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THE BISHOP OF Waterford and Lismore has said he was “horrified” by people celebrating the repeal of the Eighth Amendment last weekend.
“I was horrified to see the jumping and roaring and cheering in Dublin Castle last Saturday. How can you cheer about abortion?,” Alphonsus Cullinan asked during an interview on local radio station WLR FM today.
Ireland last week voted by 66.4% to 33.6% to remove the amendment from the Constitution, which gave equal status to the mother and the unborn, paving the way for the legalisation of abortion in some circumstances.
There were scenes of jubilation at Dublin Castle last weekend, with the landslide Yes victory being hailed as a positive step for women’s rights in the country. More than 170,000 women and girls have travelled from Ireland to another country for an abortion since 1980.
Speaking to Déise Today, Cullinan said Yes voters “need confession if they are to receive communion”, echoing comments made by the Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran earlier this week.
WLR / SoundCloud
“If people have knowingly and willingly voted Yes well then they have to examine their conscience and go before the Lord and say, ‘Lord, we got this wrong’,” Cullinan said.
He added that Yes voters “should examine their conscience and they should talk to the priest, they should go to confession”.
When host Eamon Keane noted that 82% of people surveyed as part of RTÉ’s exit poll on the referendum said they felt “well-informed” about the details of what they were voting on, Cullinan questioned the “critical thinking ability of the Irish”.
“Do we think things through? Do we accept that there is an objective morality or do we make up our own?
I think now so many people just make up their own morality and that, in many ways, is frightening because it means at the end of the day it’s those who are strong and powerful who will dictate to the less powerful and the weak.
Euthanasia
Cullinan said the Yes vote means euthanasia is essentially now accepted in Ireland.
“Let’s face it, euthanasia has now been accepted in the sense that we have accepted, the majority of the Irish people have accepted, that some life is not worthy of life,” he said.
Cullinan said local No campaigners have gathered a number of times since the vote.
Yes there was dejection and people were down and very sad, very afraid for the future, but by the same token there was a great buzz, there was a great feeling of some kind of pentecost.
“People are not going to give up because they believe that for the good of Ireland and for the good of people that abortion is not a good thing, that it is the destruction of a little life,” he stated.
John Halligan
Last month, junior minister John Halligan accused Cullinan of not allowing him to be his godson’s sponsor at his confirmation because he was in favour of repealing the Eighth Amendment.
When asked about this today, Cullinan said: “John excluded himself from the Confirmation. How could someone who does not believe in God and has made it public, crystal clear … How could he stand there and want to be part of church ceremony?
It’d be like asking (Kilkenny hurling manager) Brian Cody to play in goals for Waterford when they’re playing Kilkenny. It just doesn’t make sense.
‘The taxpayers are mostly Catholics’
Cullinan was also asked about his stance on school patronage and divestment.
On Monday, Education Minister Richard Bruton noted that 95% of primary schools are of a Catholic ethos and stated that it is the government’s target to have 400 multi-denominational and non-denominational schools in place by 2030.
Cullinan said he believes that parents should have more options in terms of the schools they can send their children to, but added that the wishes of Catholic parents must also be respected.
“The taxpayers are mostly Catholics,” he said, noting that every church he has celebrated confirmation masses in this year has “been packed to the gills” with people who “want to be there”.
“The Catholic parents, of whatever level of faith they have, are taxpayers and some of their money is going to running of the schools to which they want to send their children and they have a right, the same as anyone else.
I do believe there should be more of a choice certainly, that is true and that’s a work in progress, but that’s not easy either for me as bishop because I know if I were to divest a particular school I would say most of the parents would be up in arms.
Last year Cullinan apologised for saying the HPV vaccine is “70% safe” and could encourage young people to have sex.
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This truly goes to show how out of touch the church is with Irish people and modern Irish society! Nobody was cheering for abortion, nobody in their right mind cheers for that. People cheered for bodily autonomy, for equal rights, for their right to choose.
@David Farrell: Bodily Autonomy? The right to choose? The right to choose…………..what?
@David Farrell:
The Dublin Castle celebrations were a bit over the top though like a crowd celebrating a World Cup match. No need for it really.
@Jack McGready: maybe if you were a member of a suppressed gender, that has suffered terribly at the hands of this state you could make that comment, but I celebrated, as I’m sure many others did and for a several reasons! We sent a powerful message to the world that we will stand with our women, not send them to airports.
@Jack McGready: furthermore jack I think women’s rights are more deserved of celebration then the World Cup, the fact you even try compare them shows you probably don’t
@David Farrell:
Even many Yes voters were appalled by the celebrations though.
Rather uncouth to be honest.
The same sex marriage result was a genuine celebration of joy for many people but trying to recreate the same atmosphere with laws for abortion was never a good idea.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: The right to choice at home perhaps?
@David Farrell:
Comparable in the sense of whoopin and a hollerin.
Very poor taste.
@Jack McGready: only people I have heard complaining about the celebrations are those on the no side, many people deserved to celebrate what was a hard fought and mentally draining campaign! Aforementioned nobody was celebrating abortion anyone who took offence to the celebrations is clearly seeing that!
@Jack McGready: the celebration wasn’t a celebration of abortion, it was much bigger than that and more of a “the sexual conservatives no longer have any power here”. It’s much more about celebrating the long overdue demise of Catholic Ireland than it is about anything else.
@Jack McGready: what Patrick said
@Patrick FitzGerald:
So, essentially you’re suggesting that the referendum had more to do with a secular/religious/conservative power struggle then the issue of abortion rights?
Actually I’m in agreement with you in many respects having argued on many occasions that the referendum had been hijacked by disparate groups with no real interest in the substantive matter, a large proportion of whom did not even analyse the matter from a factual point of view, just hopped on the bandwagon.
@David Farrell: yes Dave , really , really Dave
@Jack McGready: Oh it’s up there alright , but your can’t blame the mindless selfish youth , they haven’t as we say , grown to mans estate
@Gaz Barclay Dunnes: such a reductive view! Sorry we don’t believe in going to church and living under the strict hand of the church, sorry about that!
Glass houses, kettle black, etc.
I was horrified to see a parish priest has ordered St Vincent de Paul to remove a Clothing Bank from it’s property at a cost of €2,000 because SVP didn’t publicly back a No Vote!
@Incognito: Where?
@De Zach Same: Rath Chairn in Meath.
@Incognito: so no one can have differing opinions to yours ? Is that not a fascist creed
@Incognito: The bigger surprise is that it’s costs €2000 to remove a metal box?
@mitchellaneou5: I felt physical sick watching those people cheering on the introduction of abortions into 26 county Irish state on TV on Saturday…as a North belfast Nationalist i felt very depressed watching sinn Fein in the middle of it.. I will and my family and friends will never vote for sinn Fein again…..
The cheering last Saturday was shameful. How can anybody cheer the taking away of All rights from a class of persons – the unborn? It makes a mockery of our equality law. Disabled children won’t see the light of day. Mothers who regret their future abortions will have no “choice” but to bear the pain.
Cheering ending lives and Amnesty in the thick of it. What upside down thinking.
Campaigning against the death penalty and for abortion.
Would you cheer if a living child was killed? Why cheer the killing of the unborn.
@Margaret Williams: Because we live in the selfish age and children are viewed as burdens.
Choice not abortion. They still don’t get it!
My only solace in watching the pro choice side win was in knowing this could be one of the final nails in the coffin of the Catholic Church in Ireland, in fairness they were celebrating the right to choice I would think rather than the act itself!….
The mind boggles. People were celebrating choice, freedom and the breaking of yet another catholic shackle from the ankle of humanity.
@Jamie McCormack: and selfish men are celebrating the fact they won’t have to pay for flights to England anymore as it can be done herr
He’s right, our country is extremely brainwashed and last weekends celebrations just showed that. How anyone can celebrate murder is beyond me
@Steve1234: if you think someone is celebrating murder you should definitely call the police.
@Abbie Cranky: Can’t seeing as the government has now legalised it in the womb
@Steve1234:you poor child.Abortion was already legal .Has been for many a year..
@OOOOH,SOMETIMES: only in cases of risk to live here. Now we’ll have 10000+ murdered every year
@Steve1234: 10000?? If you’re making up figures why not go the whole hog
@Steve1234: “Your” country? The United States?
Probably Billions every year over in your State?
@Dotty Dunleary: Nope Irish born and bred
@Steve1234: It doesn’t matter if it was just for ‘cases of risk’.It ‘was’ legal.
@Chucky Arlaw: Look at every other country. We’ll have at least 15% of babies being aborted
@Steve1234: ‘murdered’ ?
Can i ask you ,when do you believe that ‘human life’ should be protected ?
@Steve1234: no babies will be aborted
Embryos on the other hand
@Chucky Arlaw: Humans will be killed though.
@OOOOH,SOMETIMES: From moment of conception, with only exception being life of mother at risk and abortion is the only option
@Steve1234: More potential human lives have been lost in your tube socks, time to find a human female….
@Steve1234: From the moment of conception ? Really ? So how does one go about protecting the 65% of human lives that never make it to utero? What do you reckon,Steve ? Any ideas?
@OOOOH,SOMETIMES: Well there’s nothing I can do about natural tragedies. Abortion however I can speak out about how evil and vile it is
@Steve1234: you can do a lot of things.But anyway,it seems that you believe that human life should get protected at different stages.Which is fine,as i agree with you..
@Steve1234:
Define “extremely brainwashed”.
Thanks.
Ah lads why the reaction? The man represents his view. Is that not the whole idea of free speech and choice. I think the intolerance shown by people to others view point is extrem.
@Datuk Don: because he’s an unrepentant part of an organisation that made people’s lives hell
He has no place in Irish life, beyond to remind people what happens when you give a bunch of celibate men untrammeled power
@Datuk Don: Tolerance is earned, and the Catholic Church are the most intolerant organisation on the planet.
@John McQuaid: and modern day liberals are very tolerant towards opposing views.
The priests are a lot tougher on people with the compassion to help women in crisis than their own sex offenders. How many of these kids with false birth certs were fathered by priests? Sad, bad people.
@David Welsh: How is it compassionate to kill an innocent defenseless baby. It’s just selfish
@Steve1234: you don’t get it do you? Do you really think anyone is going to agree with you when you spout bile and hyperbole like that?
@Steve1234: Tell it to Savita. And all the rest….
This comes from a place of deep misogyny. People like Cullinan can’t stand the idea that the Church doesn’t control women’s bodies any more.
@Brendan O’Brien: Or maybe he can’t stand the thought of innocent humans being killed
@Steve1234: If he couldn’t stand the thought of innocent human beings being killed then he’d want to leave the Catholic Church.
@John Murphy: Does the church deliberately kill 55 million every year at the present time
@Steve1234: if you think anyone is being killed, I urge you to call the police.
@Steve1234: ‘innocent human beings being killed’ -1800 666 111 ,isn’t it about time that you gave that number a buzz..
@Michael Knight: I oppose bigotry of whatever stripe. This is why I disagree with people like you.
@Brendan O’Brien: Careful now Brendumb, the term stripe could easily be deemed as racist. You’re only offending yourself.
@Michael Knight: Have a good, hard think and try to come up with something a little cleverer. Because that one was abysmal.
@Brendan O’Brien: You should spend more time looking for those commissions Brendumb. Less time on here being a walking parody. What say you?
Because women of this country, my sisters, my aunts, my friends now have a choice. Rather than being dictated to by a religious organisation that has for too long been too powerful over the laws of this country. The same religous organisation that told my mother when she had two still born children that they could not be buried in a graveyard as they were not baptised and that they were “in limbo”. Then, all of a audden, limbo does not exist??? Disgraceful. I’m delighted that the country as a whole, both men and women, has made the choice to let women have a choice. You will never be in that situation. Accept it and beg forgiveness from the people of this country of your disgraceful history in this country.
@RaheenRay: Why is everybody discussing the church. It is the Constitution that has been changed not the Mass. The law dictates to us. Are you proud that innocent lives will be ended? What about the sisters, cousins, children who won’t be born.
@Margaret Williams: People are discussing the Church because the article is about the witterings of a bishop.
They REALLY don’t get it do they? People voted freely…. They weren’t hypnotised to the polls …… Like some mass dictator…..
@Sean Leonard: This lad is showing his true colours. Sooner this fair land is rid of the controlling influence of the bishops, the better.
Dear Bishop, People were cheering for the repeal of the amendment, not for abortion. Best wishes, Paul.
I think it should have been a solemn moment I supported the yes side and wanted people to have the choice but to celebrate what comes next is in bad taste.
So, now they’re questioning the “critical thinking ability of the Irish”? That’s nice. We all know is they’d prefer us not to think for ourselves, but tough luck!
And someone really should explain to this fool that abortion and euthanasia are the not same thing..
@EvieXVI: They’re part of the culture of death and also happen to save the government a lot of money
@Steve1234: Steve, have you never stopped to think that you might be the baddie in all of this?
@Chucky Arlaw: Nope. Have you never thought that maybe you’re wrong?
@Steve1234: Firstly, my point is that they are different things, which this bishop doesn’t seem to realise. If you don’t know the difference, I’d suggest Googling it, it’s pretty easy to understand.
And secondly, ”Culture of death’?? Your trolling is getting a bit desperate. The Eighth amendment has been repealed, it won’t be unrepealed. So you’re wasting your time.
@Steve1234: yes, regularly. Then I read comments from pro birthers like you and realise that a fear of hell and a desire to control women is all you have on your side of the argument… You belong in the past, and thankfully, seeing as 87% of people under 25 voted repeal, it looks like died in the wool Catholic righters are a dying breed
@EvieXVI: Yes culture of death, abortion promotes death of babies, euthanasia promotes the idea that old people have worthless lifes and should be killed.
@Chucky Arlaw: Yawn, I’m on the right side of history and you proaborts are going to be the ones in the future who are demonised and locked the same way the church is today and I can’t wait for that. Also people become more conservative as they get older, most of that 87% have never been pregnant for one and may change their mind as they get older and regret their vote
@Steve1234: Abortion means terminating a pregnancy, it ‘promotes’ nothing. And euthanasia is a decision, again, nothing is being ‘promoted’.
@EvieXVI: Like abortions, old people can be persuaded to end their lives, that they’re a burden on others and all.
@Steve1234: ‘pro aborts’ -do you believe that abortion should be used to save a woman’s life Steve ?
@OOOOH,SOMETIMES: As I said above yes
@Steve1234: that mean’s that you are a ‘pro abort’ ,too
@OOOOH,SOMETIMES: Not a pro-abort for convience reasons though
The Lord of what? The Lord of light? The Lord of Fire? The God of rain? The God of rivers? The God of the seas? The God of strength? The God of war? The God of peace? There are thousands to choose from and most out date your deity! You represent a secret organisation of elitist celibate males who have fueled and funded horrific massacres in old times to the mass relocation and murder of countless kids and babies for many lifetimes. All that while stopping the actual real law from dealing with all the paedophiles within your ranks, instead relocating many out of the reach the law. Shush, I like many others can’t wait until the grasp you have is phased out of our society. Indoctrination in my opinion is child abuse. (Flood gates are open,I’m ready for the onslaught)
They should close the Catholic Church, start all over again . Long dead , long gone. They should be brought before the courts all sentenced.
@Patrick Hudi Irwin: Hard to disagree. They were never friends of the Irish people, they just took advantage like they did in many other countries. They also need to give up their obscene riches and wealth to benefit the common folk. Jesus wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. These people are charlatans.
@Patrick Hudi Irwin: ab it prejudicial there don’t you think? Why not just bring all men before the courts because of all the abuse committed by men?
Yesterdays man for yesterdays Ireland. This moral bastion of social inhibition and control is over.
We weren’t cheering abortion, we were cheering the ongoing slow death of social and sexual conservatism, of which the eight amendment was an intrinsic part. The corrosive influence of the Catholic Church, and its ideology of policing the private, sexual behaviour of individuals, is being slowly but surely purged from our society – and not a moment too soon.
The toxic, sexually oppressive ideology of this religion bears absolutely no resemblance to the ideology of love, compassion, and kindness which the Jesus of the gospels sought to instil in his followers. The sooner it is entirely eradicated from this world, the better not only for society, but also for genuine Christianity.
Agreed. Although I am a yes voter, it certainly shouldn’t be celebrated. Many out there don’t even think about what they’re celebrating…. How many Facebook profile pics did I see with pictures of people’s kids with the repeal emblem attached underneath. Morons
“Do we think things through? Do we accept that there is an objective morality or do we make up our own?”
There is absolutely no objective morality whatsoever to any consensual act between adults, and maybe if the Catholic Church had wrapped its head around this sooner rather than fighting tooth and nail to maintain its corrosive ideology of social authoritarianism, it would still have some influence in society. They simply don’t deserve any such influence after what they’ve done.
I’m sorry pal but having that collar wrapped around your neck means absolutely nothing as far as preaching a morality anymore in this country. Your institutions history does nothing to warrant speaking on the behalf of the unborn children for those who were born and under the so called “care” of the church were taken from their mothers, sold and buried in sh*t tanks. I’m a staunch pro-lifer and it angers me when the Catholic Church infiltrate logical debate with their fantasies and delusio.
That’s ridiculous, they hold life, hope, morality and one people furthering themselves , you see they as missionaries have seen the cheapening of life in many cultures which had led to many other socially depraved acts, Catholic Ireland used to have one murder every year. Drugs in Dublin city areas, leave your hall door open, communities that were connected, no Facebook, sexting, or free access to hard porn , we’re not better off we’ve just accepted it
The Catholic church is dying on its feet. It is so outdated out of touch and irrelevant. Lacking In emotion empathy and what it means to truly experience life. It’s a sham and always has been. Driven by power and greed
I’m curious as to what the Catholic church would think about assisted suicide in this country if there was a vote on it tomorrow.
@Cian Monaghan: Cian only an imaginary figure in the sky has the right to take life, they of course would say no! Many on the no side were afraid this would be the next vote and I sure hope it is and like the referendum passed, I would be out fighting again for a persons right to choose!
@David Farrell: in your opinion I presume -there are other people out there who don’t think god is an imaginary cloud in the sky -
@Eugene McDonough: clouds aren’t imaginary Eugene, I said figure in the sky! My opinion is more factual as there’s zero proof of the existence of God and if, IF God is real I doubt for one second he would want the church spreading his word!
I think the no side should stone all us yes voters to death.
God would love that
@Leigh Scanlan: God would probably prefer if all the No voters would just get stoned and fall asleep….
He’s seriously deluded.
How can you throw dead babies in septic tanks?
@davo gazeley: ask any abortion clinic , like flipping burgers for them
@davo gazeley: He didn’t
Get a grip you fool
Condoms are the devil
have your say