James Joyce in his novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man gives us a conversation between Dante and Casey. Dante believes “God and religion before everything!” Casey, on the other hand shouted hoarsely ‘No God for Ireland! We have had too much God in Ireland. Away with God!” 

This scene must have characterised many discussions that led to the referendum which did away with the Eighth Amendment that acknowledged the right to life of the unborn as well as that of the mother. While in 1983 two-thirds of the Irish people voted that amendment in, now two-thirds voted it out.

I am not saying that all those who voted ‘yes’ want God out of Ireland. That would be an unfair statement unjustly describing the ‘yes’ voters as atheists. The situation is much more complex than that. An RTE exit poll shows that over a million of the ‘yes’ votes described themselves as Catholic while 650,000 Catholics voted ‘no.’ Quite naturally there are Catholics and Catholics. Archbishop Eamon Martin distinguished between the minority who are deeply committed to the teachings of the Church and a large group who are nominally and culturally Catholic.

In a few weeks’ time Pope Francis will be visiting Ireland. He enjoys 70 per cent approval rating in Ireland and there is hardly any doubt that many of those who voted for abortion will enthusiastically welcome him although he had repeatedly condemned abortion in the strongest possible ways. Last Monday, for example, he exhorted Catholic doctors to promote and defend human life from its conception. And in his exhortation on holiness published last March he wrote that the defence of the innocent unborn needs to be clear, firm and passionate.

The result of the Irish referendum is just another example that we live in the age of the cafeteria Catholics, that is Catholics who choose and pick what they want from Catholic doctrine and morality but still describe themselves as Catholics.

Two questions beg for an answer: Is there a future for the pro-life movement in such a culture? What strategy should the Church and Catholics adopt in a secularized if not a paganized culture?

The result of the Irish referendum is just another example that we live in the age of the cafeteria Catholics

In several of my commentaries I stated that being pro-life is not just about issues concerning the beginning and end of life. Pro-life includes taking stands for a more just society and an equitable distribution of wealth and an all-out war against corruption. How can one be against the killing of unborn babies but then favour policies which mutilate the environment in which these babies would be born?

I refer also to the socio-moral environment. Babies have a right to be born in a society which is not mired in corruption, nor drowning in cynicism, not dominated by the egoistic mentality of making hay while the sun shines and doing this at the expense of the common good. A pro-life agenda includes working for the dignity of all, migrants and refugees included. The future of a pro-life agenda takes a holistic view of the human person and tries to eliminate the situations that make some people commit abortion.

The answer to the second question is more difficult.

I do not subscribe to the ideology of retreat outlined by the American conservative Rod Dreher in his book The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation. He wrote that St. Benedict, who was horrified by the moral chaos ensuing after Rome’s fall, retreated to the forest and created a new way of life for Christians living in communities. Faced by what he describes as a new form of barbarism, Dreher proposes a strategy that opts for exile from mainstream culture while building a robust counterculture.

But I agree with Massiono Faggioli who in an op-piece in last Tuesday’s electronic version of La Croix described as naïve “the idea that Catholicism can survive as a faith without some kind of prophetic commitment for a different, more humane world; that is, without being afraid to challenge the Zeitgeist”. But choosing the way to be in the world but not of the world (see John 15:19) is as strong a challenge today as it was the first time it was written.

The comments of Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, President of the Conference of the Bishops of Italy, during this May 24 press conference at the conclusion of the bishops’ assembly, propose another possible strategy. The Church should be the critical conscience of society by defending a number of “non-negotiable values”. For Bassetti, these values go beyond values that concern only the beginning and end of life. This position reduces the danger that the likes of Trump and Berlusconi can be considered to be the champions of Christian values just because they are against abortion. Social justice is an essential component. He urges Catholics truly formed in the social teaching of the Church to have the imagination and the freedom to live and experiment these values in different political parties.

There will still be God in Ireland and beyond after the abortion referendum. The question is how Christians incarnate Him in contemporary culture and society.

joseph.borg@um.edu.mt

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.