David Quinn
Peadar Tóibín Catholics must vote as Catholics on election day, writes David Quinn
Election time again, and if you’re pro-life it’s a very strange one because it is the first since the May 2018 abortion referendum. In previous campaigns, the focus of the pro-life movement was to support candidates and parties who were pro-life, or at least did not seem committed to holding a referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment.
Cast your mind back to 2011. At that point, Fine Gael was aiming to topple a Fianna Fáil-led government that was taking the blame for the economic crash. But it didn’t want to leave anything to chance and so it was happy to tell pro-life groups what they wanted to hear.
The likes of Simon Harris (bidding to become a TD for the first time) and Leo Varadkar were among quite a few Fine Gael candidates to declare themselves pro-life. Enda Kenny was another. In fairness to Mr Kenny, the abortion referendum did not take place while he was Taoiseach. As we know, it took place under Leo Varadkar because he changed his mind about the Eighth Amendment. He switched from being a supporter to an opponent.
Simon Harris did the same, except with far more venom. His degree of vindictiveness towards those who remain pro-life is extraordinary. How can he have so little sympathy for a position he once held? Unless, that is, it was ever only skin deep?
Evolution
Micheal Martin is another politician who ‘evolved’, that is, who ended up supporting repeal.
Even at the time of the 2016 General Election, pro-lifers could judge whether or not to vote for a candidate on the basis of their attitude towards holding a referendum in the hope of delaying one or stopping it altogether.
Those days are now over. The Eighth Amendment was repealed by a comprehensive two-to-one majority in May 2018.
Pro-life voters will now seek to support those politicians who voted No to repeal, or would-be TDs who remain pro-life. It will be very necessary in the years ahead to have a cohort of pro-life politicians in Leinster House who can still raise the issue, ask some tough questions, and push for amendments to the present law, for example, to properly protect the conscience rights of doctors and nurses.
Assisted suicide is also likely to become a bigger issue soon.
Perhaps most bishops are not saying anything because they think it will be a waste of time, and morale is very low after May 2018”
Obviously, there is only one pro-life party currently in the Dail, and that is Aontú, with its one TD, Peadar Toibín, and a few local councillors recently elected.
It is very important that Toibín is re-elected to the Dail, otherwise the message will go out that anyone who defies the party whip (in his case, the Sinn Féin whip), over a pro-life issue, loses their seat at the next election. Another pro-lifer, former Sinn Féin TD, Carol Nolan, is seeking re-election. She is running as an independent.
It would also be excellent if Aontú could somehow win 2% or more of the vote nationally, because that entitles them to public funding and makes them more viable. The more number one preferences they gain around the country the better.
But Aontú is struggling for publicity, unlike the Social Democrats, who have just one TD more. The Social Democrats’ co-leader, Roisin Shorthall, seems to be on TV and radio far more than twice as often as Toibín.
Common good
So far, Church leaders have been extremely silent about the election. The only bishop at the time of writing who has issued anything about it is the Bishop of Elphin, Kevin Doran. He reminds Catholic voters to keep the common good in mind as they vote.
This is a time-honoured Catholic principle. Politics must serve the overall good of society. Politics that harm the common good are to be rejected. Attacking the right to life is an obvious example of harming the common good, but so are policies that strike the wrong balance between economic growth and protecting the environment. Immigration policy also requires a delicate balance between being generous to immigrants and looking after the welfare of those already here. There are lots of other examples.
Perhaps most bishops are not saying anything because they think it will be a waste of time, and morale is very low after May 2018. Nonetheless, silence cannot be an option because that is a form of defeatism. The Scottish and the England and Welsh bishops released statements before the British General Election in December.
A big issue in the coming Dáil is likely to be the future of Church schools. How hostile will be incoming Government be? A lot depends on the identity of the next Education Minister. If he or she is from the Labour party, they might be very hostile indeed.
And what will the next Health Minister be like? How strongly will they push for ‘exclusion zones’ outside hospitals and GP surgeries? Will they start advancing the euthanasia agenda?
How strongly will the next Government push subsidised daycare and prioritise the world of work over the home, making us work for the economy rather than it work for us?
How many Mass-going Catholics will even think as Catholics per se, when they cast their vote on February 8? Will their faith, and its well worked-out social teachings have any effect at all on how they vote?
The Social Democrats’ co-leader, Roisin Shorthall, seems to be on TV and radio far more than twice as often as Peadar Toibín”
If not, then that is another failure of teaching on the part of the Church because Catholics should vote as Catholics, first and foremost, and not as Fine Gaelers, Fianna Fáilers, or whichever the preferred party is, first and foremost.
The Gospel has social and political implications that Christians must never forget in the interests of party loyalty.