Catholic shenanigans

I suppose if I ever got involved with politics, this stuff I will be criticizing in Catholicism would kill me.

So what is up?

Let's start with Ireland. Many of the laws in the Emerald Isle are heavily influenced by Catholic rules. One such area, abortion.

So we have the story of a 17 year-old who is around 4 month pregnant at present.

A 17-year-old girl who is four months pregnant and whose child cannot survive outside the womb has gone to the High Court to challenge a decision by the Health Service Executive to stop her leaving the State for an abortion.

The girl is in the care of the HSE and is challenging its decision to contact gardaí and not to let her travel for the abortion unless she presented as a suicide risk.

After hearing this news, the girl made a decision to travel to the UK for a termination but the HSE asked gardaí not to permit her to leave the jurisdiction.

So here we start. Seventeen, pregnant, with a pregnancy which can ONLY end with pain, sadness, and death. So what does the government do? Imprison her, in essence. At 17 they won't let her decide, won't let her leave, won't let her out of their control.

This is the fear in the passing of abortion laws in the US. Conservatives say, just travel to another state. But once these laws are ensconced, how long until they threaten jail for traveling for an abortion? How long before the government steps in to hold people?

But then things got complicated...

While the Health Service Executives (who were originally prohibiting her from leaving) agreed on Friday to allow her to travel to the UK for the abortion as long as the judge ruled it was appropriate and under other conditions, the judge stated that granting the order would amount to a failure to protect the rights of the fetus and hence would be unlawful and "improper."

Now the HSE is trying to fix their fuck-up by bringing a judicial action review, saying that the judge misconstrued the law and that the woman should be allowed to travel.

So once they realized how deep they stuck it in the muck, they looked for a way out, without conceding how backwards their stand is. Trouble is that they have run into members of the judiciary even more close minded then they are.

But things seems to have turned around.

Finally some good news on this case. The teen girl in Ireland whose fetus is terminally ill has (finally) been granted permission to go to England to get an abortion. But not, of course, without going through hell first.

Damn straight. This pregnancy is doomed. But the Irish government, comforted by their Catholic system and standard, took a stand that tormented, humiliated, and pummeled this young lady.

I can only hope this is a dagger in the side of Anti-Choice position of Ireland. It should be a sound message decrying such absolute standings.


MEANWHILE, in Brazil the Pope has popped up to tell the nation to move in no way towards allowing or discussing abortion. The Pope, there to set the national discourse on medicine. I feel better already. You got that warm feeling to?


BUT being the spry young fellow he is, Pope Benedict ain't done shoving his nose in where it isn't wanted.

He's got a message for America.

Pope Benedict issued a warning to Catholic politicians, saying that they risked excommunication from the Church and should not receive communion if they are pro-choice.

It was the first time that the Pope, speaking to reporters aboard the plane taking him on a trip to Brazil, dealt in depth with a controversial topic that has come up in many countries, including the United States, Mexico, and Italy.

The Pope's comment comes after Mexican Church leaders' threats to excommunicate legislators who voted to legalize abortion in Mexico City.

Well he is the boss. And it is his religion. But of all the things to take a stand on this is damn suspect. You have to note here in the US that when these threats get thrown out, they are one sided. In the last few elections, I noticed that the strongest threats of excomm or denial of communion went out to democrats, Daschle, Kerry, etc. Not much was said of Republican Catholics. And when it comes to the Reps and Bush, they, as a rule, attack the Right to Choose. But they also support capital punishment and long and bloody wars.

Odd that as much as these last two things bother and vex the popes and bishops, as long as they stand pat on abortion, all is good. Funny. Child poverty, suffering, etc, wouldn't get Benedict out of bed, but this...

This all feels kinda...political. Maybe driving back and threatening liberals gets the Church what it really wants.