Danny Treacy (March 26) seems to believe that he has a better understanding of Christianity than Christians themselves and therefore he can lecture them about their religion’s teaching on abortion. He argues that abortion is never mentioned in scripture as if that changes everything. The word Trinity doesn’t appear in the Bible, yet this understanding of God is implicit in the Old Testament, explicit in the New Testament, and is a fundamental tenet of the faith. Similarly, the recognition that abortion is evil has always been part of Christianity.
Long before most of the books of the New Testament were written down, Jesus’s disciples taught that abortion was wrong. The Didache (c 80-90 AD, probably the oldest patristic document we still have) makes this clear. Its original title was The Lord’s Instruction to the Gentiles Through the Twelve Apostles. It states: “Commit no murder, adultery, sodomy, fornication, or theft. Practise no magic, sorcery, abortion, or infanticide.”
The deliberate killing of children through abortion has never just been a concern for Christians, it was also prescribed by the Hippocratic Oath, the cornerstone of western medical ethics, written five centuries before the birth of Christ.
In 1949, after the defeat of Nazi Germany, this principle was reaffirmed in the International Code of Medical Ethics which held that: “A doctor must always bear in mind the importance of preserving human life from the time of conception until death.”
Although it was decriminalised in occupied Poland, the record of the Nuremberg Tribunal also shows that abortion was recognised as a crime against humanity, not just when it was carried out for eugenic reasons or under compulsion, but the decriminalisation of abortion itself was considered an ‘inhumane act’ and ‘an act of extermination’. (See Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg (sic) Military Tribunals. Nuernberg Oct 1946 - Apr 1949, Vol IV, p 687.)
At his trial in Israel in 1961, count four of the indictment of Adolf Eichmann concerned “the termination of pregnancies by means of artificial abortion in every case and in all stages of pregnancy” in the Kovno Ghetto and in the Concentration Camp at Theresienstadt.
Today Eichmann’s name is universally reviled. Few people, however, will be familiar with Richard Hildebrant and Otto Hoffman but these were just two of the men indicted at Nuremberg for crimes which included abortions in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. Hildebrant and Hoffman were not themselves abortionists, but functionaries who implemented the policy of decriminalisation.
LIAM GIBSON
Newtownabbey, Co Antrim
Only federalism can solve the Irish border issue
John McSorley (March 26) suggests an economic border that is in the middle of the Irish Sea. A border should have entry points or else it can be entered anywhere along the length of the border line. I grew up in west Tyrone close the border and prior to the UK’s and the Republic’s entry to the EU if one wished to cross the border with a vehicle and goods, one could only do so at a legal entry point at Pettigo or Lifford. Mr McSorley specifies entry points for his economic border between the UK and EU at Belfast Larne and Derry but there should also be an entry point at Warrenpoint, Dublin, Waterford, Cork and Galway. The economic border would lie somewhere in the sea east of these entry points. But if such an economic border in the sea were established what would happen to that border that straddles the island from Derry to Warrenpoint? That border would stand exposed as sectarian. So Mr McSorley’s proposals would result in a two border Ireland, an economic one in the Irish Sea and a sectarian one drawn as an ugly line disfiguring the map of Ireland.
That would not be acceptable to a Federalist. Only federalism can resolve the border issue. To that end radical change would need to come about in that these Islands should be reconstituted as the four provinces Federal Kingdom of Ireland with a reformed crown as head of state within the Confederate Kingdom of the Isles of the North Atlantic. This would re-constitute these islands as a mini-common-market with invisible economic borders between the Federal Kingdom of Ireland and Great Britain, between Scotland and England and between England and Wales. In this way a federalist can point to invisible borders all round for these islands with the sectarian border whose ugly line defaces the map of Ireland, removed.
MICHAEL GILLESPIE
Kilfennan, Co Derry
Women have right to be displeased
Instead of wasting time immersed in Vatican documents with obscure Latin titles I recommend Joe O’Hanlon (March 16) purchase a copy of Rev Brendan Hoban’s book,
Who will break the bread for us? Disappearing priests – it is an important and perceptive analysis of the problems facing the Church. An essential read for those concerned with the now unstoppable decline in the influence of the Catholic hierarchy and religious attendance in Ireland.
Theological angst and nitpicking is time wasteful and a diversion from the reality that by 2050 the Church may have collapsed.
The Vatican’s wilful blindness aided by a cohort of dogmatic supporters will be culpable. Inter alia Joe writes “it is the people of God”. Why then does the arrogant Vatican insist on insulting and alienating the most loyal half of all parishioners? Women are right to be very displeased with the present state of affairs.
BRIAN WILSON
Craigavon, Co Armagh
Threat to Irish identity
I do not write many letters but because of the gravity of the impact of Brexit I feel obliged to do so. Firstly I should state that the border is not an Irish one, but one imposed by Britain. This was done under a distinct threat of violence. There is continuous reference to economics and the border but I would suggest it goes much deeper. There is the potential impact on the identity of many who live here and consider themselves Irish. For some it remains part of their core-being. The rise in Irish passport applications exemplifies this. The Tories, propped up by those who were in a minority, still cling to the UK. They may yet try to impose another obscenity on this island. Will there come a time, even if not now, when we may have to consider civil disobedience to reflect our total rejection of any hard border or diminution of the Good Friday Agreement?
SHANE FLEMING
Derry City
Sticks and stones
Strange Orwellian times we live in when the likes of Saudi Arabia, an undemocratic bastion of extreme Islamism, is feted and rewarded by the west, despite its mass destruction of the poorest country in the world – Yemen – while Russia that sacrificed 27 millions, including the Russian Crimeans, to save us all from a Fascist state is treated like a rogue. They say in the next war we will finish it with sticks and stones because that is all we will have left to throw at each other. God help us indeed for our leaders have failed us miserably.
JOHN-PATRICK BELL
Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim
Undeserved criticism
Ms Knox, the woman who issued a claim for compensation following the family drowning tragedy, has not committed any crime. She played her good part on that awful day. Please leave her alone. Criticism of her is not deserved.
ROBERT SULLIVAN
Bantry, Co Cork
