Cathal BarryA leading member of the SDLP has warned that it would be inappropriate for any Catholic school now to indicate full support for Amnesty International considering the organisation’s policy on abortion.
Declan O’Loan, SDLP Councillor for Ballymena, said if a Catholic school “wishes to engage with Amnesty on its traditional human rights concerns, it would need to be careful that this would not be interpreted by its pupils or outsiders as support for the full policy agenda” of the organisation.
Writing in Le Chéile, a Catholic schools ethos journal, Mr O’Loan said the original aims of Amnesty International had been “very attractive” to many Catholics.
However, he said the organisation’s policy on abortion “has altered that situation entirely”.
Mr O’Loan said the organisation’s “strong focus in Ireland on the abortion issue, and similarly its heavy involvement in the campaign for same-sex marriage, to the apparent exclusion of attention to the great causes which were the reason for its being founded in the first place, have led many Catholics to give up their membership”.
He added that Catholics “must regret deeply that Amnesty has lost sight of its original vision, and in relation to abortion, has taken a totally wrong position in relation to the rights of the unborn”.