A development that has emerged from my ‘birthday’ Mass in January, and a number of things that I have written, and said in various media interviews, about Church doctrine and language, is that, with the co-operation of Noirin Ni Riain, I have been working with a small group of people, about fifteen in all, over the last couple of months. This is a varied group, women and men, younger and older, with a variety of different positions as regards religious institutions.
I know nothing at all, apart from whatever we learn from the official introduction, about the new Papal Nuncio. I am on record many times in my belief that his predecessor Charles Brown was something of a disaster for the Irish Church. His choices for new bishops left a lot to be desired, and continued the policy of depriving the Irish Church of effective leadership. His failure to meet and talk seriously to anyone with a critical view of the state of the church in Ireland was utterly inadequate in a time of obvious crisis in our church.
I am pleased to hear voices beginning to be raised, the latest Eamon Martin, questioning the nature of some of the current debates in Ireland, and what voices are no longer acceptable in the ‘public square’. I have been quite repulsed over the recent past at some of the intolerance towards certain groups in our society, and this intolerance being presented as ‘liberal’ and ‘forward thinking’.
I fully accepts the principle that a National Maternity Hospital must be in full compliance with the laws of the land, and that no particular group or religious affiliation can dictate what is or is not permissable therein.
