REFERENDUM ON RETAINING OR REMOVING THE 8^TH AMENDEMENT TO THE IRISH CONSTITUTION ON MAY 25^th 2018.

The scourge of industrial abortions is a very recent phenomenon in historical terms and the scale of the genocide thus created is beyond the capacity of our human minds to imagine or cope with. While clearly it has been going on in Russia and China for a longer time – maybe 100 years – in the West it is a very recent issue.

In America it was introduced in 1973 by a decision of the Supreme Court who by a majority of 7 to 2 decided that an unborn baby was not considered a human being worthy of protection! (This decision was arrived at by unelected judges not accountable to the population) In Britain it was introduced in 1967 by the Government. Since 1967 Britain has slaughtered approx. 9 million babies and in America 60 million have been “terminated”. If we consider that each baby murdered can never have children of their own whole generations have been wiped out! In truth only God knows the true scale of the tragedy that has unfolded (my dad had 7 children, 23 grandchildren and at present count 15 great great grandchildren! - 45 and counting!). More human beings have been killed through the genocide of abortion than have been killed in all wars in human history +holocausts + all the famines + all the plagues! All in a 100 years!

Looking at abortion in our country the debt we owe the Pro Life people from the ‘80’s is incalculable.  They saw what was happening abroad and managed to get a referendum to put in a constitutional protection for our babies. Many people at every level of society here at that time felt such a protection would never be needed as they thought that the idea that Ireland would ever go down this road was plainly ridiculous. But the foresight of these great people was simply incredible. Because what is absolutely certain is that if this protection was not in our constitution abortion would have been “legalised” many years ago because either politicians or the judiciary would have yielded to the pressure of the aggressive pro-abortion lobbies both home grown and global.

Because of that constitutional protection the situation in Ireland is completely unique. And this can be seen in the way the drama is now playing out! With the increased secularisation in our country the demand for abortion has been ramped up by a small group funded by huge money from abroad pushing the whole agenda to repeal the 8th amendment. But in other jurisdictions once the politician’s/judiciary could be “persuaded” to fold under the aggressive pressure it was all over! But the real drama is now unfolding here in Ireland because now the politicians are on board, backed by a compliant media, to aggressively push for the slaughter the unborn- with the most vicious lies + attacks on our Catholic faith! But both the pro-abortion and the weak politicians still have to sell the idea to us the voters and justify this genocide by getting us to abandon the protection for our babies in our constitution by believing in their lies! As we can see this is an almost unique situation. And as the incredibly successful Rally for Life proved the plain people of Ireland are very committed to keeping our beautiful babies protected!

Nonetheless the battle to keep our constitutional protection will be fierce as confusion is rife in Ireland as well as other Western countries and the problem is that far too many have bought into the vicious lies of the abortion ideology. The main lie of course is that the unborn baby is somehow not fully human. This is such a bizarre notion that it’s almost beyond comprehension that it has gained so much traction. But the power of the media in the past 50 years to sell all sorts of completely immoral behaviours mean that far too many people have weak faith or no faith and exist only for the material pleasures and comforts.  Aggressive feminism has sold the idea to so many people that marriage is old fashioned and has resulted in far too many casual sexual encounters including living together. As a result of course there are huge numbers of “unwanted” pregnancies leading to a demand for abortion when contraception fails. But the baby is never the problem – the circumstance in which the baby is conceived is the real issue here. To put it in plain language the level of sin involved in almost all sexual relationships is massive because into that would have to go contraception which is the root cause of all these problems.

PART OF HOMILY GIVEN ON 19/3/2018 IN WATERFORD CATHEDRAL (feast of St. Joseph)

Dear Brothers in Christ,

“Saint Joseph to whom the Holy Family was entrusted is and must be the patron of families and family life. He is a model for fathers, just like the Holy Family is a model for our families. In fact, when we speak of the family, we think inevitably of human life. Life from the very beginning, from conception to its natural end. Life that is always a wonderful gift of God and a fundamental right. Life that should be protected and defended.

Soon, you will have the opportunity to prove your faith and attachment to God’s Law. You will have the obligation to stand up for life. To stand up against the culture of death and to show that every unborn life in Ireland is protected. With no exceptions! With no compromise! Do not think that others are going to win this battle for you. You lost one almost 3 years ago. And since then the family has been weakened even more. Catholics have to wake up and fight for life and for the family. Unborn children cannot do it themselves. It is our responsibility! And even if all of you are Pro Life and convinced, go and gain others to be sure that in May everyone will Vote NO! And it is not about politics, it is about life, the life of innocents being put in danger of death. (For a Catholic country like Ireland, even a simple discussion about a possibility of abortion, is a disgrace and shameful betrayal of the faith of the Fathers).

Dear Brothers in Christ, St. Joseph is a powerful Saint. He knows the threat to innocent life since he himself had to escape before Herod could realise his plan to kill Jesus. Pray for his intercession. As we have just done in the collect of this Mass: “O Lord, may the merits of the spouse of Your most Holy Mother assist us, so that what we cannot obtain through our own efforts we may have through his intercession.” May Ireland be faithful to the promises of her baptism. Amen.”

If every Priest and Bishop had such great clarity and courage to speak the truth like this the battle would be much more in our favour. But would every person in Church be able to hear the truth?

The pro-abortion lobby is very aggressive in trying to marginalise people for any reason!

·         If you hold religious views they think you cannot hold an opinion!

·         If you are old –they decide what age! - You seem to be excluded!

·         If you are a male and particularly an older male how could you have an opinion of worth!

But all of this is simply designed to stifle debate and intimidate you. In particular it is vital that men of all ages step up to the plate and be the protectors of family and faith values that God intended them to be. But we must all realise that this is the ultimate spiritual battle and if we cede control to secular politicians and media this will be an utter disaster for our country and its future. Therefor it behoves each of us to do more to win this battle. We must get out on the canvass, write to TD’s, and write to newspapers. Each of us must also engage in debate with our families, our co-workers and socially. Because we must change hearts and minds to win this vital battle. The undecided voters need to be won over with the truth that the beautiful baby has an inalienable right to life and that Ireland has one of the best maternal care services anywhere in the world. That this matter is simply beyond what can be voted on – it’s a complete thrashing of our constitution – particularly the beautiful preamble.

The truth is very stark! A vote to repeal will be the exact same as signing the death warrants for untold number of babies far into the future! And this may well result in some of our own offspring being aborted maybe many years after we have gone to our judgement. Anyone who does not do all in their power must expect a severe judgement because Jesus was very clear on the outcome for anyone who harmed the young and vulnerable. 

Letter published 30-5-2017 by Waterford News and Star

Dear Sirs,

Your article last week is interesting and offers a pause for reflection for all Catholics in the Diocese. Like all media outlets the emphasis is on the Church as an institution but of course it is so much more than that. Each person who was baptised into the Catholic Church should be an active part of the Church as we all one in the Body of Jesus Christ.

This "crisis" is not confined to Ireland or to our Diocese. And the crisis is for all of the people who have decided not to practice their faith and to buy into the secular lies particularly in the area of sexual immorality. This crisis is massive as our world has abandoned values which have underpinned society all the way back to the time Jesus walked the earth and even before.

We need to look to the wider world to see the problem in context. 

In 1973 the US Supreme Court in a majority decision struck out the right to life of all unborn children determining that a mother could murder her child with almost no limitations. The reason for the pressure to allow abortion is that with the arrival of contraception the sanctity of marriage was abandoned as were the the fruits of the marriage ie children. Relationships became casual and everything was more important than the beautiful responsibility of bringing new life into the world as co-creators with God and building strong families based on faith which in turn bring about strong communities based on the shared values of faith in Jesus which in reality is the Church in action.

We see now in Ireland the pressure for us to fall into line with the "norms" of other jurisdictions in allowing abortion. And again it is on the basis of sex outside marriage and no commitment to relationships. This leads to huge numbers of "crisis" pregnancies and a demand that women should have the choice to terminate the live of the independent baby in her womb.

The real crisis is in abandoning faith because the truth can only be understood in relation to God. Choosing to have no relationship with God is the most unwise thing any human being can do. A path of self destruction. 

Nothing about us as humans has changed one iota in all of human history. We are created by God and as spiritual beings we will all die at a time over which we have no control. In each moment God breathes us and each breath is just one item in the endless supply of God's bounty.

Since the 1960's and the advent of TV and huge increase in all media(now add in the internet) and the role models are no longer Saints but rather high profile actors, singers or sports stars all of whom are successful in a material sense but whose lives in general are train wrecks! But it is all made to appear so glamorous and attractive. By contrast people of faith who seek to emulate the lives of Jesus and Mary  are seen as out of touch and old fashioned!

But the problems continue to multiply; addictions(pornography is now the biggest addiction), mental health issues particularly suicide are all huge problems. And will continue to build up massively as the distractions are incessant. And young people are drifting aimlessly with no clear picture of who they truly are - children of the living God Jesus Christ built in His image and likeness. What a catastrophic failure of parents and grandparents who have failed to withstand the lies and who weakened the practice of their faith. By contrast our forefathers withstood oppression for centuries and in the most difficult times of our history refused to give up their faith.  

Women in particular are the biggest losers in all of this because very few of them are proud to be mothers of large families as in previous generations. They therefor do not fulfill their potential for which they were created by God. 

So we have a world that in the past 37 years has slaughtered almost 1.5 billion babies and that means that whole future generations have been wiped out! And our world is suffering from a population winter where an insufficient number of newborns are arriving to replace the older generations. 

100 years after Our Blessed Lady's apparitions in Fatima the world we have created is a wasteland and a sense of who we are as a nation/world with the values of the Divine abandoned for a fake world where integrity is gone.

Our only hope is to turn back to the truth of God and see that practicing faith is really  the only viable option if we are to solve our problems