We may do any evil to achieve what we want
The abortion referendum on 25th May was a massive earthquake in Irish society, the biggest revolution since St Patrick brought the gospel to Ireland.
In essence, it was a profound rejection of Christian faith and Christian civilisation. The Irish Church needs to face that reality and not try to play down what has happened.
It will take years, even decades, for society to fully grasp the shocking implications of the vote. And for Catholics to develop a response to it.
But several things are already clear. With the heat gone out of the debate people may be more willing to recognise them:
• the Irish people have asserted that no human being has a natural or God-given right to life; we are protected now only by a state-granted right, and what the state gives it can take away;
• politicians may legalise the killing of any children in the womb, until birth; and possibly beyond it. Limits on baby-killing are now merely a matter for political negotiation.
• "choice" has been accepted as society's dominant morality. Which means it is acceptable to do evil, to lie, to steal, to commit adultery, even to kill innocent babies, in order to get what we want;
Motherhood
• our society now dismisses the natural bond between a mother and her child, and will teach young women to disregard it; this changes the whole meaning of motherhood - a mother is a woman who may love or kill her unborn child;
• fathers have no natural duty towards their children, or even a right to protect them from death; this changes the nature of fatherhood and "liberates" men from responsibility for their children;
• the state rather than parents becomes the principal protector of life; this subtle transfer of children to state "care" further undermines the family;
• that a people can vote to set aside the natural right to life exposes all today's talk about "human rights" as nonsense, and deprives human rights organisations of any basis for their work. State law becomes supreme.
• Ireland has become a tyranny. The majority can impose whatever evil it wishes on the weak and there are no grounds on which to challenge such an injustice. How other articles in the Constitution may be affected is still unclear;
• by declaring state law supreme, Ireland is no longer in a position to condemn injustices committed by other states. On what grounds could we condemn what went on in the Nazi death camps?
Who God is
• in rejecting the commandment, Thou shalt not kill, we have rejected the Christian understanding of God. In other words, most Irish voters are no longer Christian, including some who still go to Mass.
• people who commit a grave evil, like voting for abortion, may repent of it and turn back to God. Failing that, the evil takes deeper hold of them, spreading like a cancer through their lives and hardening their hearts against God.
These are just some of the issues our country must face in coming years. We might also ask how medicine, politics and education may be corrupted; how killer and non-killer staff in hospitals may view each other, and so on.
How did Ireland reach this point? Various individuals and groups have been working to replace Christianity with liberal ideology or secularist religion for decades.
3rd level education poisoned the minds of generations of young people. The media played a big role in glamorising despair, billionaires like Soros and Feeney and outfits like EU agencies pulled many strings, and so on.
At fault
But the Catholic Church has also been greatly at fault. Much of what is preached from our pulpits and taught in our schools is diluted or fake Christianity, providing little spiritual nourishment.
Catholic theologians and scholars have done little to form a people who could critique the ideology of despair that has been spreading through our society for decades.
Where does the Church go from here? Much of what we take for granted or see as "natural" in our culture - like feeding the hungry, protecting the weak, respecting women's dignity - are far from natural, they are Christian.
A growing number of scholars, including atheistic historians, recognise the phenomenal revolution that Christian faith brought to the ancient pagan world.
Due to human hardness of heart it took centuries to build a Christian civilisation: to recognise, for example, that forcing slaves to engage in mortal gladiatorial combat was not acceptable mass entertainment.
But a Christian civilisation cannot survive without Christians, people who truly follow Christ, as is becoming ever clearer in Ireland.
The remnant Church here has to undergo profound renewal, including purification from the secularist ideology that has pervaded it like dry rot, and it must develop a new evangelisation.
Slowly faithful Catholics have to build a new civilisation of hope amidst the devastation that is modern Irish society.
In essence, it was a profound rejection of Christian faith and Christian civilisation. The Irish Church needs to face that reality and not try to play down what has happened.
It will take years, even decades, for society to fully grasp the shocking implications of the vote. And for Catholics to develop a response to it.
But several things are already clear. With the heat gone out of the debate people may be more willing to recognise them:
• the Irish people have asserted that no human being has a natural or God-given right to life; we are protected now only by a state-granted right, and what the state gives it can take away;
• politicians may legalise the killing of any children in the womb, until birth; and possibly beyond it. Limits on baby-killing are now merely a matter for political negotiation.
• "choice" has been accepted as society's dominant morality. Which means it is acceptable to do evil, to lie, to steal, to commit adultery, even to kill innocent babies, in order to get what we want;
Motherhood
• our society now dismisses the natural bond between a mother and her child, and will teach young women to disregard it; this changes the whole meaning of motherhood - a mother is a woman who may love or kill her unborn child;
• fathers have no natural duty towards their children, or even a right to protect them from death; this changes the nature of fatherhood and "liberates" men from responsibility for their children;
• the state rather than parents becomes the principal protector of life; this subtle transfer of children to state "care" further undermines the family;
• that a people can vote to set aside the natural right to life exposes all today's talk about "human rights" as nonsense, and deprives human rights organisations of any basis for their work. State law becomes supreme.
• Ireland has become a tyranny. The majority can impose whatever evil it wishes on the weak and there are no grounds on which to challenge such an injustice. How other articles in the Constitution may be affected is still unclear;
• by declaring state law supreme, Ireland is no longer in a position to condemn injustices committed by other states. On what grounds could we condemn what went on in the Nazi death camps?
Who God is
• in rejecting the commandment, Thou shalt not kill, we have rejected the Christian understanding of God. In other words, most Irish voters are no longer Christian, including some who still go to Mass.
• people who commit a grave evil, like voting for abortion, may repent of it and turn back to God. Failing that, the evil takes deeper hold of them, spreading like a cancer through their lives and hardening their hearts against God.
These are just some of the issues our country must face in coming years. We might also ask how medicine, politics and education may be corrupted; how killer and non-killer staff in hospitals may view each other, and so on.
How did Ireland reach this point? Various individuals and groups have been working to replace Christianity with liberal ideology or secularist religion for decades.
3rd level education poisoned the minds of generations of young people. The media played a big role in glamorising despair, billionaires like Soros and Feeney and outfits like EU agencies pulled many strings, and so on.
At fault
But the Catholic Church has also been greatly at fault. Much of what is preached from our pulpits and taught in our schools is diluted or fake Christianity, providing little spiritual nourishment.
Catholic theologians and scholars have done little to form a people who could critique the ideology of despair that has been spreading through our society for decades.
Where does the Church go from here? Much of what we take for granted or see as "natural" in our culture - like feeding the hungry, protecting the weak, respecting women's dignity - are far from natural, they are Christian.
A growing number of scholars, including atheistic historians, recognise the phenomenal revolution that Christian faith brought to the ancient pagan world.
Due to human hardness of heart it took centuries to build a Christian civilisation: to recognise, for example, that forcing slaves to engage in mortal gladiatorial combat was not acceptable mass entertainment.
But a Christian civilisation cannot survive without Christians, people who truly follow Christ, as is becoming ever clearer in Ireland.
The remnant Church here has to undergo profound renewal, including purification from the secularist ideology that has pervaded it like dry rot, and it must develop a new evangelisation.
Slowly faithful Catholics have to build a new civilisation of hope amidst the devastation that is modern Irish society.