Bishop Kevin Doran has questioned whether Catholics can in good conscience vote for candidates who back legalising abortion in Ireland.

Speaking at a meeting in Sligo last night organised by the Iona Institute, the Bishop of Elphin delivered an address entitled ‘How should a Catholic think about politics?’, and stated : “I find it very difficult to see how any Catholic could, in good conscience, vote for a candidate or a political party whose policy it is to legalise abortion.”

Amid election promises of a referendum towards repealing the constitutional protection afforded to the unborn, Bishop Doran reasserted the Church’s stance on the right to life of all human beings, including unborn children who will not live long after birth.
On the issue of life-limiting conditions, Bishop Doran stressed that these children “are entitled to be loved and cared for like any other child. The focus of Government policy should be the provision of peri-natal hospice services to support parents in caring for their seriously ill children.”

In a presentation that also dealt with the rights of religious groups working in the areas of marriage, education and health, Bishop Doran warned that these rights are under threat “equality legislation that does not recognise the right to protect religious ethos”.

He said: “Christian communities and organisations have a long tradition of being present where society is broken”, but there is a “growing concern that this valuable perspective and experience is being marginalised and devalued, because of political opposition to our values in key areas such as marriage, health and education.”

At a time when faith-based bodies are facing huge demand for their services, the Bishop warned that such organisations are “seeing their public funding come under threat as a result of equality legislation that does not recognise the right to protect religious ethos.”
If this right is not recognised, he added, “many Christian organisations, deprived of public funding, may no longer be in a position to offer support to some of the most vulnerable members of our society”.

Restating the right of the Catholic Church and of Catholics to engage in politics on the grounds that politics is concerned with ethics and so is the Catholic faith, he listed the key areas of concern for Catholic voters on polling day, namely: respect for human life; the family and education; healthcare; housing; refugees; religious freedom, and climate change.