Dear Editor, I cannot be alone in thinking that Cardinal Kevin Farrell and the Vatican are perfectly within their rights to decide who can – and cannot – speak on Vatican territory.
The report that the organisers of an event at which former President Mary McAleese is due to speak next month have had to move the venue across the road from the Vatican due to the cardinal’s objection has received an inordinate amount of media coverage.
Some commentators have suggested that it is a sign that the Vatican is unwilling to hear the voices of women from within the Church. I would suggest, however, that the Vatican – as in previous incarnations of the conference in question – is more than willing to hear the voices of women.
On the other hand, the Church is clearly unwilling to hear from people who insist on their Catholicism while publicly opposing core tenets of the Church’s teaching.
Mary McAleese is as entitled to her views as everyone else. What she is not entitled to, however, is a platform to speak at the Vatican when she has so publicly set herself against the Holy See on key issues.
Mrs McAleese – as a former President – is hardly without platforms to express her views as is evidenced by the amount of media coverage the issue has received.
Yours etc.,
Mary Cunningham,
Rialto, Dublin 8.
The rights we claim must be extended to others
Dear Editor, Some of the more vociferous advocates of repeal, speaking in the Dáil debate on the Eighth Amendment, sought to paint the right-to-life provision of our Constitution as an archaic Catholic encumbrance on society. They conveniently ignored a letter sent to each Oireachtas member by two former moderators of the Presbyterian Church, outlining how the proposed legislation would allow abortion up to birth on the very same grounds as gave rise to abortion-on-demand in England.
It’s important to recall that the Eighth was the initiative of medical practitioners, wishing to see the continuation of scientific evidence-based, best medical healthcare, in our hospitals, free from the interference of ideologically driven politicians and the profit-hungry abortion industry.
That these views are in line with Catholic teachings is simply due to the fact that the Catholic faith relies upon reason and revelation; as both originate from God.
Thus, science tells us that our existence began with the membrane fusion of our parents’ sperm and egg. It is self-evident that where mothers deliberately kill their own young (foetus), in large numbers, that that species is doomed. This is already happening in all societies which have normalised abortion.
Natural law tells us that the rights we claim for ourselves (e.g. birth, life, etc.) must also be extended to others; otherwise we are claiming a privilege for ourselves and discriminating against others.
Common sense tells us that “to live and let live” is the basis of civilisation. Revelation tells us that we are made in God’s image and likeness, with a contribution to make which no one else can fulfil, and a destiny.
Morality demands that we accept each other as a gift. To reject the life of even the most insignificant and vulnerable goes against our innate moral awareness and we are never the same afterwards.
We pass through this life but once. Let us encourage and empower mothers to choose, to protect, cherish and celebrate the life of their babies.
Yours etc.,
Gearóid Duffy,
Lee Road, Co. Cork .
Eloquent speech
Dear Editor, No matter where you stand on the US presidency of Donald Trump, his address to the pro-life rally in Washington DC was both eloquent and touching in his defence of the unborn. CNN gave us the full speech; RTÉ mentioned it in passing.
Yours, etc.,
Cecil Roberts,
Rathmines, Dublin 6.
Optional after all!
Dear Editor, In relation to Fr Michael Toomey’s letter (I.C. 25/01/18), headed, ‘Sign of Peace at Mass in not an option’, perhaps it would be useful to see Rubric No. 128 of the Roman Missal which shows it is not prescriptive, hence leaving the sign of peace optional.
Yours, etc.,
James O’Brien,
Ballyhea, Co. Cork.
Authority of the Most Holy Trinity at risk of being removed
Dear Editor, Mr Simon Harris, Minister of Health, said “he cannot close his eyes to the fact that 3,265 citizens travelled to the UK in 2016 from across Ireland”. There are two sides to a coin: he closes his eyes to the fact that 3,265 potential Irish citizens were not allowed the right to see the light of day. I checked the statistics and was surprised to see that whereas 6,522 citizens travelled to the UK in 2001 to procure abortions, this number dropped by 50% in 2016. Why legislate for abortion if it is on the decrease (not that I would ever vote for abortion if it was the other way round)? I admired Irish Governments who challenged negative smoking, drinking and drink-driving cultures that had world-wide positive culture changes; why not with the abortion issue promoting among other things responsible sexual activity? Principles of life are never outdated and having no abortion in Ireland does not make it old-fashioned but a country where all are welcome and loved. I fear that the “authority of the Most Holy Trinity” as written out in the preamble of the Constitution itself is now being superseded by the authority of some politicians who have assumed the right to legislate on the sacredness of life.
Yours etc.,
Albert Galea,
Ballinasloe, Co. Galway.
Conscience: ‘internal witness’
Dear Editor, Mary Kenny praises Micheal Martin’s statement in favour of abortion up to 12 weeks on the grounds that it was “thoughtful and sincere” (IC 25/01/18). She goes on to tell us that Blessed John Henry Newman enjoined us to follow our consciences.
Given that Ms Kenny has praised the speech by the leader of Fianna Fáil – a speech which conflicts with the Church’s teaching on abortion – one fears that she has confused conscience with what Newman termed private judgment. Private judgment might be defined as the preference of one’s own opinions to revealed truth or the natural law. Mr Martin’s support for abortion is a good instance of the exercise of private judgment. Conscience is, according to Newman, an internal witness to both the existence and the law of God; it follows from this definition that no Catholic can support abortion in good conscience.
Newman treats of conscience in his 1875 open letter to the Duke of Norfolk. In the penultimate paragraph of that letter he writes that “I say there is only one Oracle of God, the Holy Catholic Church and the Pope as her Head. To her teaching I have ever conformed; to her judgment I submit what I have written, not only as regards to its truth, but as to its prudence, its suitableness, and its expedience.”
One hopes that in any referendum on the Eighth Amendment all Catholics will follow conscience in Newman’s sense rather than private judgment.
Yours etc.,
C.D.C Armstrong,
Belfast, Co. Down.
Not such a Good Friday
Dear Editor, Now that legislation allows pubs to open on Good Friday, will we see already hard-pressed accident and emergency units, etc., attending to more chronic alcoholics and people who over indulge, hence compromising the care of other patients who are genuinely sick? Will the publicans who choose to open on this holiest of days in the Christian calendar contribute some of the extra revenue made to the direct and indirect expense involved or will the taxpayer have to cough up? The pubs who will respect Good Friday are to be supported.
Yours etc.,
Ann Campbell,
Scotstown, Co. Monaghan.
Abortion ‘betlittles women’
Dear Editor, As we lament the passing of Dolores O’Riordan, singer and song-writer, not everyone might be aware that she spoke out against abortion in an interview in Rolling Stone magazine in March 1995. She said: “It’s not good for women to go through the procedure and have something living sucked out of your bodies. It belittles women – even though some women say, ‘Oh, I don’t mind having one’. Every time a woman has an abortion, it just crushes her self-esteem, smaller and smaller and smaller.” Pro-abortion feminists believe that abortion is empowering; however, Dolores O’Riordan’s comment that abortion “belittles women” is spot on. Legal abortion tells women that they aren’t capable of raising or loving their own child because of their current status in life. In reality, women are smart enough and strong enough to live alongside their children and still pursue dreams in a variety of ways – as O’Riordan herself proved. Women do not need abortion in order to lead successful lives.
Yours etc.,
Fintan J. Power, Waterford.