THE NEW leader of the Progressive Democrats Ciarán Cannon has said that he does not see a contradiction between his agnosticism and his former position as chief executive of the Irish Pilgrimage Church, which brings children to the Catholic shrine in Lourdes.
In an interview in the latest edition of Hot Press magazine, Mr Cannon is asked about religion and replies: “I would be bordering on the agnostic.”
He told The Irish Times last night that he did not see it as a major issue. In the magazine he responded to the question put by the interviewer: “I do not go around wearing a badge saying I do or do not believe in God,” he said.
Mr Cannon said that, like anyone else growing up as a Catholic in Ireland, he was raised with a certain set of beliefs.
“Anybody with any kind of analytical mind would question that set of beliefs,” he said. “I have a very analytical and logical mind. I came to the conclusion that I am not certain whether God exists or not.”
A resident of Athenry in Co Galway, Mr Cannon, who is an accomplished musician, has also been a member of his church choir for 30 years.
“That sense of community and gathering and sharing is very important to me,” he said.
He went on to say that humans have an innate ability to be loved and to love. “It’s no more apparent [than] when you go to Lourdes and see. Some people believe that it is God working through us. I do not see that.
“What is more than apparent in Lourdes is that there is a huge outpouring of love, generosity and caring,” he said.
Elsewhere in the interview Mr Cannon expresses the view that prostitution should be legalised in order to bring women involved in it into a safe environment.
Last night, he qualified his comments by saying he wanted to see a greater involvement by the State in helping women involved in the sex industry.
“I want to make sure that women and their welfare are at the very heart of any legislation,” he said.
On the former party leader Michael McDowell he said that he was more friendly and affable than his public image suggested.
“There were two Michael McDowells. There was the public persona and people had this image of him being arrogant, aloof, dictatorial . . . But if you met Michael at a personal level that was not him at all.”
“Unfortunately, the media wanted to portray him as this kind of Rottweiler, Hitler-like persona, which he wasn’t,” he added.
Asked about the future of the PDs, he replied that the local elections next year will be the test of survival for his party.
