Archbishop Michael Neary, the archbishop of Tuam, has made a
dramatic appeal to the Irish government, to Irish politicians, and to
Irish citizens to give “full protection in Irish law for the right to
life of the baby in the womb”.
His appeal follows a powerful statement from Cardinal Sean Brady, the
primate of all Ireland, that the Church would vigorously oppose any
Government proposals to legislate for abortion in Ireland.
In bold clear terms, during an interview on Vatican radio, Archbishop Neary said: “The Irish government is under no obligation to legislate for
abortion because of … the European court. Indeed on the contrary our
government is free to respond [to the European Court of Human Rights] by
seeking full protection in Irish law for the right to life of the baby
in the womb. And this could be done while ensuring women in pregnancy
continue to receive every treatment necessary to safeguard their lives
so as bishops we’re calling on our public representatives and on our
people to respect the humanity and life of children in the womb and to
reject abortion.”
If you want to hear for yourself Archbishop Neary’s eloquent appeal
in support of full constitutional protection for the right to life of
unborn children and their mothers, you can listen to it now on Pat
Buckley’s blog at http://europeanlifenetwork.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/irish-bishops-decisive-moment-for.html.
What he says is so timely and important and is so clear and so
instructive about Irish constitutional protection for mothers that I
have transcribed much of the interview below:
“The right to life .. is the most
fundamental of all rights because it is the foundation of all other
rights. The Catholic church teaches that the direct and intentional
killing of innocent human life from conception till natural death at any
stage is gravely morally wrong.
“The day for life [launched by the
Irish bishops] coincides with the decisive moment for Ireland. In the
coming weeks our government here in Ireland will decide how to respond
to a 2010 judgement of the European Court of Human Rights … despite
what some people have asserted, the Irish government is under no
obligation to legislate for abortion because of this ruling of the
European court.
“Indeed on the contrary our
government is free to respond by seeking full protection in Irish law
for the right to life of the baby in the womb. And this could be done
while ensuring women in pregnancy continue to receive every treatment
necessary to safeguard their lives so as bishops we’re calling on our
public representatives and on our people to respect the humanity and
life of children in the womb and to reject abortion …
” …By virtue of their common humanity
the life of both mother and her unborn baby are sacred … Concern for
the mother’s life must go hand in hand with concern for her unborn
child. Anyone who claims to be pro-life must be emphatically pro-mother. That’s the kind of context in which the day for life is being
celebrated this year.
“Ireland is one of the few remaining
countries in the EU [European Union] and indeed worldwide in which
abortion is not legal. The World Health Organization recognized that
Ireland without abortion remains one of the safest countries in the
world in which to be pregnant and to give birth. And this is something
we should be proud of as a country but also something that we should
seek to protect … Under article 40 of our constitution ‘The State
acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the
equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its law to respect,
and as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that
right.’
“Now the clear intention of that
article was to equally protect from direct attack the right to life of
both the mother and her unborn child. But this intention was undermined
by the decision of the Supreme court in 1992 in the ‘X’ case judgement
of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court interpreted that article of the
Irish Constitution as permitting the direct killing of the child in the
womb in certain circumstances.
“If our government chooses now to
legislate in line with the Supreme Court judgement, this will mean
legislating for abortion in Ireland for the first time. That’s our
concern and we are endeavouring to bring that concern to the people of
our parishes and to our dioceses so that they will recognize that this
is a decisive moment for our country.
“Genetics and technology have been
able to highlight for us something of the beauty and mystery of the life
in the womb. Any mother or father who has gazed in wonder at an
ultrasound scan of their baby or heard his or her heart beating for the
first time … will surely know how rapid and beautiful is the development
of their baby in the womb. Because of the advances in technology this
is something which has been brought home to us in ways which we would
probably not be aware of in a previous age. It emphasises that the baby
does not suddenly become a human being at birth and they would know that
their son or daughter now present before them as an infant or teenager
is the same human life, the same child, they saw in that first scan.
“The child in the womb is not a
potential life but rather a human life with potential, a precious and
God–given potential, that all of us whether we’re parents, nurses,
midwives, doctors, lawyers, politicians, citizens or voters are called
on to respect and protect. We are encouraging an initiative of prayer
coinciding with this. There will be a month of prayer from the 7th
October, from the day for life, until 6th November which is the feast of
all the Irish saints.”
Archbishop Neary encouraged Vatican radio listeners worldwide to join
Irish Catholics in the prayer being said in Ireland’s 1360 parishes
during this month of prayer for the unborn child.
