Greg Daly
Senator Catherine Noone A Fine Gael senator has provoked criticism after complaining publicly on social media about an Easter Sunday Mass where the priest preached about the sanctity of all human life.
Catherine Noone – who chaired the Oireachtas Committee on abortion and is a leading campaigner for repeal of the Eighth Amendment – later deleted the tweet which she sent after attending Mass at Knock Shrine.
Her original posting read: “Easter mass in Knock Basilica this afternoon with my parents – an octogenarian priest took at least three opportunities to preach to us about abortion – it’s no wonder people feel disillusioned with the Catholic Church.”
Comments
Her comments led one well-known Co. Mayo priest Westport-based Fr Charlie McDonell to take to Twitter to say he had been saddened by what he described as an “attack” on the priest. “My response will be to speak on #Savethe8th ASAP,” he wrote.
Fr Gerry O’Connor – a member of the leadership team of the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) also expressed disappointment. He said that many people “are very slow to express their opposition to repealing the Eighth amendment due to a fear of being labelled or caricatured.
“Labelling those as dinosaurs or anti-women is very unfair,” he said.
Fr O’Connor said that a “lot of people are extremely frustrated about the way that whole Eighth committee was run, the way it chose to vote before it had heard different points of view.
“There’s a difficulty for those wanting to save the eighth amendment in getting their view across. It’s certainly very difficult in the media,” he said.
Fr McDonnell told The Irish Catholic this week that he didn’t want to get into a “slagging match” with Senator Noone. “I would hold a very strong pro-life position but I would not get personal on anybody else or start slagging off anyone else,” he said.
He said that some commentators view priests as being aloof or detached from the real world. “The reality is we may be more in touch with reality more than people realise we are and that brings us to a place where we do have a valid voice,” he said.
Dr John Murray – a theologian and spokesman for The Iona Institute – said “there’s an appropriate role to be played by priests and bishops because it’s a human rights issue and human rights is an area that the Church and Christianity does teach about, under the heading of social teaching.
Risk
“There is a risk in speaking out that people might be turned off if it’s done badly, but I think if it’s done well and done properly, explaining to people why it’s appropriate – because it’s a matter of life and death, people who are Catholics, who are Christians, should be concerned about the law and should be concerned about the structures in our society,” he said.
Dozens of social media users also accused Ms Noone of being ageist in the original tweet.
Cora Sherlock of the Pro-Life Campaign responding after the senator said she referred to her perception of the priest’s to “paint a picture” said: “Maybe Senator Noone would like to elaborate on the picture she says she was trying to paint with her tweet? She insists her remarks were not ageist. Okay then, what message was she trying to convey?
“I thought she called for a measured and reasoned debate on numerous occasions where everyone would be free to express their sincerely-held views on the Eighth Amendment without being attacked or caricatured,” Ms Sherlock said.
“Senator Noone claims she deleted her offensive tweet not because she didn’t stand over it but because she did not need the negativity that came in response to it.
“It’s all becoming a little bizarre. Can she not see that she’s the author of the negativity in this story, not someone else?” according to Ms Sherlock.