‘OFFENSIVE AND UNACCEPTABLE VIEWS’
MARY McAleese faced a wave of criticism over her comments on the Catholic Church.
Some callers to RTÉ Radio 1’s Liveline described her views as ‘offensive’ and ‘unacceptable’ but others praised the former president.
One caller, Majella, told Joe Duffy yesterday she was appalled by Mrs McAleese’s comments, saying these were ‘utterly disrespectful’ to the Church.
‘I think she’s gone too far, really,’ said Majella, who even claimed that Mrs McAleese’s comments indicate that she’s ‘losing the plot’.
‘She’s thrown a right old strop, hasn’t she?’ said Majella.
‘I’m an active member of the Church. I’m a woman. I’ve been in the Church all my life.
‘I have never found myself to be in a situation where I felt in an empire of misogyny.’
Marian Murphy from Naas, Co. Kildare, said Mrs McAleese was ‘living in a bubble’.
‘If that’s all she has to complain about in life when you look at people around you in the hospitals, terminally ill children… It’s the least of society’s problems what she’s ranting on about,’ said Ms Murphy.
Thomas Banks from Sligo insisted that the Church ‘loves women’ and said Mrs McAleese should apologise. ‘She’s gone over the top. Her attitude is too pompous,’ he told Liveline’s Joe Duffy. ‘Who does she think she is? Just because she’s the former president of Ireland, does she think she can dictate to me and all the people in the Church?’
But other listeners gave their support to Mrs McAleese’s comments on the Catholic Church.
Fr Iggy O’Donovan told Liveline listeners there ‘certainly are misogynistic practices’ within the Church and he said women were the ‘foot soldiers’ of the Church.
Another caller, Maura Mooney, congratulated Fr O’Donovan for his comments and said she fully backed Mrs McAleese, describing her as highly intelligent woman.
‘I am a Catholic, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to believe and go by everything that comes from Rome,’ Ms Mooney said.
Mrs McAleese’s comments were praised by caller Mary from Dublin, who backed idea of women being priests, saying: ‘People in the Vatican are terrified of women,’ she said. ‘It’s misogynistic but part of it is fear – they’re afraid of women.’