Children should be given a ‘chance at life’ say Catholic grandparents

Irish grandparents should vote to keep Ireland’s constitutional protections for the unborn, the Catholic Grandparents Association (CGA) has urged.

In a notice in their March news bulletin, dedicated to Saint Joseph, the CGA said: “As Catholic grandparents we love our grandchildren; those who are born and those who are waiting to be born. We believe that it is only fair that they, like us, should be given their chance at life, however short or fragile it may be. We understand the challenges that face our daughters and our sons as parents, because we have lived similar challenges in our own lives.”

The association added that although the issue of abortion is complex, defending life serves the lasting happiness of children.

“The lasting happiness of our own daughters and sons is of the utmost importance to us and we will do all we can to support them in their own role as parents. We appreciate that abortion may sometimes seem to offer an immediate solution to a difficult situation. Quite apart from what it would do to our grandchildren, however, we cannot see how it could ever serve the lasting happiness of our children,” it said, continuing: “We encourage all grandparents to turn to God’s Spirit for wisdom and courage and, when the time comes, to vote to keep the pro-life amendment in our constitution.”

The association was founded by Catherine Wiley and launched as part of the 2009 National Grandparents’ Pilgrimage to Knock Shrine. The CGA was formally blessed by Pope Benedict XVI in August 2010.