Voting Yes doesn’t make a person any less spiritual

NEVER AFRAID TO TACKLE THE STORIES THAT MATTER

YES, we’ve had a seismic referendum but it will take many a year for us to complete absorb the full meaning of the abortion vote of May 25. Overall, despite a few flurries from pulpits, the Catholic hierarchy was relatively quiet – led by the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, who is best-known in the capital for his disquiet over gangland violence, homelessness and social injustice.

That is why the dictum of the Bishop of Elphin, Kevin Doran, calling for Catholics who voted for repeal to repent by attending confession to seek absolution for their sins, went down like a lead ballon.

‘Bless me Father for I have sinned by voting Yes,’ is not an opening line that is going to be heard often in the confessionals over the next few months before the Pope arrives.

It is not as if those voting Yes in the referendum did not know what would happen. One effect of the graphic and strident No campaign is that no one in country was unaware of the most extreme allegations of what might happen.

Bishop Doran was installed as Bishop of Elphin in Sligo Cathedral in 2014. Four years earlier, a few miles down the road, Ireland witnessed a spiritual awakening when Leonard Cohen played two of the 12 sold-out concerts he performed in this country in the latter years of his life.

Cohen connected with us like few others. That is why, on his death in 2016, President Higgins said: ‘Leonard Cohen not just captured feelings of loneliness and loss, but also the essence of human life; love, beauty, humour, as well as social and political engagement.’

That is an epitaph fitting a spiritual leader – and they are to be found inside and outside established churches.

The referendum consolidated what the likes of Leonard Cohen had awoken in Irish people years earlier; that our spirituality is sophisticated, liberal and open.

The proportions of the Yes vote was something only seen at the annual conferences of the Union of Students in Ireland 10 years ago. Indeed, the role of USI in the Yes campaign was significant – the sight of gardaí sitting inside and outside third-level colleges to facilitate quick voter registration was unprecedented.

While our daily Liveline debates on repealing the the Eighth Amendment were going on, the symbol of the World Meeting of Families – the icon of the Holy Family created by celebrated artist Mihai Cucu and a group of Irish nuns – coincidentally visited our local parish church. (In fairness, this church, like so many others, has transformed into a parish and community gathering spot, always welcoming – including to Yes voters, one third of whom were practising Catholics).

I slipped in to see the impressive icon and was struck by the number of younger women in attendance. One of them gently chided me about the appearance of Dr Peter Boylan on that day’s Liveline. It was clear that Boylan, the chairman of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, had become the bete noire of the No campaign. This is probably because he was so knowledgeable, calm and dignified during the campaign – sitting through being called a ‘liar’ and being urged to ‘go back to school’ by a colleague.

Peter Boylan’s consistent stance on the tragic and unnecessary death of Savita Halappanavar was vindicated by the vote and subsequent reverence shown to the mural of Savita in Dublin.

It cannot be without irony that in the Marian month of May, so important in the calendar of the Catholic Church, the image of Ireland that was broadcast across the world was a deeply moving and dignified shrine to a young Indian woman.