Catholics are free to warn against the Lisbon treaty

[Pro_Life_News]

Commentary By John Smeaton Director, Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC)LONDON, Oct. 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, recently told the Czech president, with reference to the Lisbon treaty:"Each European state has its own…

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[livi]

I’m not familiar with the Lisbon treaty, but it seems to me that if it promotes abortion or anything else seriously in conflict with the Catholic faith then Catholics shouldn’t support it.

 

[Holly3278]

Bishop Noel Treanor’s words are confusing to me. We, as Catholics, are supposed to transform our society into a more Christian society. So voting against the Lisbon treaty because of moral or ethical concerns should be perfectly alright.

 

[Holly3278]

I’m not familiar with the Lisbon treaty, but it seems to me that if it promotes abortion or anything else seriously in conflict with the Catholic faith then Catholics shouldn’t support it.

Agreed totally! If this so called “treaty” is going to make things worse in the moral and ethical realm then if you ask me, Catholics have an obligation to vote against it.

 

[Yellow_Belle]

1. There is no reference whatsoever to abortion in the Lisbon treaty nor does it propose any changes in relation to abortion or family rights.

The European Council … states that nothing in the Lisbon Treaty attributing legal status to the Charter of Fundamental Rights or in its provisions on the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice affects the scope and application of the articles of the Constitution of Ireland which deal with the right to life (Article 40.3.1°); the protection of the family (Article 41) and the protection of rights in respect of education (Articles 42 and 44.2.4° and 44.2.5°).

1. There is a prohibition on abortion in the Irish constitution. The Lisbon Treaty does not and cannot alter the legal position of abortion in Ireland.(Article 40.3.1°, referred to above); In Northern Ireland, which is under the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom, the UK’s 1967 Abortion Act does not apply. Instead NI operates under the Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1945 which states:

Any person who, with intent to destroy the life of a child then capable of being born alive, by any wilful act causes a child to die before it has an existence independent of its mother, shall be guilty of felony, to wit, of child destruction…

Some British politicians have attempted to legalise abortion in Northern Ireland but have not been successful due to opposition from both sides of the religious divide there.

1. As for Bishop Treanor’s words being ‘confusing’, perhaps reading them in their entirety would provide more clarity, here