IRISH GOVERNMENT SEEKS TO DISMANTLE MARRIAGE

 Ireland United for Life PRO John Brown has issued the following press release:

“Ireland’s new Fine Gael-Labour government has agreed to establish a Constitutional Convention to consider same-sex marriage among other things. Both parties support same sex marriage and this is a real and present danger. It is unmistakable that they are determined to go all the way in granting full marriage rights to same sex partners,” said John Brown of Ireland United for Life. 

At the end of last week the Fine Gael-Labour coalition continued their attack when they passed amendments to the Finance and Social Welfare Bills. This was scarcely reported and occurred as they, according to news reports, “Declared War on the Vatican” over the Cloyne abuse report.

The “Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010” came into force on 1st January 2011. The Act will dramatically alter the landscape of family law in Ireland. It deals with civil partnership for same sex partners and with cohabitants, which includes both same sex and heterosexual relationships.

Fine Gael party Chairman, Charlie Flanagan, now director of elections for Gay Mitchell’s 2011 Irish Presidency bid, speaking as Justice Spokesperson on the first day of the debate on the Civil Partnership Bill in 2009, proclaimed a wish that civil partnership would be a step towards equality. Crucially Fine Gael’s Flanagan said, “While many welcome [the civil partnership bill], others believe it does not go far enough. To those people I would say that change is incremental  and I hope that full equality is not far away.”

The bill passed all stages on 1 July 2010 with cross-party support resulting in it passing without a vote and was signed into law by President Mary Mc Aleese on 19^th July 2010.  

Marriage in Ireland is currently regulated by the Civil Registration Act 2004, Section 2 restates the Common Law definition of marriage and according to section 2(2)(e) a marriage would be invalid if both parties to a marriage are of the same sex. However, the “Bill” grants same sex partners several rights now only granted to married couples. Irish Law allows same sex people to adopt children as individuals while allowing same sex partners to jointly foster.

The Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform was founded in the 1970s , its founding members including Senator David Norris, now seeking nomination for President of Ireland; and current and former President of Ireland Mary McAleese and Mary Robinson, both outspoken defenders of same sex rights. Coincidentally, the task of signing an Irish Bill decriminalising homosexual acts fell to the then President of Ireland, Mary Robinson who as a barrister and Senior Counsel had represented Norris in a European Court of Human Rights case, in the case of Norris V Ireland, which ruled that the criminalisation of homosexuality in the Republic violated Article 8 of the Convention, which guarantees the right to privacy in personal affairs.  Norris introduced a Private Members Bill entitled Civil Partnership Bill, in 2004, which led to the current Bill.

“Ireland does not allow same-sex marriage however progressive liberals are determined to brush aside the family as we know it. People must wake up and understand that unless we give the ultimatum of political annihilation, starting with the race for the Irish Presidency, then Ireland’s government is determined to go all the way, setting aside Irelands Constitutional protection for husband and wife, including the rights of parents as primary educators;  and grant full marriage rights to same sex partners”, concluded John Brown.

More propaganda from Irish President on Homosexual lifestyles

 Mrs. Mary McAleese, President of Ireland, has once more spoken out publicly in support of homosexuals and their lifestyle.   It seems to be quite a recurrent theme of hers – unless, of course, it is that the Irish media likes to dwell on these matters and to highlight any mention of the homosexual agenda, particularly from such a public figure as the President.    

On this occasion, Mrs. McAleese was speaking at a ‘Traveller Pride Week’, when awards were given for various categories of achievement within the traveller community.  ‘Travellers’ is the name now given to those who form that group within Irish society once known as ‘Tinkers’ (arising from their chief craft and occupation of tin-smithing).   They are a wonderful people, with great family and religious traditions, but over the past few decades their traditional way of life – travelling from place to place around Ireland, and providing valuable services for the ‘settled’ population – has become more and more difficult as traditional trades have been replaced by more ‘modern’ and ‘up-to-date’ technology.

Now, too, the so-called ‘rights’ and ‘equality’ gurus have taken up the ‘cause’ of the travelling people, and not always for their betterment.

To get back to Mrs. McAleese, however – addressing the travellers, she is quoted as having said that they have faced ‘more than a few Everests of negativity’, so that their stories of success are ‘exactly what we need to hear at this difficult time.’  She went on to say that minorities within the traveller community, ‘such as people who were gay’ had to ‘cope with being doubly excluded’.   ‘For many kids who grew up … as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, we know that very often the first words of exclusion that they will hear … will likely be in their own home.’   One of the ten Traveller Pride awards was won – surprise, surprise – by the ‘Gay Traveller Support Group’.     Another award winner declared that: ‘There are a hundred ways to be a Traveller and being gay is just one of them.’

Mrs. McAleese, too, despite the numerous requests and entreaties to her earlier this year not to do so, signed into law the ‘Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill’ with unseemly haste (see my blog of 29 July 2010).    This Bill, now enacted into law, is a big threat to family and life in Ireland, but Mrs. Aleese – despite her duty as custodian of the Constitution of Ireland – chose instead to ignore the special protection afforded and guaranteed to the family by the Constitution, and acquiesced instead with the promoters of the homosexual agenda both in Ireland and, particularly, in Europe.

The Irish national television station doesn’t lag behind in this matter either.   On a recent Friday night programme, the ‘Late Late Show’, the presenter was interviewing the members of a music/singing band.  Having touched on the family situation of three members of the band, and mention being made of their wives, children, etc., he came to the fourth member and congratulated him on his forthcoming marriage.   It emerged, however, that the ‘marriage’ and ‘engagement’ (also referred to) were between two homosexuals.   Sadly there was not a whisper of a reaction from the audience present.  I wonder what is the reaction of the population at large who watch this particular programme in their thousands, and whether we have been sufficiently indoctrinated to accept the homosexual lifestyle as being a normal way of life. 

 

Even the current weekend ‘Magazine’ produced by one of the Irish daily newspapers highlights homosexuals and makes reference to Mrs. McAleese’s support for them. (The ‘Magazine’ will be lying around in houses for a week from now, as it also contains all television and radio programmes for that period).

Sad times, when such propaganda can be so easily provided to ‘soften up’ the people of Ireland.

John Smeaton’s blog for 4 December 2010 touches on the same subject.

Catholic Bishops issue new statement on "Civil Partnerships" seeking free vote on the issue

The ‘Civil Partnership Bill 2009’, about which I have written on numerous occasions recently, appears to be going ahead under full steam. The Catholic Bishops of Ireland having previously issued their statement in support of marriage "Why Marriage Matters" issued a further statement in relation to the Bill last week calling for a free vote on the issue which would allow all Dail (Irish Parliament) members to vote in accordance with their consciences

Protection and support for marriage and family
(The) Bishops discussed the statement Why Marriage Matters which was published by the Bishops’ Conference in March in the context of the Civil Partnership Bill which has just completed its Committee Stage in Dáil Éireann. Why Marriage Matters is available in print format and has been distributed in parishes. It is also available to download from the Bishops’ website www.catholicbishops.ie.

Bishops appealed to Oireachtas members to consider Why Marriage Matters as they discuss this Bill and in particular to consider in conscience the following excerpt from it before voting on the Bill:
“Oireachtas Eireann is about to pass legislation that seeks to give same-sex relationships a standing which will be as similar as possible to marriage. The Civil Partnership Bill will not permit adoption by same-sex couples. In most other respects, including tax and social welfare purposes, same-sex civil partnerships will be regarded as being equal to marriage.

“This is not compatible with seeing the family based on marriage as the necessary basis of the social order and as indispensable to the welfare of the Nation and State. Nor does it ‘guard with special care the institution of Marriage, on which the Family is founded.’” (Art. 41.3.1, Bunreacht na hÉireann)

Bishops called on Oireachtas members to allow for greater recognition of the proper autonomy of Churches and the right to social and civil freedom in religious matters. This includes the right of individuals to the free exercise of conscience in accordance with the objective moral order and the teaching of the Gospel. The current Bill, by exposing Civil Registrars to a fine and/or imprisonment should they act in accordance with their conscience on the matter of same-sex unions, undermines this cherished principle of a free and diverse society and imposes unjust limits on the ‘freedom of conscience and free expression and practice of religion’ guaranteed to every citizen in Article 44.2.1 of Bunreacht Na hÉireann. Bishops therefore appeal to Government to introduce amendments to the Bill to accommodate freedom of religious conscience on this vital matter. Bishops also ask Government to support a free vote for all members of Dáil Éireann and the Seanad on this Bill as it passes through the Houses of the Oireachtas.

Unsurprisingly, they were immediately attacked in the media, and by various politicians. Senator Bacik, the well known pro-abortion advocate, said that the Catholic Bishops had ‘displayed an 'extraordinary arrogance' in intervening in the debate on the Civil Partnership Bill and by describing it as unconstitutional.’ ‘It is most unfortunate,’ she said, ‘in what should be a secular republic, we are still seeing them intervening on matters of this nature.’ see Irish Times article

Hello? – the bishops speaking out on a moral issue that is of such vital importance to the future of society and the common good?

Another Senator observed that ‘the Catholic Church had finally been flushed out on the Bill.’ Senator David Norris, the notoriously pro-homosexual activist, said that although the bishops were entitled to express their view, their ‘attempt once again nakedly to intervene in the political process was’, in his opinion, ‘completely deplorable.’

The Minister for Justice, Mr. Dermot Ahern, has consistently refused to allow a ‘free vote’ on the Bill in the parliament, and Mr. John Gormley, criticised the bishops, saying that he was ‘taken aback’ by the comments of one of the bishops to the effect that the Bill was unconstitutional, and that some of the provisions in the Bill, imposing sanctions of fines and imprisonment on those who might conscientiously object to carrying out certain provisions of the Bill, were also unconstitutional. Mr. Gormley is Leader of the Green Party (the party that with Fianna Fáil makes up the Coalition Government).

The usual suspects, such as the Equality Authority, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, homosexual groups, etc., have also been vociferous in their criticism of the bishops. Although the Minister for Justice, and others, continue to deny that the Bill will affect marriage in any way, it is obvious from parliamentary debates and also from publicity (including bus and other site advertising) on the part of a group called ‘Marriagequality’ that the bill is for them just a stepping stone towards the status of marriage and the adoption of children for homosexual unions,their more than likely, ultimate goal.

Each Wednesday, for the past number of weeks, a representative gathering of people from various parts of Ireland has maintained a three/three-and-a-half hour vigil outside the Dáil (parliament) buildings in Kildare Street in Dublin, calling on politicians to scrap the proposed Bill. A further vigil will take place next Wednesday, 23 June, from 11 am to 2.30 pm.

It is interesting, and frightening, to note that a form issued this year by the Revenue Commissioners in relation to tax returns already recognises the reality of the ‘Civil Partnership Bill’, in that one of the categories listed on the form is that of ‘civil partner’. How’s that for anticipating the legalisation of ‘civil partnerships’!