St. Brigid, pray for us

Last updated on: May 4, 2022 at 1:33 pm by Fred Clark

St. Brigid, pray for us 2022-05-04T13:33:30-04:00 Fred Clark

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Abortion was illegal in Ireland until 2018, when the people of Ireland voted overwhelmingly to repeal the country’s constitutional ban criminalizing it.

This was not a Secular vs. Catholic vote. It was a Devout Laypeople vs. Demonstrably Corrupt Clergy Who Don’t Have A Clue What They’re Talking About vote. (And the good side won.)

Those are the categories that matter, too, when considering whether and how the centuries of anti-abortion laws in Ireland before 2018 constitute some kind of binding “tradition” that is “deeply rooted in history.”

On the one hand, you have centuries of Irish church authorities and political authorities condemning abortion as a crime, a grievous sin, and an affront to the sanctity of life. That is all on the record, an undeniable history and tradition with deep roots.

On the other hand, you have even more centuries of Irish laypeople insisting that those clergy and the political leaders beholden to them are clueless gobs who don’t understand the first thing about other people’s lives and who wouldn’t recognize the sanctity of human life if it bit them in the ass. This, too, is all on the record — also an undeniable history and tradition with deep roots. (And it was a tradition with vastly superior poems, songs, and stories.)

The 2018 referendum decriminalizing abortion in Ireland, then, was not some kind of radical break from that country’s history. It was, rather, simply a shift in the balance of power in which the overwhelming majority of the people finally said “No” to the small minority that had previously managed to rule them.

That belated, but emphatic “No” was also something “deeply rooted in history.” It was rooted in a long ugly history of oppression, cruelty, and suffering — the history of the Magdalen laundries and of the unmarked mass graves at sites like Tuam.

History is cumulative, it seems, and at some point the people who glibly toss infants into unmarked mass graves lose any credibility when lecturing others on “the sanctity of human life.”

Anyway, leading up to that 2018 referendum, religious historian Maeve Cullan shone a spotlight on the long, popular history of actual Irish laypeople in an essay for the Irish Times, “Saints once did abortions – it was a lesser sin than oral sex.” Dr. Cullan points to several ancient, still-cherished saint stories in which canonized champions of Christianity were said to have “emptied” the wombs of desperate women in need. She also highlights the detailed, baroque “penitentials” of medieval Catholic Ireland, which prescribed penances for abortion that were lesser than those assigned for women giving birth out of wedlock or for men committing “fornication”:

Medieval Catholic Ireland included saints who performed miraculous abortions and penitentialists who presented abortion as a lesser offense than fornication, childbirth, and oral sex.

Today’s repeated refrain that “you can’t be Catholic and pro-choice” indicates an ignorance of history and a disregard for the views of the majority of Catholics themselves, who hold much more progressive values than church leaders generally allow, including in Ireland. A January 2018 Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll found that 65% of Irish voters supported repealing the Eighth Amendment and allowing abortions at least for the first trimester. Some see this acceptance of abortion as further proof that the Irish are losing their Catholic foundation, but those who support legal and safe abortion might better reflect a “medieval” Irish Catholic attitude than those who oppose it.

The Powers That Be did not appreciate Cullan’s history lesson or her documented reminder that devout Catholic laypeople in Ireland had a very long, morally serious, credible tradition that understood more about abortion than the gravediggers of Tuam ever could.

And so TPTB took to the Catholic News Agency to rebut and refute and condemn Cullan’s history lesson: “Did Irish saints perform abortions? Don’t believe it, scholars say.” It’s sort of darkly hilarious that this effort wound up confirming every word she wrote. CNA’s piece cites two male historians and a priest, all of whom sound like iconoclastic Protestants as they rush to dismiss and discredit centuries of hagiographies and saint-legends as disreputable “folktales.”

They use those words — “folktales,” “folklore” — clearly failing to comprehend the very point Callan was making. Yes, these are the tales, the stories, that most folk have been telling, and embellishing, for more than a thousand years. Yes, the miracle stories of St. Brigid performing miraculous abortions for women do not constitute any evidence that such actual miracles were ever performed. But these stories do provide vast mountains of evidence — as all of the scholars and priests in the CNA piece, like Dr. Cullan, insist — that the good Catholic laypeople of Ireland, from medieval times up through 2018 and through 2022, believed that this is a picture of saintly behavior and of benevolent miraculous intervention. The stories prove that this is what faithful Irish Catholics believed and still believe that saints ought to be doing.

They are proof, in other words, that this understanding of the moral significance of abortion is just as “deeply rooted in history” — and in tradition, and in religious devotion — as the categorical and superlative denunciation long taught by the minority of the devout.

St. Brigid, pray for us.

Uncategorized

abortion

church

Previous Post

May 4, 2022

May 4 Flashback: Seeing is not believing

Next Post

May 4, 2022 'Groomers'

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category class warfare evangelicals Iraq Left Behind Mammon music Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I worked with a trowel in one hand and a weapon in the other, ready to build and fight. Who am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The Tribe of Judah The Priests The builders The servants