THE LEADER of the Catholic Church in Ireland should be told that if
he wanted us to legislate for fundamentalism along the lines of Sharia
law, we would give him a call when that arose, Joe O’Toole (Ind) in the
Seanad said when criticising “the antics of Armagh” over the European
Court of Human Rights ruling on abortion rights.
In the Seanad, Mr
O’Toole’s views were described as “intemperate” by fellow Independent
Feargal Quinn who stressed the need for care in the use of language over
the issue of abortion.
Mr O’Toole said it was a pity the
Government had been too cowardly to deal with the outstanding issue as
requested by the Supreme Court for quite some time.
Having failed
for years to get any movement from the church leadership to take steps
to protect abused children and to deal with perverted clerics, was it
anything short of outrageous to witness the latest antics from Armagh?
“One
mention of pregnancy termination and the church leadership is
galvanised into action. The Minister for Foreign Affairs should be asked
to send a cable to Armagh on where it is we stand, and let the cobbler
stick to his last. They can do the praying up there and we’ll do the
legislating down here, thanks very much.”
As John Hanafin (FF) had
stated, we were an independent republic, and we would do our own
business, added Mr O’Toole.
“We won’t be lectured to by any
fundamentalist whether he is wearing a red hat in Armagh or a white hat
in the Vatican . . . This is not an issue of abortion. This is an issue
of protecting pregnant women whose lives are in danger.
“Whereas I
wouldn’t have expected the church leadership to be championing women’s
rights, I really did believe that where it came to a straight position
where a woman’s life was in danger, they would not stand in the way of
the appropriate medical treatment in those situations. I find it
outrageous. I believe that the Irish people will give a clear . . .
answer if they ever are asked the question on this particular issue.”