A priest found hanging from a rope in his home, and the decision of authorities to rule the death a suicide, has prompted a fresh round of protests by Christians at what they feel is systematic persecution from Hindu extremists.
Congregants told local reporters that Pastor Gideon Periyaswamy had endured constant harassment by some local Hindus, who they said had made it a point to try to torment the cleric every Sunday for the last six months. Last year, a group of extremists beat the pastor, a congregant told the Morning Star News. The suspicious nature of the pastor’s death, and his struggles with his harassers, are refocusing attention on the growing persecution of Christians in the world’s largest democracy. India ranks 11th, just behind Iran and Yemen, this year on an annual list of the world’s 50 worst countries for persecution of Christians published by the Christian advocacy group Open Doors U.S.A. India had ranked 15 the previous year.
Government Ministers believe they must await a Supreme Court ruling on the rights of the unborn before finalising the wording of the proposed abortion referendum, according to a report in The Irish Times. This could delay the Government’s plans to hold the referendum in late May or early June, long before the visit of Pope Francis to Ireland in August.
“This is the first time in the history of the State that the Supreme Court will rule on the meaning of unborn,” a source familiar with the Government’s legal advice on the matter said. “The wording is known. But the worst thing we could do is publish it and then have to change it because of the judgment.”
The Supreme Court hearing is listed for February 22nd and is expected to take two days, legal sources say. A judgment is expected in the following weeks, but the Government have already said they hope to introduce the referendum bill to the Dáil on March 8th, International Women’s Day. Any delay could scupper plans to stage the referendum on the preferred dates of May 25th or June 8th. The Government are in a rush to hold the referendum before students start leaving the country for the summer. Leo Varadkar previously said the referendum could also be held in November, when all students would be back in the country, but many politicians want the referendum over and done with before Pope Francis visits the country in August.
Former Minister Lucinda Creighton launched a blistering attack on the media yesterday for their near-unanimous embrace of abortion and their gushing praise of politicians who come out as “pro-choice”. Writing a column in the Sun newspaper, she said while journalists are entitled to hold opinions, they should at least attempt to demonstrate some balance in their reporting.
She noted a recent poll found that only 51% of the public support unrestricted abortion for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, yet “the media, to a man and woman, appears to hold one view — that abortion on demand ought to be introduced”.
The disconnect between the media and the public made her wonder whether “there are journalists who do not buy into the general consensus that abortion is the only ‘progressive’ and ‘liberal’ course”.
“Perhaps there are others who are cowed and fearful of challenging this consensus because they know they will be labelled as ‘backward’ and ‘regressive’ — or, worst of all, ‘Catholic fundamentalists’,” she wrote.
She also noted that when women are faced with difficult choices in pregnancy, our media only celebrates those who decide to terminate the baby’s life.
“Over recent years we have heard incessantly about the women who travel for abortions. They are deemed courageous and brave. We never hear about the women whose babies are diagnosed with serious illnesses and are kept. We never celebrate the women who take the decision not to abort and who bring their babies into the world knowing they will receive little support or understanding from our Government and are aware that their child might live for a month, a week, a day, an hour or less.”
She heaped scorn upon the politicians who struggle with their conscience and then are applauded as brave if they come out with the ‘right’ opinion, the one the cozy media consensus approves of.
”Why is it only the politicians who fall into line with the journalists who want abortion on demand are deemed to be brave or laudable? What is so brave about succumbing to the editorial line of every newspaper? What is so brave about taking a decision which you know will simply gain gushingly positive column inches in every paper?”
She concluded: “Being brave used to mean being prepared to face danger or discomfort. These days bravery in politicians seems to be failing to stand up for what you previously said was right, and doing so because you know you will receive wall to wall fawning media coverage.”
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that there should be “no foreign funding” of the groups campaigning in the abortion referendum.
At a press conference with the Estonian prime minister, Yuri Ratas, Mr Varadkar said: “The rules that apply to referendums are there and certainly one thing that is significant, and one thing we’ll have to watch, is to ensure that there is no foreign funding of either campaign.”
Amnesty International, which has been campaigning for a change in Ireland’s abortion laws, has been told by the Standards in Public Office Commission to return a €137,000 grant from an international donor. Amnesty has disputed the decision and refused to return the money.
The Childcare Support Bill has been introduced in the Dáil by Minister for Children, Katherine Zappone, to underpin the State’s schemes for subsidising public creches and working parents who employ professional childminders. However, it was immediately criticised by Fianna Fáil spokesperson on children, Anne Rabbite, who said many parents, “particularly stay-at-home parents, feel aggrieved because the proposed scheme does not consider their needs”.
“Grandparents and childminders also believe the scheme does not take them into consideration. While it is appreciated that the legislation addresses one element of childcare, it does not cater for certain groups that provide childcare,” she said.
A two page summary of the advice the Attorney General has given the Government to replace the Eighth amendment, rather than simply repeal it, has been published. The replacement text would affirm “that laws may be enacted by the Oireachtas providing for the regulation of termination of pregnancy”. In the document, the AG says there would be “no absolute certainty” of the legal situation after a simple deletion of article 40.3.3 because there might still be an implied, unenumerated right to life of the unborn, a possibility that had been alluded to by the courts prior to 1983. If such a right did exist, it might curtail the constitutional freedom to legislate for abortion. Hence, to mitigate the uncertainty, he has proposed inserting a text “that expressly affirms the right of the Oireachtas to legislate for the regulation of termination of pregnancy.” While the Oireachtas already has the right to legislate, generally speaking, this text would make that “clear” by expressly stating it could do so “in the same way as it legislates in every other area of policy”.
The summary then claims that this provision “would bring greater constitutional certainty to the primary authority of the Oireachtas to make laws in this area” and that it would be “primarily a legislative function for the Oireachtas to determine how best to guarantee and balance proportionately the rights, interests and values that are engaged”.
Nonetheless, the document claims that this affirmation of the power to legislate would not infringe on the separation of powers, or impair judicial review of legislation, or restrict the rights of the courts.
“While no approach can be completely free from the risk of legal challenge, the Attorney General advises that the approach recommended above is likely to be a legally safer option than a simple repeal.”
In adopting this approach, the Government seem to be rejecting both the Citizens’ Assembly’s approach and the recommendation of the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment. The former argued that for the sake of maximising certainty, an “immunising” provision should be inserted to exclude the possibility of the judicial review of legislation, whereas the Oireachtas committee recommended a deletion of article 40.3.3 for the sake of simplicity and clarity. The Government’s approach is an attempt to square a circle by aiming for greater certainty even while preserving judicial review.
Speaking on RTE’s Drivetime yesterday, the Head of the School of Law in Trinity College Dublin and member of the Expert Advisory Group to the Citizens’ Assembly, Prof. Oran Doyle, said “the Government has made it clear that it doesn’t want to immunise any legislation from possible constitutional challenge. So they are trying to do quite a difficult thing of making it more difficult for anyone to challenge legislation after an amendment is passed, but they don’t want to make it impossible to challenge legislation after the amendment is passed”.
He said that a simple deletion of article 40.3.3 could result in the Courts giving two very different kinds of judicial review: one that inhibited abortion legislation on the basis of an implied right to life of the unborn, and another that struck down limitations to abortion on the basis of an implied right to privacy and autonomy. The AG’s solution is an attempt to make the first possibility “less likely to happen” without excluding it completely. He continued: “part of what this advice is saying is that they want to let those possibilities play out, but they don’t want to take the step of immunising legislation from constitutional challenge—the politicians have spoken about the importance of the separation of powers and allowing some kind of judicial check on any legislation that might ultimately be passed.”
A 29-year-old mentally ill woman was euthanized last weekend in the Netherlands. Aurelia Browers, had requested euthanasia some time ago after suffering with psychiatric disorders for years, and she was granted permission on New Year’s Eve.
She recently told her story to RTL Nieuws (under the fictional name Sarah), because she thought that people who find life psychologically difficult are entitled to a dignified death just the same as those suffering from serious terminal illness. She found it unfair that people like her often have to resort to suicide. “I think that after such a rotten life I am entitled to a dignified death – people who have a serious illness get a chance for a worthy ending, so why is it so difficult for people who are psychologically ill?”
Commenting on the case at National Review Online, Andrew T. Walker, of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said: “As the Netherlands shows in the tragic case of Aurelia Browers, euthanasia laws raise a crucial question: Where do we draw the limits to the practice? Once we sanction the practice even to the smallest degree, arguments for expanding it just a little more will ensue, and before long any restrictions to it at all become hard to justify.”
A new organisation, Disability Voices for Life, has joined other prolife groups in the push to save the Eighth amendment and they have vowed to make their voices heard throughout the referendum campaign.
A statement on behalf of the group said they refuse “to be silenced in the debate around abortion currently taking place in Ireland”. It added that they found it “appalling to see media commentators and abortion campaigners seek to dictate terms to families of children with disabilities in regard to what they could and could not say, and whether photographs of their children should be seen”.
Anne Trainer, whose son Kevin has Down syndrome, said “we have an absolute right to include our children and our families in this debate”. She said she was very disappointed that Down Syndrome Ireland chose to issue a statement which implied criticism of parents who are engaged in “pro-life” activities. “We have every right to express our deep concern at the proposal to introduce abortion into the country.”
At a special meeting last night, the Cabinet agreed to proposals for a referendum to replace the pro-life amendment with a text enjoining the Oireachtas to legislate for abortion. They also agreed on legislation to follow passage of a referendum which would enshrine an abortion regime in the country far more extensive even than the UK’s ‘abortion on demand’ law. The current plan is for that legislation to allow abortion unrestricted for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and up to birth where there is an impact on the mental or physical health of the mother. The preferred date for the referendum is the end of May, before students start leaving the country for the summer and before the visit of Pope Francis to Dublin in August for the World Meeting of families.
