A moral cul-de-sac

WHILE the full facts of the tragic case of Savita Halappanavar have yet to established, there has been no formal rebuttal of the claim by the dead woman’s husband that when he sought an abortion to save her life, the response given was that “this is a Catholic country”.

Whether that assertion was actually made or not, it is still widely believed both internally and externally that Ireland is indeed such a country and, that being so, there can or should be little or no surprise in hearing it said.

However, saying that “this is a Catholic country” is different to saying “this is a country where Catholicism is the dominant religion” or “this is a country where Catholicism is the religion of the vast majority of the citizens”.