The Catholic Bishop of Limerick Brendan Leahy said tonight there were shades of George Orwell's Animal Farm in the current debate on abortion legislation.
Speaking at a Vigil for Life in St John’s Cathedral Limerick, he told the congregation that they were “om the eve of what is a defining moment for our countr,y we cannot but focus on the life of the unborn.”
The unborn child in the womb, he said, “is a human life with potential, not a potential human being. He or she is not an extension of the mother.”
He noted that, "as Minister of State Lucinda Creighton has pointed out, there stands before the Dáil a Bill that could enshrine in Irish law, for the first time ever - and completely against what our Constitution requires - a hierarchy or a pecking order of human beings based on size in this State, where the lives of tiniest ones can be taken".
There were, he said “shades here of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, where all are equal but some more equal than others.
"The unborn, it appears, are to be afforded little or no legal advocacy on their behalf. Such a scenario certainly begs the question whether the current legislation is constitutional at all? It tilts the equality desired by the Constitution skewways, as we say in Ireland, and obfuscates rather than clarifies."
He called on the congregation to pray for our legislators. “It is not an easy moment for them. They are in a time of discernment, listening to the ‘inner referee’ of conscience.”
