Josepha Madigan was due to address meeting at Mercy International Centre in Dublin
www.irishtimes.com
Josepha Madigan, the Minister of Culture, was the coordinator of efforts in the government of the Republic of Ireland to repeal the country’s constitutional amendment forbidding abortion and by this to open the floodgates to abortion in her country.
I don’t agree with her talk being cancelled. Not to say I agree with her position on abortion either. However she should be allowed to speak. Nobody should be threatened into silence.
I don’t agree with her talk being cancelled. Not to say I agree with her position on abortion either. However she should be allowed to speak. Nobody should be threatened into silence.
I don’t think a supporter of abortion should be allowed speak at a Catholic venue, especially advocating women priests - which is what the talk was about.
The talk is still happening - in a hotel, and you have a point there.
I don’t agree with her talk being cancelled. Not to say I agree with her position on abortion either. However she should be allowed to speak. Nobody should be threatened into silence.
It’s different when the talk is being hosted by a group affiliated with the church because there is an assumption that whomever is speaking is aligned with the church’s positions. It, therefore creates scandal to allow heterodox speakers to speak at Catholic events.
The only reason the talk was canceled was because of the threats. The Catholic venue where she was due to speak obviously had to have some form of approval from higher up to have this talk be set in motion in the first place. I really doubt that this was a rogue decision
Actually, poor decisions are regularly made by people and organizations affiliated with the church. We usually don’t find out until after the fact if we find out at all.
Regardless, the speech shouldn’t have been canceled because of threats. I’d agree more with you if it were canceled over theological and doctrinal disagreements with the speaker.
Canceling talks over threats sends the message that if you hate someone enough and threaten them enough you can shut them down. On religious grounds I don’t support her arguments. I just don’t think threats should be why a talk gets canceled. Because then if a figure from the Catholic Church goes out to a public forum and they get threatened and canceled, we would’ve sanctioned by saying it was ok for this woman to be canceled with threats
It should have been - because it wasn’t people complained to the sisters and were prepared to stage a protest had it gone ahead.
That woman has no business speaking in a Catholic venue. Both the fact that they were prepared to let her speak - and their response makes me question the order.
Speaking as a woman who is not personally opposed to women priests, I don’t want a pro-abortion person advocating for women priests. Or advocating for anything else in the church.
It’s unfortunate that the “women priests” topic brings people like this pro-abortion lady out of the woodwork to get on a soapbox.
I’m in favor of free speech too, but if she’s pro-abortion, she shouldn’t be speaking about anything on Catholic property. Let her go speak in a hotel. Or on Speakers Corner. Or anyplace not owned by the Church.
I’m not saying I necessarily agree with her speaking at a Catholic venue either. I just don’t like that threats are what canceled the talk. I think the venue being threatened and canceling the talk feeds into the narrative that if you threaten people enough they’ll be deplatformed.
The person interviewed in the article also stated that most of the correspondence received had been courteous. It appears the “threats” were very few and the Mercy International Center is mostly concerned about reputational damage .
I just don’t like that threats are what canceled the talk. I think the venue being threatened and canceling the talk feeds into the narrative that if you threaten people enough they’ll be deplatformed.
The person interviewed says that they received a few threats. The person then makes much of those threats as an excuse for cancelling a talk that was going to harm the reputation of the center and that, as Angel said, probably was a serious error of judgment to have scheduled there in the first place.
The woman is still giving her talk at another venue. Nothing is cancelled. I also doubt the “threats” were what cancelled it given that they only got a few. More like, we realize this was not such a good idea and we were probably told by a superior to get out of this engagement so we’ll blame it on the threats in the press.
I don’t agree with a Catholic centre being used to host talks by this person, you cannot separate her role in the abortion referendum from any other topics she might talk on.
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