Saturday, January 3, 2009

Bishops will support Lisbon II claims The Irish Catholic


Michael Kelly, deputy editor of The Irish Catholic, and a Fianna Fail cumann member of Dublin South Central has an unsourced article in this weeks Irish Catholic claiming the Irish bishops will come out in support of Lisbon II.
Not only is unsourced material unworthy of a front page in a respectable newspaper, but it is despicable that a journalist who is a member of a political party should not disclose this to the paper's readership.
They have words to describe this type of journalism: Propaganda could be one, piffle the other.

Bishops to back Lisbon II
Michael Kelly

The Bishops' Conference is set to adopt an unequivocal pro-Lisbon approach to the second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty The Irish Catholic understands.

The Church came in for sharp criticism from politicians after a statement in the run up to the first Lisbon Treaty referendum made very positive statements about the treaty, but, crucially, stopped short of an endorsement.

Now, The Irish Catholic understands that Government assurances on the right to life and other sensitive ethical issues will lead the Bishops' Conference to be clearer in its support.......

 A well-placed Church source confirmed to The Irish Catholic  that in the second Lisbon referendum, due to be held later this year, a stronger statement of support will be issued by a committee of the Bishops' Conference. At this stage it is unclear whether that statement would come from the Standing Committee or the bishops' Committee on Europe.

Another senior figure privately admitted to The Irish Catholic that the inconclusive statement on Lisbon ''may have caused some unnecessary confusion''.

More on Michael Kelly of The Irish Catholic here:

4 comments:

  1. Considering the ownership of the paper, I don't think it really matters whose by-line is on the story. The IC will editorially support a Yes vote second time around anyway.

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  2. Many thanks for your comment Brendan,
    I think you're right on this. The IC is own by The Agricultural Trust - which has directors on its board from the IFA - a yes side campaign group. The IC looks as if it has become a propaganda sheet for yes side.
    Deputy Editor Michael Kelly is also a Fianna Fail member and activist - no surprise he and the paper is always plugging a yes vote.

    Brian

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  3. I think the Irish Bishops would be foolish to allow themselves to be dictated to by politicians who favour a yes vote and by a publication such as IC which seems to have replaced it's Catholic agenda with a political agenda which goes against the religious, family, marriage and social belief's of Catholics. The contents of this article are untrue as confirmed by Archbishop Martin, and should be retracted.

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