Church defends pro-life speaker at anniversary Mass

The Catholic Communications Office has defended a decision by a Cork church to have a speaker address the congregation about the forthcoming referendum on abortion after a woman contacted a local radio station to say that she walked out of an anniversary Mass because she did not want to be at a “rally.”

The woman told the Neil Prendeville show, on Cork’s Red FM, that she was at an anniversary Mass in a church in the Diocese of Cork and Ross last Saturday night when the priest decided to read the bishop’s letter about the forthcoming referendum in its entirety.

She said she has great respect for Bishop John Buckley and was quite willing to sit through the letter. However, her personal difficulties with the Mass arose when the priest mentioned that a speaker would be coming up to the altar after communion to talk about the abortion referendum.