Sir, - In backing the abortion referendum, I suspect that Catholic bishops have made the most colossal collective error in the ecclesiastical history of Ireland. In agreeing to a text that does not safeguard the embryo before implantation, they have severed the first link in what the Pope sees as the great chain of life from conception to death.
They claim they are acting to stamp out suicide as the only grounds for procured abortion while leaving other big outstanding issues such as cloning and experimenting on embryos to legislation. But surely the reason for holding a referendum was that pro-lifers did not trust the legislators. Why trust them now, especially when bishops are supporting a text that deliberately excludes constitutional concern for the pre-implanted embryo? Is not the embryo a human being from conception? Is it not murder to destroy it?
The bishops have studiously ignored signals coming from the Vatican. On November 8th, the Pope described the morning-after-pill as a "chemical abortion" of a human being. He condemned methods of contraception with "a well-known abortive effect", such as the IUD. On November 22nd Cardinal Trujillo, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, said of the Irish referendum: "We expect that the bishops will react against this project."
Cardinal Connell said that the referendum stands no chance of success without the bishops' support. What he fails to see is that it could fail even with it. It's more likely, I think, that the referendum will not now take place. But the nightmare scenario for the bishops is that it does take place and fails narrowly because they backed a text contrary to the fullness of papal teaching. - Yours, etc.,
Peter De Rosa, Ashford, Co Wicklow.