Time has come for the church to STAY OUT of social issues & politics Sinn Fein leader says Eighth Amendment defeat a turning point
I suppose abortion was the last and most taboo of those issues MARY LOU MCDONALD
SINN Fein leader Mary Lou Mcdonald believes the Church should stay out of politics after a humiliating abortion referendum defeat.
The Dublin deputy said the result of Ireland’s “last taboo” is another step in the process of “decoupling” Church and State.
In an exclusive interview with the Irish Mirror she said: “It has been a process that’s been underway for some time and of course the decision around marriage equality and you could go back to contraception and divorce.
“Abortion I suppose was the last and the most taboo of those issues.
“First of all, we need to live in a society in which people are free to hold and to practise their religious faith and belief.
“So I wouldn’t like to see a swing from one thing to another.
“There has to be a place for faith communities and for churches and we have to recognise they have the right to preach to and to advocate to their flock their view, their theology and their values.
COLLECTIVE
“I’m a Catholic as it happens but when I act as a legislator I act in the collective interest.
“I act in a secular space and all of us, whether you’re a Catholic or whatever your religion is or none, you have to understand you act in the common good and you act to accommodate all beliefs and none.
“I think in the past that’s what happened and this is a function of partition. A kind of a Protestant parliament for a Protestant people, an Orange State, an apartheid State up the road.
“Let’s face it, you had a reactionary Home Rule was Rome Rule set up here.
“So of all the people in the world, we should know better than anyone, we shouldn’t have to be told that you give the Church belief its place.
“But you keep the State, the State apparatus and the law of the land, you make absolutely sure that it is never dictated, framed or formed by a single church or theological group.”
Ms Mcdonald added abortion was the most important of the issues that the Church was crossing the line on but said there are still other social matters it should step away from.
She added: “I think you could argue that it [the abortion issue] was probably the most significant signpost but there are still issues, for instance around patronage in schools.
“There has to be an understanding that those of us in politics act in the political sphere and that you render unto God that which is God and unto Caesar which is Caesar.” In IRISH MIRROR YESTERDAY relation to the still-unfolding false adoptions scandal, Ms Mcdonald said the State has once again shown considerable failings.
She added: “We can hold the State to account on this because, yes, it’s about individual accountability, but it’s also collective accountability.
“Because when all of this was going on, St Patrick’s Guild – the last of the cases identified in the audit – were in 1969.
“This isn’t medieval Ireland. Governments were in place. Law makers came into this place [Leinster House] and were charged with the duty of protecting citizens, they failed.
“So politics needs to be held to account. The political system, those who looked the other way, I think need to come out and stand up and speak to people who have been hurt by all of this in a very direct way and then you need to heal it.
“We have some transparency now, but it’s deeply imperfect.
“You still have a situation where kids who are vulnerable, who are trying to get access to social workers and supports, you’ve children in care, children in foster homes, it’s still hugely problematic.
“So we can talk about coming out of the dark past, we can talk about separating Church from State.
“But you know what, still now, the State does not cherish, doesn’t fully protect children and young people and, as we saw in recent scandals, women.
“So there’s work to be done there.”