THE END OF CATHOLIC IRELAND AS WE KNEW IT

During a radio interview on  RTÉ Radio 1’s Today with Sean O’Rourke, Irish Bishop of Elphin,  Kevin Doran, was a guest.

He said to Catholics listening “if you voted Yes knowing and intending that abortion would be the outcome then you should consider coming to Confession.” 

During the same sex referendum campaign in 2015, Bishop Doran said in a Newstalk interview that “people who have children are not necessarily parents.” Gay parents were not necessarily parents because “the whole relationship between life-giving and parenthood” has been separated, he said.

At a press conference was called afterward in Maynooth, Catholic Primate Archbishop Eamon Martin and Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, attempted to soften Bishop Doran’s remarks.

Much more typical of how most Catholic Bishops see the Church after the referendum would be the view of Bishop of Killaloe, Fintan Monahan. He told Raidió na Gaeltachta: “it’s a Church and there are plenty of people with different attitudes within it and we have to accept that.”

While the Bishops of Ireland may have different points of view, one reality appears to be remarkably clear:  the recent referendum on abortion marks an end to Catholic Ireland.

Perhaps more accurately, what it illustrates is an end to a particular model of Clerically dominated Catholic Church in Ireland.

On that, I believe sadly, we can all agree.