The Gazette 1977

MARCH 1977

GAZETTE

it?" she asked. "The second question is easier to answer than thefirst: it is not the responsibility of Church leaders, nor of philosophers, nor of lawyers, but of politicians. "The assessment must be a political one and the basic criteria on which it is formed will depend on a political judgement of what constitutes the common good. This may depress those who lack faith in politicians and in the political process, but it is a vital factor "which has extraordinary implication^". Senator Robinson said that the relationship between law and morality was a complex and difficult one, and this difficulty had been compounded by problems of language and by lack of definition of terms. Discussion in Ireland had been influenced by the wording of the Constitution, Article 40 of which guaranteed liberty to exercise a number of basic rights, such as freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and freedom of association, "subject to public order and morality". This qualification had led to a distinction being drawn between public morality which was ambiguous and ultimately unhelpful. There were not two moralities — one identifiable as public and the other as private — but rather two spheres of actions which may be performed either in public or in private, she said. A separate and further distinction had to be made between those actions which should not be regulated and controlled by the law. There were a number of examples of immoral actions which we did not consider suitable for regulation by the criminal law, such as a relationship of adultery, telling lies (except under formal oath) or excessive drinking). Similarly, there may be very private actions which they considered should be brought under legal control, such as an attempt by a woman to procure her own miscarriage. Court's duty essentially to protect the individual The Rev. Desmond Wilson, from Ballymurphy, Belfast, said the Courts and the laws were set up first and foremost to protect the citizen as an individual and as a member of society. In many countries the laws and the Courts were used in such a way that they seemed not a protection at all but a threat, another means of keeping power, a means of controlling the population. Fr. Wilson said the essential quality of law was that it protected. The essential relationship between the citizen and the Courts was one of comfort "Change that and you have begun to sow the seeds of a bitter revolution. That is what we have seen in Northern Ireland. We have changed the Court from instruments of protection to instruments of threat We did die same with the church and the politicians". Fr. Wilson said that those who were suggesting that punishment was not a relevant concept in the laws or courts were not just an unruly crowd of anarchists. They were people who believed that the evolution of our thought about how people behaved was moving us in the direction of rethinking and perhaps eliminating the idea of punishment from our laws and Courts; to any citizens this would come not only as a surprise but a shock. The strange thing was that more were shocked at the thought of removing punishment than by the possibility of lessening it. That itself says much about the kind of society we have created. "It would be a great pity if discussion about the meaning of courts and about the meaning of sin, or of private morality and the common good were to be narrowed into discussion about contraception and its related topics. This is to narrow the field far too much. That problem is a very real one." Private morality should not be legislated for. "We don't need it", Fr. Wilson said.

College Historical Society: MORA L I TY L E G I S L A T I ON IS NOT THE CHURCH'S SPHERE - SENATOR Senator Mary Robinson said that for too long in this country the whole area of sexual morality had been regarded as the proper sphere of Church leaders rather than of politicians. Too many politicians had been prepared to allow the bishops to make the political judgment of the relationships between law and morality. Senator Robinson was speaking to the motion "That the State shall not legislate for private morality" at a meeting of the College Historical Society in T.C.D. She said that facing politicians with their full responsibility meant opening up a key debate in this fundamental area. It meant freeing politicians from any fear of Church influence and preventing them from abdicating their own role. The essence of morality was the assumption of personal responsibility. When people began to fear the courts rather than treat them as their servants, a monster was created. People may fear the courts because only those with money or with some standing in the community could safely and comfortably approach them; or because the courts were more and more identified with punishing sinners. If a court penalised a man for being drunk and disorderly it was supposed to be protecting other men, women and children; it was not supposed to be punishing a sinner. The idea that Courts were punishing instruments was at the root of much of our troubles. "Once you admit that Courts can punish sin, or wrongdoing, and thus shift the emphasis from protection to punishment you leave the way open for quite sterile debates, like, the debate about legislating for private morality. Legislation should protect the person "We have to clear away the ambiguity of what the courts are supposed to be doing and what they are actually doing, in order to forstall such sterile debates. You should ask about every piece of legislation, does it protect the person, does it protect the people in general? To decide such questions we employ lawyers and politicians. And we pay them well. The first question of all of them must answer is, does this or that law or court protect or threaten. "Too often, however, they have not answered the question at all and have asked instead, will this law or this Court help to keep us in power? There begins the corruption of a state. "It was through the political process that they had to consider decisions about the extent to which the law should regulate the availability of contraceptives; about whether the problem of marriage breakdown would be helped by providing the remedy of divorce; about the operation of censorship; about whether they should promote integrated schooling in a positive way; and about the response of the evidence of high abortion figures for Irish girls in Britain. Politicians the arbiters of morality "Politicians could not dodge their responsibility for assessing and promoting the common good on this strife- torn island. Morality was not confined to areas of sexual morality — it permeated the whole political process and should form a more conscious part in the general approach of politicians to the whole range of political options and decisions. "So what are the standards and values which should help us to work out proper relationship between law and morality, and who should take the responsibility for doing