Totalitarianism was "a real threat" in Ireland and Europe today, Fr Vincent Twomey, professor of moral theology at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, has said.
"Its echo can be found in the thinly veiled threats made by a member of the Government- appointed Crisis Pregnancy Agency to the few chemists left in Ireland that refuse on conscientious grounds to sell contraceptives," he said.
"In a totalitarian state, even when it calls itself pluralist, all must conform. But it is those few chemists and others, like the Mater hospital ethics subcommittee in recent days, who refuse to bow to the might of those who wield power, who affirm the primacy of conscience, properly understood," he said.
Fr Twomey was speaking in Dublin at the weekend at the third annual conference hosted by the John Paul II Society. Its theme was Rediscovering the Soul of Europe.
In a forceful dismissal of the EU, he said materialism was its dominant religion and expediency its dominant morality.
"When our Minister for Health, Ms Harney, advocates that girls as young as 11 should be given the emergency 'morning-after pill' to prevent pregnancy if they are sexually active, she justifies it on the basis of expediency," he said.
Expediency was "the basis of those laws passed by European countries to allow experimentation on human embryos and, more recently, stem-cell research and cloning for so-called 'therapeutic' reasons - also recommended earlier this year by the Irish Government-appointed bioethical commission," he said.
"The driving force in these developments would seem to be the pharmaceutical industry, which cloaks its self-interest with a facade of compassion by promising miracle cures. But the dominance of expediency - the triumph of utilitarianism - affects all aspects of life, in particular the family and education, all of which are under threat today," he said.
It was "hard to feel much attachment" to the EU, he continued.
"It rouses no passion. It is slightly alienating, threatening deeply held values such as the family and the sacredness of human life. It seems to stand for nothing but self-interest. And that is not enough to satisfy the human heart," he said.
He concluded: "We are born for higher things than the EU in its present guise can offer."
At the same conference the Munster MEP Kathy Sinnott said the human embryo was her "smallest neighbour".
"I remember with several of my pregnancies I knew I was pregnant before there were any physical symptoms. I knew from a sense of presence, a real presence of someone else within me.
"As we speak, the embryo is the object of the most intense and malignant interest. Scientists want the embryo as a research specimen, industry as a test specimen and a raw material. Governments want the embryo to attract both to its economies. But the embryo is a person," she said.