With deep concern

The age of consent to sexual relations for adolescents, violence in society, permanent diaconate, biomedical research and human reproduction, the trafficking of women: these the main issues on the agenda of the December General Meeting of the Irish Bishops’ Conference, held at Maynooth in recent days. “Children need to be protected not only from irresponsible adults, but also from themselves until they reach the age of maturity, now considered to be 18”, say the bishops in their statement, with reference to the proposal to lower the age of legal consent to sexual relations to 16. But the bishops are also deeply concerned by “violence in our country”: “Our social fabric is being torn apart by a culture of violence”. Other sources of concern are recent public recommendations on human embryos and human reproduction. We present a few excerpts from the document. CHILD PROTECTION. Though welcoming the Joint Oireachats Committee on child protection report published on 30 November, the Bishops emphasise that “the increase in teenage sexual activity” poses “danger not only to their physical and psychological health, but also, and more particularly, to their moral well-being”. In this perspective the bishops “view the lowering of the age of consent to 16 with alarm, as this sends out the wrong signal to a young generation who, under the influence of teenage glossy magazines, peer pressure, and binge drinking, feel that engaging in sexual activity is something trivial”. “For Christians – continues the statement – sex, on the contrary “is anything but trivial. Sex is sacred and is reserved for the loving, caring context of a life-long marriage, which in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions is a sacrament”. “Anything that would undermine the moral effort needed to preserve moral and physical integrity among teenagers must be resisted by any mature society”, say the bishops. Moreover, parents, “often confused as to how they should react in the face of their children’s activities, deserve the support of the State as well as the Church to help them in their difficult task of rearing children in an age dominated by moral indifference”. A MORAL REVOLUTION. We continue – observe the bishops – to “enjoy an excellent quality of life” and “the social and economic development of our country continues unabated”. Despite that, there is “a deeply worrying aspect of our lives which is a cause of deep concern for all of us. Violence in our country and in our streets has become commonplace”. Murders, rapes, abuses of every kind: “our social fabric is being torn apart by a culture of violence that leaves people dead on out streets and gunned down in their own homes. Our society seems to be growing numb to human loss and suffering as yet another murder or assault is reported”. In the bishops’ view it won’t be words and statements alone that can stop this wave of violence: only “commitment and conversion can change us”. “Person by person, family by family, community by community, we must take society back from the evil and fear that has come with its accompanying violence”. “But it is not just our policies, or lack of them, not just our progress that must change, but our hearts”. “Fundamentally – say the bishops – our society needs a moral revolution to replace a culture of violence, a renewed ethic of justice, responsibility and community”. Here the teaching of the Church on respect for human life and dignity are “imperatives for the common good”. RESPECT FOR LIFE. “For Catholics non-negotiable principles exist: respect for the right to life, respect for the family, respect for the meaning and purpose of human sexuality”. “The Catholic Church – says the document – rejects as totally unacceptable” the recent recommendation of the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction (CAHR) that embryos produced in vitro “should not attract legal protection until placed in the human body”. “Once fertilization is complete – clarify the bishops – the organism has become a human being. There is nothing else it can be… It has its own genetically unique body. It has its own substantial form, the human soul, which is its first principle of life. It is this principle of life which facilitates and directs the development of the person throughout the lifetime of the organism”. While recognising the merits of biomedical research, “an essential element of health that contributes to the saving of human lives on a daily basis”, the bishops declare that “the right to conduct such research is not an absolute right”. Human embryos “have natural rights which cannot be ignored. The goodness of research is vitiated when, as a necessary pre-condition, it required the destruction of human embryos”. The bishops therefore call for legislation able to control research and technologies for human reproduction; any provision that would permit “the erosion of these fundamental rights – conclude the bishops – would contribute to a serious decline of the standards of justice and equity in every aspect of our civil society”.