Galway novena keynote speaker’s invite pulled over pro-choice views

THE annual Galway novena has been forced to rescind its invitation to this year’s keynote speaker over her pro-choice views.

The embarrassing change in the line-up meant organisers had to design and print a whole new series of publicity leaflets in order to cover up the change of plan. The event is one of the biggest events for the Catholic Church in Ireland,

Organisers of the 2018 Galway Cathedral Novena invited Episcopalian minister Rev Lucinda Laird, Dean of the American Cathedral in Paris, to address the faithful just weeks ahead of the referendum on the Eighth Amendment.

However, following lobbying by a new Catholic group called Lumen Fidei, the invitation was withdrawn by organisers, who include the Redemptorist Order and the clergy at Galway Cathedral.

Lumen Fidei is the same group which forced the World Meeting of Families office in Ireland to remove an image of a same-sex couple from its booklet on the family.

That led former president Mary McAleese to express concern over the possible marginalisation of the LGBT community from the WMF in August, which may also see Pope Francis visit the country.

Anthony Murphy, who co-founded Lumen Fidei last year, told the Irish Independent: “There is no grey area for Catholics on the issue of abortion.”

Betrayal

He described the invitation to

Rev Laird as “an act of great betrayal”.

Mr Murphy wrote on January 29 to Redemptorist Fr Brendan O’Rourke, informing him of the anger among members of Lumen Fidei over the speaker selected.

Fr O’Rourke is one of the main organisers of the popular religious event in Galway, which sees crowds of up to 10,000 daily during the novena.

Responding the next day, Fr O’Rourke replied that Rev Laird’s preaching had come to his attention over two years ago.

“It was very Gospel-centred and pastoral. On that basis I invited her to preach at the Galway Novena, however I was completely unaware of Rev Laird’s pro-choice stance,” he wrote.

The priest’s failure to research his speaker’s background was criticised by Mr Murphy who said a quick search of the internet would have thrown up information on Rev Laird, including the fact that she has served on the board of directors of Planned Parenthood in Louisville, Kentucky.

Planned Parenthood is the biggest abortion provider in the US.

The minister also gave the keynote address in January 2006 at a dinner organised by the Kentucky Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice to celebrate the contentious Roe v Wade judgement.

The Irish Independent contacted Fr O’Rourke, the Diocese of Galway and the Cathedral in Galway but got no response to its questions.