Vatican gives approval to nuns’ controversial plan

The Vatican has given approval to the Religious Sisters of Charity to gift the State lands valued at some €200 million. The move is likely to prove controversial since the land will house the new National Maternity Hospital where unborn babies will be aborted.

Moral theologians have previously raised alarm bells about the nuns’ plans and urged Rome to block the handover.

The sisters confirmed today (Friday) that it has received approval from the Holy See to transfer the ownership of the site and it will be “gifted” to the people of Ireland.

The transfer required the approval of the Vatican and theologians including Dr. Kevin O’Reilly and Prof. Vincent Twomey appealed to Rome to block the move as it would facilitate abortion.

The statement from the sisters says that “Today, marks the final movement towards completion of all legal, financial and regulatory matters involved in the transfer of the Sisters’ 186-year involvement in the hospital”.

Superior General Sr Patricia Lenihan has said “We are confident that the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group Board, management and staff will continue to provide acute healthcare services that foster Mary Aikenhead’s mission and core values of dignity, compassion, justice, equality and advocacy for all into the future.”

Late last year,Rome-based moral theologian Fr Kevin O’Reilly OP told The Irish Catholic that he believed the Holy See had an obligation to block plans by the sisters to facilitate the building of a new National Maternity Hospital where the Government has said that abortions will take place.

Irishman Fr O’Reilly, who lectures in the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas, better known as the Angelicum, said the move should be vetoed by Rome.

“Thanks to the 36th Amendment of the Constitution, Ireland – to its great shame – now boasts an extremely liberal abortion regime.

“It is in this context that the Religious Sisters of Charity issued their recent statement concerning the ‘imminent’ legal transfer of their shares in St Vincent’s Healthcare Group”.

However, Fr O’Reilly said that “in the wake of any future abortions, no one involved in executing the transfer to date can reasonably turn around and say that this eventuality was unforeseen.

“It is bewildering that those who have facilitated the process to date clearly do not possess any degree of moral foresight.

“One can only hope that the competent officials in the Vatican will act in accord with the Church’s constant teaching and the dictates of right reason by forbidding this unconscionable act,” he said.

Fr Vincent Twomey SVD had also urged the Vatican to stand firm. “The Holy See cannot give in to the bullying of this Government who have conned the public with their intentions and are trying to blame the Church for their own mess of the health service,” he said.

Under canon law, Irish religious bodies cannot sell or give away property worth over €3.5 million without permission from the Vatican. The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life must vet all such disposals of assets, typically not approving of them without at least receiving confirmation from the local bishop – in this case, Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.

In an earlier statement, the Religious Sisters of Charity said that “the archbishop has approved and recommended our decision to the Vatican for formal sign off”.