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With Abortion Vote, Ireland Commited Suicide with a Smile on Its Face
Ireland’s referendum on abortion on demand ended in the repeal of the eight amendment. As a result, Ireland will now have abortion on demand for 12 weeks, allow abortions from 3-6 months if mental health issues allow (vague) and allow terminations for any fatal fetal anomalies past that. In short, Ireland became the first country in human history to embrace abortion on demand by referendum, i.e., by people voting for it.
My heart is filled with sorrow. All day I have been numb. All day I have felt shock at the huge landslide victory, 67-33. Two-thirds of the population thought it acceptable for any reason under the mantra according to the exit polls of choice. That is it was a woman’s right to terminate her baby if she feels she wants to. That even took preference over hard cases. The hard cases I can understand. But to say a woman has right to kill her unborn is unnatural, that many Irish now think that’s okay is terrifying.
Sadly, that wasn’t the worst thing about the vote. The above picture was taken in Dublin Castle where the referendum result was read out. Although our Prime Minister had asked them to be respectful, that didn’t happen. He himself, of course, later showed up for a photo op along with his health minister smiling at the crowd as they sold their souls to the camera. I would hate to be his advocate on the day he dies.
Although he wasn’t the worst. No the crowds of young people in their 20s and 30s — my age — were. They cheered as the result became known. They shouted. They sang. Yes, they sang two old Irish songs with no irony. One was “Alive, Alive, Oh” from “Molly Malone” and the other was “The Fields of Athenry,” which is a song about emigrants and awful death in Ireland. They did all this with a smile on their face.
I have never felt so ashamed to be Irish in all my life. They are clueless. They are ignorant and, worse, proud. They will think now that abortion is a moral right from now until end times. Alas, they are deluding themselves.
Ireland will now see a rise in its abortion rate naturally, will see a rise in its female suicide rate, will see the beginning of the end for disabled children who are so common in Ireland. It will see the rise of women being pressured into killing their children on behalf of deadbeat fathers. It will lead to malpractice cases. It will lead to a collapse in our birth rate. It will shorten families and ensure the agonising deaths of many children whose only sin was the wrong mother. It will inevitably lead to huge social consequences that have happened everywhere else. It will murder Ireland’s soul.
This was done today to Ireland in part for many reasons, which I will write about soon. But it was done now by liberal, very anti-religious or lapsed Catholics — with a smile.
Published in General
Right now near Waterford where I live, There is thunder and lightning and rain. First time it’s happened all week. We are due an awful reckoning. Now the only question is this. When? And how bad? But it can’t be we don’t deserve it
Apparently all across the south of Ireland there is Massive thunder storms. From waterford to cork at least which is a big distance 100 miles
It is disheartening to see people giddy over evil. Chin up Paddy. The darker a culture gets, the brighter the light shines. Shine on and rejoice in the Lord. My guess is pro life orgs will spring up, like Birth Right or Pregnancy Resource Centers here in the US. Some mom’s will be persuaded and many children will be saved.
I understand though. I despair over my nation too.
No words, Paddy!…Hugs, if I may. My pastor even referenced this in his homily tonight…The whole of believing Catholicism mourns with you; keep carrying St. Patrick’s fire in your heart.
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.” Matt. 7:13 ESV
Today I realised why hell is real. Worse I wonder by downplaying hell that this has damaged faith
My feelings toward the Catholic faith I was raised in are, shall we say, complicated but the mere mention of the word abortion causes something inside me to sink. I am skeptical of reports of apparitions, miracles, visitations, etc. On the other hand . . .
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5775851/Its-miracle-Statue-Virgin-Mary-New-Mexico-church-CRYING.html
Shed a tear for the United States and Canada. That’s the place where the abortion issue is crazy.
…
The world’s abortion rate is the lowest in Western Europe, 12 per 1,000 women; Southern Africa, 15 per 1,000 women; Northern Europe*, 17 per 1,000 women; Oceania, 17 per 1,000 women; Northern Africa, 18 per 1,000 women; Southern Europe, 18 per 1,000 women; Northern America (Canada and the United States), 19 per 1,000 women.
*Northern Europe here includes Aland Islands, Channel Islands, Denmark, Estonia, Faeroe Islands, Finland, Guernsey, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sark, Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The world’s abortion rate is the highest in Eastern Europe, 43 abortions per 1,000 women. The second-highest rate is the Caribbean which includes Puerto Rico.
https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/abortion-around-the-world-where-are-rates-highest/2/
There are places in Russia where between 66% and 71% of pregnancies are aborted.
Shed a tear for Eastern Europe. Romania is supposedly the most Christian country outside of Vatican City and San Marino, but they seem to have a high abortion rate.
Catholicism here is something else:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Santuario_de_Chimayo
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loretto_Chapel
https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/10166
I am so sorry, Paddy. I can’t think of anything else to say that isn’t trite, unfortunately.
Such a sad day. I feel like two-thirds of Ireland have gathered to watch the beach scene from Under the Skin and they find it very entertaining.
Paddy,
The Queen of the Night is one ugly creature.
Do not despair. There are still angels.
There will be another day.
Regards,
Jim
My brother and I were discussing this today and were both very disturbed by this trend in Ireland. I do believe that John waters was correct that the Irish have some kind of European inferiority complex and want to show the rest of Western Europe that they belong with the cool crowd. So sad, but I feel that the Irish nature to be rebellion, to not conform to what thI rest of Europe does, is dead.
So sad,but I have come optimism for the European continent. Eastern and Western Europe tend to take turns in regards to Ascendency over the centuries and I believe it is eastern Europe’s turn. They are more Christian and are not allowing the infiltration of Islamic immigrants, so it is my belief that Eastern Europe will pick up the torch from the west. However there are issues with the as I believe anti Semitism is still a problem in those cultures, maybe I’m not 100% sure. We shall see what the future holds, but this vote is a sad turn of events and Ireland will pay the price.
I know that at the moment hope is hard to come by Paddy. But even the wicked can see redemption…and re-conversion.
Miserere nobis domine
There is an interesting piece at Rorate Caeli by Roberto de Mattei. It is a look back to his post-mortem in 2015 when Ireland voted for “same-sex marriage”. It is astonishing that what he writes is relevant to Ireland’s voting for abortion.
In this throwback post-mortem, the Pastoral Letter of Pope Benedict XVI to the Catholics of Ireland is mentioned. Fr. Z also mentions the letter in this post of his.
Pope Benedict XVI offered a year-long program of penance, prayer, and Eucharistic adoration for the renewal of the Church in Ireland. I certainly fall short in sticking to these programs but I wonder how much attention was given to this by the bishops of Ireland. As Fr. Z writes:
We are weak as a Church. It starts with me.
St. Joseph, pray for us.
St. Patrick, pray for us.
The image attached to your post of the excitedly jubilant women is beyond ghoulish. A truly sad day for Ireland and humanity.
C.S. Lewis would see this as a result love of the sex act in and of itself — sex separated from matrimony or even love. An action in and of itself with no social or spiritual dimension.
No Irish woman is going to be forced to get an abortion. What’s changed is the state can no longer use force to prevent it. Prevention is now going to be by persuasion, not coercion. You have work to do.
I implore those of us in the US: don’t forget the *youthfulness* of this year’s March for Life here; *we* as believers may be culpably weak; the Spirit still moves, the Trinity still blesses. We need to act/think/speak as though this is true…And pray like all get out. @paddysiochain, we’ve nearly 50 years of being witnesses to life under adverse conditions: our experience is at your service!
Very good point – and where was the outspoken Pope Francis on this as they went to the polls? I wonder if things would change if you were required to be hooked up to an ultrasound and had to watch the abortion, especially after a few weeks when the “tissue” begins to take the shape of a human being with body parts – a miracle in itself…. But something has persuaded the culture to go in this direction.
FSC, @katebraestrup has invoked this very thing as a game-changer; pro-aborts are technologically out-of-date, and out-of-step.
Actually, the pro-life community in Ireland asked the Church hierarchy to stand down because, they feared, the sex abuse disaster has lead to anti-Catholic backlash and a virtually complete discrediting of the Church in Ireland…a not unreasonable concern.
That’s interesting. One of the ‘No’ pages I liked best on Facebook was from Waterford. One was #OF: Our Future and the other was ProLife Heroes Waterford – not sure why it was called ‘heroes.’ Seemed a bit bold, if I’m to be honest. I liked the point of view of the page mod, at any rate.
I have to say, thee are times that I envy believers. The idea that in the end justice of some sort will prevail may be cold comfort, but I’d rather have it cold than not at all. I’m left wondering if this is just what humanity is inevitably turning into.
I understand the value of the metric if you’re trying to tailor policy or a political strategy, but for myself, I’ve never much cared about the rates. I just focus on the absolute numbers because looking at the rate can be an odd perspective. For example, someone was enthusiastic in ’16 when there was a 12% decrease in the U.S. rate reported over four years. I should have been optimistic too 12% is huge. My point of view was that regardless of the delta, we’re still saying that every single day 2,500 lives were taken, s it’s weird to be pleased because you can compare to 2010 and it was higher then.
That staircase is cool!
Well, I googled it. I could hear a baby at the end.
I don’t understand.
Every time he’s mentioned, I think of a pencil thin mustache, a weepy Johnny Depp, and Divine.
I was reading yesterday that Francis will visit later in the year, and some people were fussing about the arrangements and suggesting he shouldn’t come. Apparently, he’s offering indulgences to people who attend the events.
My impression is the status quo was merely cost and inconvenience, not force – like if you’re from Paducah and you’d have to stay overnight in Nashville.
I realize that the idea is grim, but I think it’s necessary for someone to remake the Silent Scream with 3D ultrasound. The images in the original are just so primitive compared to today’s.
That makes sense. I had the impression that some people were voting against the church as much as for women being able to end pregnancies. On Twitter, some people got mad when I said I’m atheist, so it’s obviously about human rights and not religion for me.
You might take a look at this video. It’s from Dave Cullen, whom I quite like. He was in my recommendations over a month before I watched him. Based on his youtube handle, I’d assumed he’d be doing videos about computers, but that’s just how he started his channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT1nObx_12c
Augustine too.
Which pretty much guarantees Aquinas in between was on the same page.
This is a devastating commentary on what has happened in Ireland.
If the Irish bishops had an ounce of masculinity, they would have admitted their failure in the sex abuse disaster and then turned the tables to offer reparations. They should have confessed their loyalty to Jesus Christ, submitted their lives (again) to Christ and to the battle of Satan, and enlisted the help of the pro-life community. Instead, these men without chests cower in fear. If we can’t call on our bishops – the successors of the Apostles – to stand for Christ and His Church, what is the point of their ministry. I am sick a tired of gutless bishops. And where are the cardinals – the princes of the Church – who don the red to die for Christ. Those prelates who don’t fight this are despicable.
The bishops – at least in the US – are largely CEOs running corporations – trained as administrators of assets (human and otherwise) – they are not prepared to stand for anything, in large part, much less against anything. This has to come from the bottom up rather than the top down. Lord, have mercy.
Paddy as I said in another comment on another post we were given Ten Commandments, one of which was “Thou Shall Not Murder”. Just ten, and yet God is seen by some as a merciless tyrant. The paradox is that mankind in their attempt to outdo God in mercy, and compassion only succeeded in proving they were far more merciless, and tyrannical than God.
Perhaps the Catholic Church needs to be a bit smaller in size, made up of those that believe in a Church Militant, not a Church Triumphant.
Well, if that is the case, they should all be sent packing. And if it is the case that they are only CEOs then that is a devastating commentary on the recent Popes who have appointed them. Where is the accountability?
The ordination of these men means something – they are successors to the Apostles. They need to stand with Christ and not with Judas. We’ve got a big problem if they are only CEOs.
This rings all the more true to me:
Smaller doesn’t necessarily mean more fervent/faithful, Doug…In Dreher’s – and perhaps Benedict’s formulation – it seems to connote a tattered, worn remnant, clutching Truth to itself – seemingly in contradiction to: “Go, and teach all.”, as we’re commanded by Christ. Further, a sense of “militancy” can lead one to be seen to lack joy, hope, and the capacity to forgive – as one instructs. (Several ‘militants’ of this sort in my area drove their children away from home – and out of the faith – with their rigorous fideism and externally showy practices: (mantillas when no one else wore them/kneeling in the Communion procession when there wasn’t a rail present, etc.) I’m not sure this particular style is the key that some believe it to be. True authenticity, out of which any external practices come, on the other hand…
It’s also a commentary on those – in the 50s/60s/70s – who taught and ordained the current crop, perhaps including Abp. Sheen? The major model of day-to-day operations (at least until 2002) was a particular type of corporate structure, which may account for the preference for administrative, rather than pastoral acumen. (Mine, of 5-years’ standing, was the chancellor of a neighboring diocese, for instance.)
I’m using the term Church Triumphant in the sense that it will be triumphant upon the return of Christ, and not before. I use the term Church Militant in the sense that we must evangelize and catechize. I understand the fact that at one time we did not separate the sin from the sinner. Unfortunately we are being asked to embrace both the sin and sinner by some laity, and some clergy.