Irish Govt. to force Catholics to perform abortions. Law allows for no exception or conscience objection.

From the Dignitatis Humanae Institute:

Irish Government Set To Compel Catholic Doctors To Perform Abortions

Rome, 16 August 2013

“Even nations with the most permissive abortion laws do not normally go so far as to trample on the basic right to conscientious objection.” So said Luca Volontè, Chairman of the Dignitatis Humanae Institute in a statement earlier today.

Volontè continued: “This bill claims human rights apply only to human beings, and not to institutions. But such a manipulative attempt at semantics casually disregards what it is that defines an institution, particularly a healthcare provider – at its core is an ethos, and individual employees who are dedicated to fulfilling that ethos. Far from seeking to maintain an amoral healthcare system, this bill will impose a new morality upon hospitals and those who serve in them, one which allows for no objection and uses all the authority of the State against any who would refuse to be accomplice to a clear moral evil.”

The option of abortion in Ireland will soon become a requirement for proscribed hospitals, regardless of religious ethos or conscientious objection. The Irish abortion bill, pseudonym: “Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill” explicitly denies the right of conscientious objection and enforces a no right to refuse condition upon 25 Hospitals, two of which are Catholic.

Recalling his work as the President of the European People’s Party (the largest party) in the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg, Luca Volontè added: “PACE Resolution 1763 clearly states:

No person, hospital or institution shall be coerced, held liable or discriminated against in any manner because of a refusal to perform, accommodate, assist or submit to an abortion, the performance of a human miscarriage, or euthanasia or any act which could cause the death of a human foetus or embryo, for any reason.

Such compulsion would be unprecedented in Ireland, and has been successfully challenged recently elsewhere.”

In April this year, a Scottish Court ruled in the ‘Doogan & Anor v NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde Health Board’ trial that two midwives could not be required to delegate, support or supervise staff who were involved in abortions.

Despite repeated refusals from the Irish Department of Health to work out an accommodation, Luca Volontè spoke of his hope for changes to the proposed law: “It is not unreasonable to ask for exemptions for staff (or institutions) on the grounds of conscience, whether they be religious or ethical; such accommodation is provided in many other Western nations which practice abortion. Freedom of thought and/or conscience is not only guaranteed by international law, it is innate to our human dignity. It is truly shocking to see the government of an advanced Western country trying to deny the basic human rights of its own citizens like this.”

Coming to a Catholic hospital near you.

And though it won’t begin with the arrest of those who refuse to participate in abortions, but it will end there.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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29 Comments

  1. Bosco says:

    Greetings from Bantry in the County Cork. Yes, indeed, infamy after infamy is being heaped on Irish Catholics and all God-fearing folk here.

    Here’s another headline: “Archbishop Eamon Martin says Enda Kenny and other pro-abort Catholics will not be excommunicated or refused Holy Communion, according to The Tablet.”

    Here are two links:

    http://protectthepope.com/?p=7974

    and have a listen to the BBC Radio interview of 11 August 2013 (The Archbishop’s interview begins about 40 minutes in)

    Yesterday was to have been the date upon which Ireland was supposed to have been consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and act whose principal participant was the afore-mentioned Archbishop and an act which did not even mention Ireland in the consecration much less have the full participation of the bishops.

    The skies above Dublin turned an odd reddish orange last evening, an event so unusual it made the first page of the Irish Independent.

    http://www.independent.ie/blog/twitter-users-post-pictures-of-unusual-sky-in-dublin-29503813.html

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b038brtx?p_f_added=urn%3Abbc%3Aradio%3Aprogramme%3Ab038brtx

  2. Moro says:

    In 2004, gay marriage became the law of the land in Massachusetts. Attempts at a ballot initiative failed. Despite efforts to defend marriage by the Church, we failed. I believe we failed because, in the minds of far too many, the sexual abuse crisis basically damaged the credibility of anything any priest or faithful Catholic said. I don’t think it’s accident that abortion was recently legalized in Ireland, which has also occurred in the wake of a sexual abuse crisis. It’s a very hard, but important lesson for all of us to take note of. People look at your conduct as a Catholic and make judgments about your faith. If you act like a jerk, you poison their image of the Catholic faith.

    It also makes me wonder about some clinic protestors. Many are quite friendly and harmless but then you get people who, despite being pro-life, are down right nasty. Do you think that makes the opposition want to respect our rights?

  3. Legisperitus says:

    If we’re not among those who are sent to prison, wherever we live, maybe we can visit some who are.

  4. Palladio says:

    Words fail.

  5. Andreas says:

    Yes, this was noted in the very informative “”Dokumentationsarchiv der Intoleranz gegen Christen” / “Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians”…a not-for-profit organization that records and reports “objective and reliable data on the phenomenon of Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe.” (from their website that can be found at: http://www.intoleranceagainstchristians.eu). They have recorded approximately 1000 cases of intolerance and discrimination against Christians in Europe during the past 6 years. With regard to the article at hand, the latest issue of their newletter notes that, “The Irish government has told a Catholic hospital that there will be no opting out of the new law legalizing abortion, and that requires hospitals to do the procedure. The health minister was responding to comments by a board member of Dublin’s Mater Misericordiae University Hospital that the hospital would not be complying with the new abortion law. Mater Hospital is one of the 25 institutions named in the so-called “Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act” where abortions must be carried out. Fr. Kevin Doran, a board member of Mater said, “The issue is broader than just abortion. What’s happening is the Minister is saying hospitals are not entitled to have an ethos.”

  6. StJude says:

    The world circling the drain continues on pace.
    Lord help us.

  7. Magpie says:

    From ‘The Tablet’ courtesy of ‘Protect the Pope’ blog:

    ‘CATHOLIC politicians who supported the legalisation of abortion will not be excommunicated or refused Communion, the future Primate of all Ireland has indicated, writes Sarah Mac Donald.

    Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster’s Sunday Sequence programme, Eamon Martin, coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh, said he had never
    refused Communion to anyone, but reiterated the Church’s position that it is not possible to be a person of faith and actively promote abortion.
    Archbishop Martin said every individual who voted in favour of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act – which allows terminations where
    there is a threat to the mother’s life, including suicide – should question whether they had actively promoted the killing of the unborn. But he explained: “The altar rails are not the place to be making a public statement,” on the issue.”

    If The Tablet report is correct, by taking this approach Archbishop Eamon Martin is rejecting the recommendations of Cardinal Ratzinger, Cardinal Bergoglio and Cardinal Raymond Burke about the steps to be taken when Catholic politicians vote to legalise the intentional killing of unborn babies through abortion.

    http://protectthepope.com/?p=7974

  8. majuscule says:

    The devil at work. Ireland goes from being a country that forbids the taking of an unborn human life to being a country that punishes those who refuse to take that life.

    It has to be Satan’s influence.

  9. Supertradmum says:

    This happened in British Columbia, Canada, where all doctors in the health system were required by law to perform abortions. Overnight, hundreds of doctors found jobs in the States and moved. Sadly, there are little options for moving any more.

    As to the Irish thing, I have that information on the blog and the link to the BBC interview and the Tablet article from a commentator. The hand of Sauron has grown strong.

  10. Cantor says:

    While the bishops hide behind their meaningless words, it will be some faithful doctors and nurses who are forced to demonstrate what it means to be Catholic.

  11. Supertradmum says:

    majuscule, Satan does not work in a vaccum. This country is full of Irish who contracept, tolerate abortion, tolerate fornication, love New Age heresies, and do not believe in hell, but universal salvation. This falling away is the direct result of three generations of laxity among the lay people refusing to learn their own faith and be adult Catholics. People get what they vote for, and the god of socialism has blinded many. I have had discussions with even Latin Mass Catholics who deny that the popes of the last 150 years have condemned socialism

    The rot set in when the Republic was formed.

  12. Bosco says:

    @supertradmum,

    “Catholic” pro-aborts here in Ireland are taking solace from a publicly posted theological musing by a Fordham University Professor, Charles Camosy, who has recently wondered whether unborn babies might be justifiably aborted using the ‘unjust aggressor’ rationale.

    Just thinking out loud, so he is.

    The LifeSiteNews link is here:

    http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/fordham-theologian-can-babies-be-aborted-as-unjust-aggressors?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=d885dfe216-LifeSiteNews_com_Intl_Headlines_06_19_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0caba610ac-d885dfe216-326240826

  13. Raymond says:

    Does anyone know how the Catholic bishops of Poland during the Communist regime–Wyszinski, Wojtyla, etc–dealt with laws like these back in their days? Were they heroic or did they cave in?

  14. Supertradmum says:

    Bosco, I saw that. Thanks. But money and comfort are always the real reasons why middle class women abort-not convenient; the aggressor argument is not new as NOW in the states used it years ago-the parasite in the body argument, which is disgusting.

  15. Supertradmum says:

    Raymond, as in most Soviet countries, the real Church went underground. Just read Bl John Paul II.s biography for a start and the biography of Cardinal Primate of Poland, Stefan Wyszy?ski This will happen in Ireland, England, America-the real Catholics will go underground. It has all happened before.

  16. Supertradmum says:

    opps sorry for ? the accent did not come out. Name is Wyszynski. He and others like Josef Beran, Archbishop of Prague, German auxiliary bishop of Prague, Johannes Remiger and the famous Cardinal Mindszenty were household words to Catholics growing up in the Cold War. Too bad Catholic schools do not teach real Catholic history, like they use to do.

  17. Supertradmum – “The rot set in when the Republic was formed.” – if Ireland had remained under English occupation we may very well have had abortion legalised here when it was legalised in Britain. Her Majesty did not object to the slaughter of her British subjects then nor has she since.

    The rot set in when mankind fell – we are always turning on the innocent and vulnerable. The Pro-life war is not over in Ireland. Some of our politicians are in for a nasty surprise at the next election and some of our bishops will be invited to find a backbone.

  18. Johnno says:

    You mean that Consecration to Mary’s Immaculate Heart of ‘unspecified country’ without ‘unspecified country’s Bishop’s participation didn’t do anything? Will wonders never cease?

  19. Supertradmum says:

    Bro. Tom Forde, if you study the early Republicanism movement, you will see a heavy influence of Marxism. The state set up here was completely secular, as it did not have to be, and I was not referring to the Brits at all. When the Irish take responsibility for their own mess instead of blaming others, things could be a lot better. As to the next election, I suggest you poll the voters under the age of 35. The vast majority are pro-abortion.

    A friend of mine is getting a medical degree here in Dublin. He is not Irish. All, he said, all the young men and women in his year who are Irish are not only pro-abortion, but pro-contraception. I go to daily Mass either at the Carmelites in Clarendon Street or at Whitefriars. I pass hundreds of young Irish men and women on Grafton Street or Stephen or George’s Street shopping, smoking, and not going to Mass. I am one of the younger ones at Mass, which is rather amazing.

    I think the Irish older population who did not pass the faith on to their children and grandchildren are living in la-la land. As to the hierarchy, all the good Irish I talk to say they are weak and will stay weak, except for one or two.

    When I attended the huge rally in December of 2012, the students I was standing with were from Scotland, Poland, Singapore. I was happy to see all those people but nothing came of it-no follow up-no petition at the time which could have gathered 500,000 signatures. I went to the rosary recently outside the Dail. Only TWO priests were there and about 120 lay people.

  20. Bosco says:

    Well said, Brother Tom. Well said indeed.
    I wont expand on your observations as I don’t want to be the cause of leading anyone away from the more immediate topic posted by Father Z.

  21. Kathleen10 says:

    Moro, your comment about nasty protesters gives me a thought I have had regularly. I often see people cite the necessity of being polite, friendly, civil, etc., when one is acting as a defender of the faith in some way, as if, people are not open to hearing or understanding the truth without a sufficient measure of pleasantry delivered with the message. It stumps me, frankly. I mean, of course it is a good idea to be “nice”, but, it seems like useless propaganda, that admonition to always be pleasant or the message, whatever it is, will not be accepted by the listener. There is always this expectation that we must be perpetually pleasant when promoting hard truths. This is heard in the political sphere as well, and too many GOP and conservative members have bought it. Hence we have so much “nice” that nobody wants to speak frankly anymore. It’s too “harsh”. It’s a ploy by the enemy, and very effective, because it dampens the fire in the belly that adds force to opinion. Must we pray “This action or speech is unpopular, please God, help me to be congenial when I speak it”? I’m not advocating jerkdom, I’m just saying that pleasant thing is a red herring.
    I’m sad Ireland is caving in to Satan. Very sad. The land of my grandfather’s birth, Cork! I had ideas of visiting someday, but, I live in the states so I can see the Land of the Lost right here. The Ireland I dreamed of is gone. The race to the bottom. We’re all in it, whether or not we want to be. We are dragged along with everyone who wants to be in the race, and win.
    And the color of the sky. They can explain it all they want. Those types of things portend. Not always, but any christian worth his salt should be able to read that one.

  22. Seamus says:

    So “pro-choice” now means pro-compulsion? George Orwell, please call your office.

  23. Moro says:

    Kathleen10 – Let me clarify what I mean by being nice. I am in no way suggesting we compromise the truth. I don’t hang out in front of Planned Parenthood but I’ve seen a lot of this as there is a clinic next to the grocery store I shop at. I’m pro-life but the people outside don’t know that. 90% of the time they are just praying, passing out literature, etc. That’s appropriate Christian witness.

    However, I have personally witnessed, as a passerby, a woman follow and yell at someone going into the clinic. There was recently a news story on an abortion clinic in Jackson, MS where one of the regular protestor has a megaphone and basically yells at everyone and often, nobody in particular. This are unnecessary, ineffective and perhaps even uncharitable tactics, they make prolifers and Catholics look like complete lunatics. That is what I think backfires. That is what must stop.

  24. Supretradmum – My reading of Irish Republican history (my family was and still is involved) lead me to see that it began as a very varied movement and some of it was socialist. It couldn’t help but be given the levels of poverty in Ireland and across Europe. Still how many revolutionary movements in Europe prayed the rosary – the Irish did? Whilst in the past some were keen to blame Britain for every ill most Irish know who to blame. Yes most young professionals are pro-abortion (in public) but after twelve years working with teenagers I that the majority are not so definite and many are against abortion when they know the whole story. As a University chaplain said me to recently ‘there are a lot of Nicodemuses’ .

    As I have argued before one cannot judge a whole nation from one perspective. I was at the biggest ever rally outside the Dail during the Summer – most of those I saw were Irish – ordinary Irish. There is a sleeping giant in this country that will awake. Mr. Kenny and his gang may just have kicked it.

  25. netokor says:

    “This are unnecessary, ineffective and perhaps even uncharitable tactics, they make prolifers and Catholics look like complete lunatics. That is what I think backfires. That is what must stop.”

    Kathleen 10, the quote above is the advice Jesus desperately needed before he overturned the moneychangers’ tables–not! I wholeheartedly agree with you.

    Moro, Jesus must have looked like a “lunatic” also, but he probably converted many through his outrage against evil. Children are butchered, but we must comport ourselves as if nothing were happening–right! We break no laws, but we are entitled to express the truth and sometimes shouting is in order when lives are at stake.

  26. Johnno says:

    There comes a limit to being ‘nice’ and ‘civil.’ Oftentimes the most civil thing to do is to violently oppose grave evil.

    May God grant us the Gift of Discernment to know when to strike down and when to heal.

    They are already debating murdering children up to 3 years of age. And some people shall willfully go along with it.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v8–9R0I2Q&feature=player_embedded
    http://www.dailypaul.com/295646/obama-zombies-sign-petition-supporting-infanticide-as-part-of-obama-care-post-birth-abortion

    So when the day inevitably arrives where you literally see people carrying their newborn and 3 year old children into ‘4th Trimester’ clinics, what shall our ‘nice courteous response’ be?

    Let’s just admit that it is we who are weak. We are unwilling to do what is necessary, because we DO NOT LOVE anyone enough to do difficult things out of necessity. We don’t fight because our lives are too comfortable. We are, it seems making excuses for ourselves, and saying it’s because we are humble, when in fact, we are scared when gazing at these walls of Jericho and the gigantic inhabitants of Canaan. This is why we need a leader, and why it was the Papacy who saved the Western World by taking charge and calling for the Holy Crusade. The Church Militant has been effectively neutered, all according to the original Communist plan.

  27. Ben Kenobi says:

    “Many are quite friendly and harmless but then you get people who, despite being pro-life, are down right nasty.”

    I’m not quite sure how one would define being nasty? An abortion clinic kills thousands every year. Isn’t that considered to be nasty? See, what I see is that folks who complain that prolifers are being ‘nasty’, ‘unpleasant’, etc all believe that abortion doesn’t kill a person. More prolifers have been assaulted injured, etc than the converse.

  28. lucindatcm says:

    I will walk off my shift before I participate in that horror. I am not a nurse yet; I’ve got a year before I can practice as an RN. I can’t imagine any Catholic nurse (and there are a number of them that go to my parish) or Catholic doctor (I know one or two of them too) participating in that procedure.

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