Bishops go nuts over Marion Rosenstock sketch

http://www.thejournal.ie/mario-rosenstock-bishops-complaint-rte-699357-Dec2012/

Not content with years of rape, helping to crush womens rights and teaching generations of school children fiction and not having to pay a penny in damages, the church is now up in arms over a Mario Rosenstock sketch.An association of cat-licky bishops wrote to RTE. About the complaint:

It specifically is in relation to a sketch which mentions the Olympic boxing medal winner Katie Taylor (who is not shown in the sketch), and “shows a man spitting into a bucket before receiving Holy Communion”. The complaint and calls this “grossly offensive to all Catholics”

How held back is Ireland due to the church?

Irelands religious have their fingers in a lot of pies and while the church does not play a big role now in terms of legislation a lot of groups with ties to the church still hold a strong lobbying position. As was detailed in the Turn off the Blue lights site(http://www.turnoffthebluelight.ie/the-opposition/organisations/) on prostitution on the links between the various religious groups, we see more and more religious influenced faith groups now voicing their objection to things such as abortion, same sex marriage etc. With this in mind how far would we have come if these groups did not exist and how far would be socially without the church and other faith based organisations? Thanks to the church condoms would not be legal for years until there was ruling that we had a right to contraception and family planning (remember the pill train?).

A Reason to change the law on abortion?

http://www.independent.ie/unsorted/migration/ireland-has-worlds-highest-number-of-anencephaly-cases-669196.html

This is a case where there should perhaps be legal abortion. The child would have been carried to full term suffering from a condition called anencephaly in which the child is born with a brain stem and some parts of the brain but the rest is missing. At most the child can just carry out basic functions such as breathe and is just existing on the very peripherals of life. Morally for a situation like this to exist is completely wrong, this is the doing of the church and other fringe groups whom are intent on keeping the status quo. The child is suffering and the mother is suffering until she reaches England for the termination. This is not a case to further the pro choice cause in Ireland but to make a point that in even the most limiting of circumstances, issues like these warrant legal abortion here in Ireland.