Ex-president of Ireland says baptism creates “infant conscripts”
In this March 23, 2007 file photo, then-President of Ireland Mary McAleese poses with Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican. McAleese says she will not attend this summer’s World Meeting of Families in Dublin, which will feature Pope Francis, because it will be a “reinforcement of orthodoxy.” (Credit: Alberto Pizzoli, Pool/AP.)LEICESTER, United Kingdom - Baptizing babies is a violation of their human rights, according to the former president of Ireland.
Mary McAleese, who served in the largely ceremonial role of president from 1997-2011, also said she would not attend the Aug. 22-26 World Meeting of Families taking place in Dublin.
She told the Irish Times the event, which Pope Francis will attend Aug. 25-26, will only serve as a “political rally” for the “reinforcement of orthodoxy.”
McAleese told the newspaper that by baptizing children before they have reached the age of reason, the Church is creating “infant conscripts who are held to lifelong obligations of obedience.”“You can’t impose, really, obligations on people who are only two weeks old and you can’t say to them at seven or eight or 14 or 19 ‘here is what you contracted, here is what you signed up to’ because the truth is they didn’t,” she said.
Declaring that in the past “people didn’t understand that they had the right to say no, the right to walk away,” the former Irish president said “we live now in times where we have the right to freedom of conscience, freedom of belief, freedom of opinion, freedom of religion and freedom to change religion. The Catholic Church yet has to fully embrace that thinking.”
McAleese is a practicing Catholic who holds a licentiate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Her book Quo Vadis? Collegiality in the Code of Canon Law was published in 2012. In recent years, she has become vocal in her opposition to Church teachings on homosexuality and women’s ordination.
My Comments:
So this is what a practicing Catholic looks like? Well now, I guess Lutherans are not the only ones who have people rebelling against church teaching and claiming to be real Lutherans. . .
8 comments:
She may be practicing, but she still has not gotten it perfected by a long shot! She is no Christian at all with such statements, and she clearly does not understand the Gospel.
Fr.D+
Continuing Anglican Priest
St Paul warned us about "wolves in sheep clothing". Why are we surprised when scripture is proven correct?
Plus we all know that Roman Catholics are all over the map in their belief system. Unity in the RC church, really?
The photo shows an antichrist standing next to the Antichrist.
Now Carl, that is a bit harsh. Benedict was an excellent theologian and knew his scripture which cannot be said about the current pope.
Benedict was one of the good ones. Plus he was German, and all good theologians come from Germany!
The Smalcald Articles and the Treatise on the Primacy and Power of the Pope are still part of the Lutheran Confessions, Cliff.
QCMV (Quatenus confessions may vary)
According to the media, the most devout Catholics are those who never or rarely go to Mass and don't believe anything in the Cathechism unless it is for the advancement of Social Justice.
Unknown, you are totally off the wall with that comment. I have never seen that in my experience. I have found the most devout ones are the ones who are pro-life. They are sincere and attend Mass regularly. The hierarchy is totally corrupt, but there are many good Catholics who are laypeople.
The leaders are always more liberal than the people they claim to represent.
Either Mary McAleese has decided to import decision theology into her belief system, or she does not believe in conversion. Is she trying to graft Calvinist theology into the RCC?
When someone states he or she is Roman Catholic, how can we know which kind? At least with Lutheranism, the denominations are officially delineated.
Post a Comment