LABOUR COMPLAINT:DISTRIBUTING CAMPAIGN literature on the Lisbon Treaty in the precincts of a church is "not appropriate", a spokesman for Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin has said.
The archbishop's secretary, Msgr Paul Callan, was responding to a letter of complaint from Labour spokesman on Europe, Joe Costello TD, about the availability of material from anti-Lisbon groups Libertas and Cóir at the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin.
Msgr Callan wrote: "I understand that the campaign literature you referred to and indeed other inappropriate material is consistently removed by staff at St Mary's Pro-Cathedral.
"Churches are not appropriate places for the distribution of literature of a purely electoral nature, either during referenda or election campaigns," he added.
Msgr Callan pointed out that the Catholic bishops would be issuing their own document on the Lisbon Treaty. A spokesman for the bishops told The Irish Times separately: "There will be a public statement on the matter in due course." Prior to the Nice Treaty referendum in 2002, the hierarchy expressed qualified approval for a Yes vote.
Mr Costello also wrote to Dominican Provincial Fr Pat Lucey OP to complain about the the free monthly newspaper Alive!, published at the Dominican priory in Tallaght.
Responding, Fr Lucey wrote that there were "many aspects of that publication with which many of us are unhappy". He added, however that "the paper is not published by the Irish Dominican province but rather by one individual Dominican" and the views expressed in it were not necessarily shared by other Irish Dominicans.
He continued: "I have written to Fr McKevitt, the paper's editor, advising him that as a religious paper Alive! should address political issues in a manner that is consonant with the Gospel and our Dominican tradition."
But he said that "freedom of expression and a deep respect for the rights of the individual are very much part of our Dominican tradition".
Fr McKevitt told RTÉ's Morning Irelandyesterday that the Lisbon document was "a very risky kind of a treaty" that was open to different interpretations.
He added that "it could lead to a tremendous undermining of our values". The treaty had been deliberately written in such a way that people cannot understand it, Fr McKevitt added.