The CURA Four are to receive an official apology from the Irish Church's crisis pregnancy agency before Christmas.Three years after their dismissal from Cura, when they brought to light grave doubts over the distribution of the so-called Positive Options leaflet, a source close to the Bishops' Conference has said that Mary Kelly, Ann Farren, Phil Murray and Pauline Roarty are to finally receive a public apology.
The apology is for their treatment after they refused to pass on what they argued was a contact sheet for abortion services, under its service agreement with the umbrella group, the Crisis Pregnancy Agency.
The women's stance was later vindicated by the Bishops' Conference.
The Irish Catholic understands that all of the volunteers have now been reappointed to their posts in Cura's Letterkenny office.
One condition of their reappointment is adherence to a confidentiality clause, meaning none of the women, or their representatives, has been able to speak to the media, or to confirm that the wording of the apology, or its release date just ahead of Christmas, have been agreed.
It was the issue of confidentiality that originally saw the women dismissed, when Cura argued they had breached their contracts in publicly exposing, through the Letters Page in this newspaper, the wrangles over Positive Options and Cura's pro-life ethos.
During an extended interview with The Irish Catholic in 2005, the Cura volunteers argued that confidentiality covered their day-to-day dealings with women in crisis pregnancies, but not a policy known to be morally wrong, regardless of what agreement had been previously signed.
This position is borne out by Canon 212.3 of the Code of Canon Law. That Canon states: ''They [Christ's faithful] have the right, indeed at times the duty, in keeping with their knowledge, competence and position, to manifest to the sacred Pastors their views on matters which concern the good of the Church.
''They have the right also to make their views known to others of Christ's faithful, but in doing so they must always respect the integrity of faith and morals, show due reverence to the Pastors and take into account both the common good and the dignity of the individuals.''
As long ago as 2005, the Irish Bishops' Conference conceded that the Cura Four had been morally correct in their actions, and recommended the withdrawal of Positive Options from all Cura centres.
Since then, a tortuous process of negotiation has been ongoing towards reinstating the women, and fully acknowledging the wrong done to them.
In February of this year, Cura's head, Bishop John Fleming, was compelled to address the protracted issue at the agency's national conference, when he assured all volunteers that Cura was making ''every effort to bring to final resolution all the issues which have arisen''.
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(Source: IC)