The Catholic primate Archbishop Seán Brady has said that in general he believes many people in Ireland and Britain "are less clear about the importance of the moral issues" involved in embryo research, stem-cell research, and IVF. Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent, reports.
He continued "this has led to a less determined opposition from people to unhelpful and immoral developments in these areas. This presents an important challenge in terms of the duty of the Church to teach and ensure that the conscience of Catholics in particular is informed."
He has also said there is sustained pressure from UK MPs to extend Britain's 1967 Abortion Act to the North, where it does not apply. Most politicians in the North opposed such a move but, he said, there was concern "that the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, through the inclusion of so- called reproductive rights in the Bill of Rights proposed in the Belfast Agreement, is trying to bring the equivalent or more into Northern Ireland through the back door."
Interviewed for the November issue of Briefings, a publication of the England and Wales Episcopal Conference, which will be out this week, he described as "particularly disappointing" the absence of any reference to God or Christian roots in the preamble to the EU Constitution.
"Not only does it fail to do justice to the facts of European history, it also creates a concern that some countries with a strong but relatively recent secular history can have a disproportionate influence on matters like the Constitution. This in turn can give rise to concerns about the freedom and rights of religion in the EU," he said.
It was also the case that "some people think it [ Constitution] is a step too far in the intricate balance between autonomous statehood and integration," he said.
Turning to Northern Ireland he expressed confidence that parties there will reach agreement "in time", but warned against "the big danger" of "tampering with the fundamentals of the Belfast Agreement". That, he said, "would be a disaster."
Any breakthrough in the current talks which moved away from the principles of power-sharing and cross-community consensus included in the Belfast Agreement "would be unacceptable and dangerous. It would continue this vacuum which has been there in a sense for the past two years, but hopefully will now be resolved." he said.