Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has refused to condemn the Catholic Church over its response to the legislation dealing with abortion.
He told Independent TD John Halligan he would not join him in condemning the Catholic Church or any other church.
“It
is my view that the Catholic Church, all churches and all citizens of
this State have every right to state their point of view to government
on any issue which is of public importance.”
But he said in the Dáil he believed the
church’s statements on the legislation were “exaggerated” and he added
that “we should not lose sight of what we are doing”, whcih was to
protect women’s lives in pregnancy.
Mr Halligan
had called on the Tánaiste “to condemn the Catholic Church for
attempting to intervene in the running of this State and I call on the
Church to desist from harassing TDs faced with an already difficult time
in making a decision on this legislation”.
In
trenchant comments , Mr Halligan said the church “ has no right to be
the State’s moral compass and is in no position to lecture anyone on
human rights with the Catholic Church’s blood-stained history”.
He
described it as an “organisation that is non-democratic,
anti-democratic, that is historically anti-woman, has the most dreadful
record of child protection”.
He referred to the
“level of abuse and intimidation” that TDs are receiving from pro-life
activists and the Catholic Church over the Protection of Life During
Pregnancy Bill.
The Waterford TD said he had
personally been subjected to such abuse. “I’ve even had people come to
my house after 12 o’clock at night. There’ve been several serious
incidents of verbal abuse of TDs.
“Some have been
ambushed outside their house. They’ve been spat at. They’ve been
threatened with having their home burnt down and one has been threatened
with having her throat cut,” he said.
“Last
week, we had Archbishop Diarmuid Martin calling on the Government to do
away with the party whip and no doubt you are aware of the attempts by
the church to compare your Government to a totalitarian regime.
“On
Tuesday the Catholic Bishops issued a statement claiming that people
will be misled on the debate and that the Government is not obliged to
legislate on the X-case.
“We now have senior Vatican officials calling on TDs who might be Catholic to resign if they support your Bill.”
But
Mr Gilmore said Ireland was a democratic country.
“People have the
right to state their views to legislators, whether they are
representatives of churches, ...or the pro-life movement... or of just
their own private opinion.”
Their job as
legislators was to legislate in a fair way on behalf of everyone.
“But
as legislators we have a responsibility to hear the points of view that
are being expressed to respect those points of view and to respectfully
disagree if that is what we do, with them.”
He
agreed with the Independent TD that when people make protests and make
their point of view, they should do so respectfully and not engage in
harassment of public representatives.”
But, he
added: “Let’s not lose sight of what this is all about. This legislation
is about protecting the lives of women in pregnancy.”
And he said they should not “add fuel to the fire” in terms of raising the temperature of the debate.