The SDLP and Sinn Fein no longer hold Christian views on moral issues. Sinn Fein have tabled a motion for the third time calling for legalisation of same sex civil partnerships, which had to be vetoed by the Democratic Unionist Party. The SDLP are not much better, except are perhaps slightly less pro-abortion than Sinn Fein.
Catholics in northern Ireland should now consider quietly voting for their local unionist candidate, who can probably be considered a safer pair of hands on such issues.
Laodicea 
May 17, 2014 at 8:23 pm
Do you think that the close identification of national identity with the faith among Irish Catholics has helped to bring things to this pass?
May 26, 2014 at 7:46 pm
In my opinion one would think that the close identification would cut the other way – I feel nationalist ergo I adhere to the Church’s teaching.
I don’t think that’s what’s going on. Both north and south of the border Irish people are still pretty nationalistic but unfortunately they have walked away from the Faith in droves. The reasons, I think, are many and complex, but factors such as inadequate catechesis, rapid modernisation and possibly a reaction to excessive Church authoritarianism in the past are probably amongst the main causes.
May 27, 2014 at 11:32 pm
But I fear the reasoning is really: ‘I feel nationalist ergo I don’t need to adhere to the Church’s teaching. I am Catholic ethnically’.
May 28, 2014 at 11:49 am
Could be, could be.
It would be interesting to see how the rationales for lapsation, and present attitude to the Church, differ amongst lapsed Catholics in Ireland and, say, England and the USA. I am guessing many would say “I’m Catholic on my own terms and I don’t need the Church”, but whether the nationalist angle in Ireland would make a difference I don’t know.
May 29, 2014 at 4:11 pm
Berenike always found that Poles in Britain had terrible lapsation rate because they saw the faith as a cultural thing that they did at home and if they did go to Mass they often would only go if it was in Polish. The Irish in the USA were very aggressive in forcing non-Irish Catholics to practice the faith as if they were Irish or to go to specially designated parishes. German and Italian vocations generally went to ‘Italian’ and ‘German’ provinces of the religious orders because only Irish Americans were permitted to attain to any significant position among the secular clergy. Both these phenomena point to a false understanding of the faith as some sort of national cultus which is very likely to lead to lapsation in the context of a society which no longer sees religion as a positive or significant element in personal or national identity.
June 3, 2014 at 1:35 pm
I suppose your argument is essentially that the intertwining of religious practice and nationalism/culture actually causes an artificial elevation in the proportion of people who practise their faith, and thus there is a high rate of lapsation when (a) people leave their culture (like the Poles in the UK), or (b) the culture changes (as in Ireland)?
What that doesn’t explain to me is why the nationalist parties in Northern Ireland should have departed from Christian morality more than the Unionists – the nationalists have walked away from their Faith in greater proportions than the Protestants. Why, I wonder?
June 3, 2014 at 9:04 pm
If one worships Jesus Christ because that is one’s national religion then there is no salvation to be found. This is the yeast of the sadducees. The independence of Ireland as a state is secure and the significance of the border is constantly eroded by the EU. The need to rely upon a civic cult to buttress national identity has passed. This is not the case in regard to the NI Protestants their identity and distinction from the Republic remains under constant siege.
June 4, 2014 at 10:03 pm
I agree!