Dear Editor, I find the letter of Mary Stewart in condemnation of Ken Curtin appalling and completely over the top. Surely the man is entitled to have reservations on the Eighth Amendment without been demonised and accused of condoning murder. I also have reservations on the Eighth Amendment and back in 1983 voted against its introduction, although I am opposed to abortion.
Abortion was then illegal in this country under the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861 and at the time I felt that if people were unhappy with this Act then the correct action to have taken, was to have it changed by an Act of the Oireachtas and not by inclusion in the Constitution. A sizeable minority felt likewise in 1983 and we were not breaking any Church law or God’s law. It would appear from opinion polls that a sizeable majority are of this view today.
Like Ken Curtin, I do the readings every Tuesday at a local church here in Kildare and I am also a member of a Sunday Mass church choir at another nearby church. I still have reservations on the Eighth Amendment and in particular on the question of fatal foetal abnormality.
For this reason I welcome the initiative of Taoiseach Enda Kenny when he proposes setting up a Citizens Forum to examine and debate the issue in public. After this examination/debate I hope to make up my mind on the matter.
If Ken Curtin has similar views then I feel that Bishop Crean was incorrect in having him removed as a reader at St Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh. In the meantime I will continue to join with my choir at Sunday Mass and also to do the readings every Tuesday in the knowledge that my views are not breaking any Church law or indeed law of God.
Yours etc.,
Henry Quirke,
Kildare Town.