Dear Editor,
Colm O’Gorman, the executive director of Amnesty International in Ireland, was present in a Catholic national school in the Archdiocese of Dublin, to present the students with the “first ever Amnesty Friendship trophy for the huge generosity and effort” put into the school’s Friendship Week’s fundraising. It is reported on the school’s website that Mr O’Gorman “visited 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th class and spoke about the wonderful work Amnesty does for human rights around the world and how we can all get involved”.
It is profoundly shocking that a Catholic school would entertain a visit from a man who is advocating the repeal of the Eighth Amendment that guarantees the right to life of the unborn child and have any association, whatsoever, with the aggressively abortionist lobby group that Amnesty International has now become.
Amnesty International has a hell-bent determination to brutally extinguish the human rights of the most vulnerable and defenceless members of the human family – unborn children.
The visit of Amnesty to any Catholic school is reprehensible and disgraceful. It is a scandal undermining the entire ethos of Catholic education. Under no circumstances, should a Catholic school in Ireland, invite anyone associated with Amnesty International onto its premises, for any reason whatsoever. Neither should they be accepting any type of ‘award’ from the group, nor be involved with any project or scheme they are sponsoring.
This matter must be urgently addressed by everyone with moral and pastoral responsibility in the Church and by all Boards of Management in Catholic schools, so that there is no repeat performance of what occurred in Dublin on May 27.
Yours etc.,
Fr Patrick McCafferty,
Crossgar, Co. Down.