Cardinal Desmond Connell said yesterday he did not want "people going at each other's throats" in the current abortion debate. He appealed for the avoidance of "the kind of heated animosity that sometimes was created by one side against the other". He wanted "a calm, well-informed debate".
The Cardinal was speaking at a press conference at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, at which the "Statement of the Irish Episcopal Conference on the Proposed Abortion Referendum" was released to the media.
The statement, he said, had been made by the bishops "who have responsibility for guiding the people", and there were "good reasons why Catholics should follow the bishops who lead in communio with the Church".
He hoped anti-abortion groups would read the statement "very carefully" and recognise it came from the bishops. He said, however, that Catholics informed of the bishops' views on the issue were free in conscience to vote differently.
Also in attendance was the Primate, Archbishop Sean Brady; the Bishop of Limerick, Dr Donal Murray, who is also chairman of the Bishops' Commission on Bioethics; moral theologian Father Paul Tighe; and the bishops' spokesman, Father Martin Clarke.
Father Clarke explained the statement had been agreed unanimously by Ireland's 35 bishops. There had been "a full debate" by the bishops on the Government proposals, resulting in "a significant statement" which was finalised before lunchtime yesterday.
That no "done deal" had been made (with the Government) was proven by the full discussion that had taken place, from which a significant consensus had emerged, leading to preparation of the statement, he said.
Commenting on reports that Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Vatican's Council for the Family, had said at a press conference in Rome last month that "the (abortion debate) situation is delicate in Ireland but we expect that the bishops will react against the project", Bishop Murray said that if the cardinal had wanted to comment he wished he had done so in other ways. He had not been in contact with the Irish bishops on the matter.
Pressed on the view that the proposed legislative changes on abortion could open the way to research on embryos, Bishop Murray said it was "very difficult to see how it could, but the issue is one that has to be addressed very urgently". Cardinal Connell said nothing proposed changed the existing protections under Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution.
He said he "would personally regret if the referendum did not take place", while Archbishop Brady pointed out that the bishops had frequently called for such a referendum since the Supreme Court ruling in the X case.
On his being sounded out by the Government on proposals before their announcement, the Cardinal said he was made indirectly aware of the broad lines of the Government proposals and had not said they would be "totally unacceptable". Nor had he given a commitment to support them. He spoke of the "confidence between people one doesn't abuse" in such situations, and how, if he were to seek out someone's reaction to something in a similar way, he would hope that (confidence) would not be abused.
Neither he nor Archbishop Brady had been aware in advance of when the Government proposals were to be announced. The event took place on October 2nd, four days after the Cardinal and Archbishop Brady had gone to Rome for a month-long synod of bishops. The bishops emphasised at the press conference they were "not directing people how to vote" on the issue, but rather were giving them guidance.
