Boston’s Irish community praise Kenny for standing up to Church; Martin wades into abortion debate; Top clerics divided on penalty for pro-choice Catholics; Conference in call to destroy stereotype of ‘poor’ Protestants; Teachers fear new special needs plans will be red-tape nightmare; Cork Charity urges end to homelessness; Stormont free speech move a threat to our universities: peer
Examiner – The Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, has been applauded by prominent members of the Irish community in Boston for what was described as his “courage” in standing up to religious institutions.
Boston Cardinal, Sean O’Malley, is to boycott a speech by Mr Kenny in Boston College tomorrow because he believes the Taoiseach is “aggresively promoting abortion legislation.”
At an event in the city last night to mark the 50th anniversary of the visit of President John F. Kennedy to Ireland, the Taoiseach received strong support from the Irish-American community.
There was a standing ovation after Senator Paul Kirk – who replaced Edward Kennedy as Massachusetts Senator – told the Taoiseach that “we salute you Mr Prime Minister for your courage”.
He said Mr Kenny had chosen “to speak the unvarnishied but inconvenient truth to the highest institutions of religious power on the fundamental issues of honesty, transparency, accountability and social justice.”
The event was attended by members of the Kennedy family as well as business, cultural and political leaders from the Irish community in Boston.
Martin wades into abortion debate
Examiner – As the Dáil committee hearings continue on the abortion bill, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has waded into the debate saying it is important that Christian believers “be, and seen to be, on the side of life, especially when life is most vulnerable”
Archbishop Martin warned in his Pentecostal sermon that “the Christian believer is on the side of the life of the mother and that of the unborn child, life at its very beginnings and life at its end”.
He also urged doctors and nurses to ensure their “great tradition” of protecting the lives of mothers and their unborn children survives.
“We thank God for those who work within our healthcare system and who give constant witness, even in difficult circumstances, to ensuring that both mother and baby survive and flourish. This is a great tradition of which we can be proud and which we must see to it that it survives and is not weakened,” he said.
In a sermon that referred to the importance of community and unity over individualism, he warned of the dangerous consequences “when an economic system or a political programme moves away from serving the common good…..when we almost feel that we can act as God”.
“We live in a world in which for many individualism, self-expression and self-sufficiency become the sole driving force of human activity…….. Growth, progress, economic interest and profit are pursued for their own sake, without any regard for the consequences for other areas of life, whether on the poor and excluded, or the environment, or on the global good of inclusion,” he said.
“A world view based only on human ambition inevitably leads to divisions and confusion. In our recent past, an economic system became infested with personal greed and uncontrolled ambition — and it was even trumpeted — only then to collapse like a pack of cards and create new divisions. We see the divisions of poverty and precariousness, lack of hopeful employment for our young people, of emigration, of our inability to maintain important services of solidarity.” he said.
Last week Archbishop Martin, in a letter to a newspaper, criticised the “growing impression” that the judgment in the X case “is the Constitution”.
More at –
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/martin-wades-into-abortion-debate-231709.html
Top clerics divided on penalty for pro-choice Catholics
Examiner – Two of the most senior archbishops in the country have differed on whether pro-choice Catholics should be prevented from receiving communion.
The first signs of division among senior clerics emerged yesterday with clear differences of opinion.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin said he does not want to see the sacrament of communion being used “for publicity reasons” by anybody in the debate surrounding abortion.
And he urged politicians to “examine their coherence” between their faith and what they proposed in the forthcoming abortion legislation.
His comments came after Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh, Eamon Martin, warned that politicians who knowingly introduced legislation “aiding and abetting abortion” should not approach a priest looking for communion.
Archbishop Eamon Martin, who succeeds Cardinal Sean Brady next year, said that legislators who supported abortion were excommunicating themselves.
Conference in call to destroy stereotype of ‘poor’ Protestants
News Letter The stereotype of working-class Protestants as “poor white trash” was attacked at a conference held in Belfast this week.
The gathering brought together high-profile loyalists alongside republicans and academics, with the theme of the discussions being: ‘Has the Protestant working class lost out on the peace process?’
Joe Bowers, chairman of the Fellowship of Messines Association, was among the first to address the meeting.
Mr Bowers, 71 and from Monkstown, Co Antrim, spoke about the concept of Britishness, and posed the open question: “The creation of the welfare state – is that not part of our British history?
“The National Health Service – is that not the most important part of our British history? Is it not more important than the Union Flag?
“Why are we not mobilising people around the defence of the NHS with the type of same determination?”
Academics from as far away as America were there to speak, and one described loyalism as having become a “pejorative term” used by some to falsely brand such communities as “poor white trash”.
Speaking outside the meeting on Wednesday, Jackie McDonald, 65-year-old member of the UDA-linked UPRG, acknowledged that the taking down of the Union Flag had unleashed “a tsunami of hate and bigotry”.
“Somehow we’re going to have to help the flag protestors see through the red mist and understand where the future lies,” he said.
He said the history of the Troubles, which formed part of the topics under discussion, should be better explained to youngsters and there is also need for more integrated schools, as well as jobs.
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/conference-in-call-to-destroy-stereotype-of-poor-protestants-1-5107457
Teachers fear new special needs plans will be red-tape nightmare
Independent – A new approach to catering for pupils with special education needs (SEN) is recommended in a major report – but primary teachers warn it could turn into a bureaucratic nightmare.
Cork Charity urges end to homelessness
Examiner – Helping people out of homelessness and into permanent accommodation not only ends a cycle of misery but results in a huge cost saving.
That was the claim made by Threshold as the housing charity discovered that, in Cork, it costs €15,000 more to provide emergency housing.
The annual cost of maintaining a person in emergency accommodation in Cork is around €23,000, it was revealed.
However, the cost of delivering a permanent housing solution in the city is €8,000 — made up of a rent supplement for a single person, together with tenancy support. MOre at –
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/charity-urges-end-to-homelessness-231210.html
Stormont free speech move a threat to our universities: peer
News Letter – A leading historian has warned that Stormont’s veto of a law to strengthen freedom of speech will undermine the work of academics, as well as hampering responsible journalism.
Lord Bew, Queen’s University’s professor of Irish politics, told the House of Lords that he had been “disturbed” by the veto of the Defamation Bill and said there are “very important reasons to be disturbed by this development”.
The Ulster peer has previously warned that some British publications are “jumpy” about circulating in Northern Ireland after Stormont’s veto of the bill.
Last week UUP leader Mike Nesbitt revealed that he was working on bringing forward a Private Member’s Bill at Stormont to reform Northern Ireland’s libel laws.
Lord Bew said that the Province’s exclusion from the bill’s enhanced protections for academic freedom of discussion would undermine university work “fundamental to the economic success of a region such as Northern Ireland”.
He added: “It sends out a bad signal if the local Assembly displays itself as fundamentally indifferent to the tone or substance of academic freedom as an issue.”
Lord Bew repeated warnings that Belfast could become a “libel capital”, placing “enormous and, I suspect in some way unfair, burdens on the local judiciary” and would “send out a signal that again would be disturbing”