Irish Catholics: Feminism and attacks on our Faith

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Thea

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Dear friends,
The organisation where I work has just published an article in its journal condemning the Catholic Church in Ireland. Its author sees the Church’s stance against abortion, feminism etc, plus the 1983 amendment to the abortion laws, as a hideous attack on women’s rights and particularly - and this is the key bit - on women’s education. I protested, so was invited to make a reply but I don’t know enough about the situation to do so, and would really value some help. A big PLEASE! as I’m anxious to not let this opportunity go by! One phrase illustrates the tone of the article: “From the late sixties onwards, Ireland had moved away from the influence of Rome, particularly with regards to women’s rights, and the women’s movement was, at last, making an impact on the legal and civil aspects of irish society. However the years following the Pope’s visit (1979) were very dark.” She goes on to talk about the Irish adopting tactics from the ‘extreme conservative wing of the Catholic Church in the United States’ (by taking part in organised protests).

She talks about women’s community education growing up out of the complex issues surrounding how the two sides dealt with the abortion laws (women going to England were made to feel bad about themselves but, in fact, these were women who had no choice).

If anyone can help please do let me know. Some helpful tips or links, or if you are an expert in Ireland+abortion+women’s education please let me know and I can pm you more details.

many thanks
Thea
 
interesting note: college education is free to women and men in Ireland.

Why are they picking on Catholic Ireland? They are the only ones that know.
 
Here are some links to research:

priestsforlife.org/preaching/westhibernian.htm

catholicireland.net/pages/index.php

vocations.dublindiocese.ie/gudlinks.html

cura.ie/

You might want to contact the people at the last link. They can probably be of great help.

This article made me go :eek: :

waf.gn.apc.org/j1p8c.htm especially this part “The living may have to struggle for their civil rights, but the unborn were granted theirs in one fell swoop”. The mindset of the feminist position is so twisted!

Here’s an interesting book about women in Ireland - specifically nuns (in the keyword search after you click the link put “The Transforming Power of the Nuns” to be taken to the correct book):

oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/ReligionTheology/HistoryofChristianity
/~~/c2Y9YWxsJnNzPWF1dGhvci5hc2Mmc2Q9YXNjJnBmPTUwJnZpZXc9dXNhJnByPTEwJm
Jvb2tDb3ZlcnM9eWVzJmNpPTAxOTUxMTI5OTc=

Here is an article about Mother Kevin. Although she was involved in empowering African women, it gives a Catholic context to the dignity of women - (a dignity that the feminists try to say is defined by the right to murder your unborn baby). The contrast with Mother Kevin is useful:

catholicireland.net/pages/index.php?nd=53&art=440

May God be with you! Thank you for having the courage to speak out!
 
Peace be with you!

Good for you! The first question is who is this person who wrote this article??? Does she have a degree in history and what is her historical knowledge of Ireland like? What the Church in Ireland is doing by protesting abortion is what the Church EVERYWHERE is doing…I guess that’s one strike against this author’s credibility. I don’t know too much about the feminism thing, but my guess is that the movement is tied to abortion and that’s why they’re protesting it. Tell this author that it has nothing to do with keeping women from having rights, and my guess is that she’s a feminist herself and like every other feminist sees any attack on feminism as an attack on every woman and an attempt to keep her from having any rights. Ridiculous.

In Christ,
Rand
 
hey thank you so much for the help here and for the encouraging words. Rand - the lady concerned is a community adult educator - not sure if you have these in the States…sort of liberal adult education. It’s the tendency to be liberal in all things, you’ll get the drift… She is Irish but I am not certain she has any history quals. It’s neofeminism at its worst.

With a lot of head-scratching I have put together a draft of my response but am still struggling, so Eden thank you for the websites - I will look at them.

Yes, having spent hours (!) thinking about what the job is here I recognise that the author is colouring all her text so that the CC comes off in a really bad light. I have to be careful how I write however - as my boss may not let me have the article in if it is too obviously ‘churchy’.
 
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