all the other churches, as well as Ireland’s
Jews and Muslims, favour what is, to them, “morally unacceptable”.
They
like that phrase.
Considering the revelations of recent years
about their own behaviour where protecting children was concerned, this
is outrageous arrogance and is in itself unacceptable.
Would that they
had shown as much passion for protecting children as they have done for
the unborn foetus down the years.