Ireland's elected leader leader Enda Kenny
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A leading Irish priest has praised Prime Minister Enda Kenny for his stand on the abortion issue – at a time when church leaders have slammed the Fine Gael leader.
Connemara
priest and author Fr Pádraig Standún made his comments at a book launch
in Galway of Liam O’Flaherty’s The House of Gold, more than 80 years
after it was banned by the Irish state.
Fr Standún publicly paid tribute to Kenny for his stance on the abortion legislation according to a report in the Irish Times.
He
told the launch: “The criticism levelled by the Catholic hierarchy at
Mr Kenny and his Government over the legislation is a classic
confrontation between the idealist and the realist.
“This
week’s Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll proved that the Government has got
it right in reflecting the views of the public on the issue.
“I
admire Mr Kenny’s assertion in the Dáil that he is a public
representative who happens to be a Catholic but not a Catholic Taoiseach
(PM).”
The Connemara based cleric
added: “This is a contrast to the days when politicians were Catholic
ministers and not ministers who happen to be Catholic.”
The
report adds in reference to the writings of O’Flaherty, Fr Standún said
there were many areas in which the established church and socialism had
much in common.
He said: “O’Flaherty
sought to expose injustice, and it is this type of injustice that has
led to the more radical liberation theology in South America that has in
turn produced the new pope.”
The paper
adds that the Catholic Church’s support for an ‘oppressive native
gombeen ascendancy’ in the new republic had been the focus of
O’Flaherty’s criticism in works like The House of Gold, published in
1929.
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