Ireland’s former president talks about the Catholic Church and democracy

On Wednesday night, former Irish President Mary McAleese spoke with President John McGreevy and Keogh School of International Affairs Dean Scott Appleby about Catholicism and democracy in changing times.

McAleese, who served as President of Ireland from 1997 to 2011, holds a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and has criticized the church’s position, particularly regarding the exclusion of women from the priesthood. I’ve done it.

McGreevey begins with an overview of the troubled historical relationship between Catholicism and democracy from the late 18th century onwards.^th The century remaining in Pope Francis’ term has marked a period of both rejection and support for democratic ideals.

Mr McAleese then discussed Ireland’s history of political and religious oppression, from British imperialism to the sectarian divisions of the 1960s.

She also referred to the weakening of the Catholic Church’s grip on Irish society. Mr McAleese said the proportion of Irish Catholics signing up as Catholic on the census had fallen from 90 per cent to around 60-70 per cent.

She reflected on a personal story about her upbringing in Belfast that expressed the dominance of the church in Ireland. The local parish priest reprimanded her mother, but her mother nearly died at the age of 11.^th Pregnancy, having had a hysterectomy without her permission. “That was the Catholic Church in Ireland at the time,” she said.

McAleese criticized the church’s “default language on same-sex marriage, which, as one exiled bishop put it, ‘is not the language of loving God.'” “I’m not allowing love to overflow,” he said. forgiveness and tolerance. ”

She also expressed concern about the resistance she witnessed in Rome to reforms on issues such as equality, LGBTQ rights, and greater democratization of the church’s structure and teaching itself. This resistance could undermine the church’s effectiveness and its relationship with many Catholics, she said.

“I realized that there are two levels: resistance to democratization and acceptance of human impulses and, in particular, human rights. Equality challenges affecting women and LGBTIQ [people] There is strong resistance to that,” she said.

Mr. McGreevey acknowledged that the Church faces the challenge of balancing diverse opinions on these issues among its 1.3 billion members around the world. Mr. McAleese went on to express his concern for the next generation of Catholics and how these views will affect them.

“I am very conscious that a new generation is growing up, and that is why I feel a real responsibility to continue the fight, to continue to fight within the church, to say to the church: our human rights. Get serious about the issues, especially the idea of ​​equality.” “Seriously, stop ignoring democratic policies and their potential to transform the church into something great, something far greater than it is.” Please understand that you are hiding something,” she said.

The event was sponsored by the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement and was part of Notre Dame’s Forum on the Future of Democracy. Mr. McAleese is the director of the Ansari Institute for World Religious Engagement.