The Bishop of Killala, Dr Thomas Finnegan, has challenged those who argue that one can be personally opposed to abortion but at the same time politically supportive of it.
"This undermines the very idea of a democratic society," he said. "The value of a democracy stands or falls with the values which it embodies and promotes. Today let us pray that our democracy will always embody and uphold its present core value, the dignity of the individual human person," he said.
Dr Finnegan was speaking at the Divine Mercy Sunday Mass in Knock Shrine, Co Mayo, yesterday.
He said Ireland sorely needed more informed and articulate people who could challenge the idea that a person's religious beliefs should be relegated to the private sphere.
"Religiously faithful people are being pressed to act publicly, and sometimes privately, as though their faith does not matter to them. Indeed, we are now approaching the point in our global culture when people who do act publicly as though their faith matters, risk not only ridicule but actual punishment," he said.
He felt there should be "urgent concern, for the large number of women in crisis pregnancy who must be offered a genuine alternative, a life giving choice, to abortion".
